Where do I find sweatshop-free shoes?
Here is New Balance’s Supplier Code of Conduct. It may make you feel better about buying NB shoes, since they have stated standards to which their subcontractors must adhere. Then again, so does Nike. The thing about corporate codes of conduct is that they are only enforceable to the extent that the companies themselves choose to enforce them. And often, they are implemented in response to bad publicity, as a means of improving their rep. On the other hand, there are companies that actually have a sense of corporate social responsibility driving their conduct, and I have always had the sense that NB fell into that category.
