Most people use these. When we go outside, what do most people put on? Shoes. Shoes are everywhere, and especially in the US. An average American purchases 3 pairs a year. The rest of the world also purchases a high number of sneakers. To meet the demand of the entire world, 23 billion shoes are produced each year. But how exactly are these useful things on our feet produced?
China and Southeast Asia are where most of our shoes are produced. But why there? Factories are usually never owned or operated by the brands themselves. The plants brands work with are in countries with little to no worker protection laws, which in effect would allow shoes to be produced quicker. This labor abuse becomes even harsher as shoes have now become more complicated, labor-intensive, and more dangerous to produce.
This is not all to the dark secrets of the shoe-making process. Shoe manufacturing is a major producer of carbon emissions. Sneakers alone generate the equivalent amount of the annual emissions of 66 million cars. Mining the fossil fuels that make up the materials of these shoes emits tons of greenhouse gases. And processing these materials into synthetic textiles further contributes to the pollution from these shoes. The material side of the shoe-making process ONLY contributes for 20% of a sneaker’s carbon footprint.
So, what accounts to the other significant percentage of a shoe's carbon footprint? That would be the manufacturing portion of the process. Since a sneaker comprises 65 discrete parts, each of which is produced by specialized machinery, it is cheaper for factories to mass-produce each piece separately and under several roofs.
Now, the transportation required to ship these pieces to where they are assembled emits even more CO2. The assembly of a shoe accounts for the remaining portion of the shoe’s carbon footprint.
This is not to discourage you from ever buying shoes again. That would be dumb. But knowing the truths about something you use so frequently, like shoes, is always helpful. The most you can do is to support better labor working conditions and for an eco-friendlier shoe-making process.
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This post brings a lot of light on some of the darker sides of the everyday conveniences we enjoy in the modern world today. Yet this doesn’t feel like you're standing on a soap box as you actually acknowledge that this issue isn’t something that is easily fixed and even give a solution which is often a big issue in these kinds of posts. Coming from one of these poor South eastern countries, I was told so many times about the conditions kids my age experienced making Nike’s or some other items, so it’s great to see more awareness of the things we take for granted
ReplyDeleteIt's always been "dress to impress", but not everything is as simple as it's shown to be. We are essentially fuel for these companies and their factories as most of us already have been wearing their products for years. It’s a shady world of capitalism we live in, and your blog pretty much lists all the truths no one tries to look at when they go to their local Nike store and buy a pair of basketball shoes.
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