PUMA Produces Fair Trade Soccer Ball

by Zarah Patriana

Published November 20, 2008 @ 07:03AM PT

Some call it a football while some call it a soccer ball. However you choose to kick it, Puma has decided to call their spherical sports balls Fair Trade. Well, some of them at least. According to their website:

Sportlifestyle company PUMA for the first time produced footballs under fair trade conditions in order to endorse a campaign focusing on the prevention of juvenile delinquency in South Africa. In cooperation with the Bavarian government and the Internationales Katholisches Missionswerk missio, PUMA will provide 5,000 footballs - bearing the fair trade certification mark - for the initiative “Club der guten Hoffnung” (Club of Good Hope) to be used in football games at Bavarian and South African schools. For this purpose, PUMA’s long-term football supplier Ali Trading in Pakistan was monitored for compliance to the Fairtrade standards and was certified by the independent certification organization FLO-CERT.

“We are pleased that we can support this initiative with PUMA footballs sporting the fair trade mark,“ said Horst Widmann, Vice President of PUMA. “The football games will bring young people together in a peaceful way and will help curtail youth violence. At the same time, we further improved the working conditions in our supplier’s factory in Pakistan.”

Corporate social responsibility has been in the news a lot lately with Starbucks recently announcing the doubling of their Fair Trade coffee purchases. Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz even made an announcement declaring their determined step toward the goal of being a responsible corporate citizen. Now Puma is next.

Victory for the Fair Trade movement? I wouldn't be so fast as to call it that completely. The statement says that PUMA was producing 5,000 soccer balls that would carry the Fairtrade Certification Mark that were produced in their one factory in Pakistan. While I applaud PUMA's step towards Fair Trade certification it doesn't exactly seem like a long term, on-going commitment.

PUMA has long publicized their long-standing commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen and even have S.A.F.E. Standards in place, or Social Accountability and Fundamental Environmental Standards with principles of human rights, high labor and environmental standards, and anti-corruption. (Ahem, ahem, Starbucks C.A.F.E. standards, anyone?) PUMA uses their S.A.F.E. standards when inspecting and audting their manufacturing factories. However, PUMA has often been reported to engage in some unsavory treatment of their factory workers including excessively long hours for little pay, unsanitary and high risk working conditions and abusive management.

Just this past June, China Labor Watch released a report regarding conditions at a major PUMA supplier base in China revealing widespread poor conditions. Li Qiang, Exective Director of China Labor Watch states that this is "a reflection of Puma suppliers general conditions. Puma needs to refocus its priority and remediate its flawed audit system."

Let's hope that their compliance with international Fair Trade standards at their factory in Pakistan is one step in the right direction and they can truly be committed to being the socially responsbilty corporate citizens they claim to be and use Fair Trade standards throughout their whole supply chain with all their factories across the board.

For a company that is 100% committed to supplying you with Fair Trade sports equipment, I recommend you check out Fair Trade Sports. Zero fouls on the field and the factories.