We’ve
been asked how we can provide a competitive product to you at the same
time as we provide a living wage
to the folks hand-stitching these high quality sports balls.Quite simply, we market direct to consumers, relying primarily on Internet sales for distribution and positive word-of-mouth for advertising. By not paying huge sums of money for advertising, we’re able to give you a great product at a great price, while still paying Fair Trade wages to our stitchers.
Help us spread the word and make a difference with your purchasing power. Buy a ball or tee shirt today, and receive a free set of cards that transform you into an Ambassador of Respect!
Or order the cards by themselves; they are free and there is no charge for shipping. Put a few in your wallet to keep them ready to hand out to people you think might be interested in Fair Trade products.
Published by Scott James November 7th, 2006 in Apparel: sweatshop-free, Fair Trade: learn more, General, How you can help, Sports balls: Fair Trade.
6 Responses to “Providing competitive prices”
- 1 Pingback on Oct 24th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
- 2 Pingback on Feb 16th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
We are continuously looking at many products. I’d like to have you visit our site and view the ball we use for our sport, ICS. We are told our is free of child labor, and it is made in Pakistan. I don’t have all the details with me, but would like to learn more about your ability make a ball of good quality with the features found in our official ICS ball. Size 4 with English felt cover, and able to take a great deal of punishment inside a Racquetball or squash court being kicked repeatedly. Your opinion and comments would be appreciated. I will be visiting at Green Fest in Seattle in April. If you have a booth there, I will certainly come by and show you our ball as well. Thanks
Leo, thanks for your note via our blog.
We’ve used our size 4 suede cover ball for ICS style ball (I play racquetball as well as soccer), and it can take the punishment. Here’s the link: http://www.fairtradesports.com/gearshop/fair-trade-soccer-ball-indoor-p-32.html.
We went with a suede cover rather than felt as it is significantly easier to clean (damp sponge), kicking the ball bright and looking new for quite awhile.
We’ll have a booth at Green Fest Seattle, but you might also consider ordering 1 or 2 balls now to punish (er, I mean, test).
:)
Most balls now say they are not made with child labor, which may be technically true. However, the adult workers making the balls are not paid high enough wages to support their families, so even if the kids are not allowed in the ball stitching facility, the parents are forced to ask their children to work elsewhere. By paying our adult workers certified Fair Trade wages, we can stop the child labor problem from starting.
Our sports balls are also the only eco-certified ones in the world…if that is important to your players. I believe it is!
I’m attaching our wholesale pricing. The indoor soccer size 4 ball is the fourth line down.
We can also do private labeling with your brand on it, starting at 250 balls/order. Do you collate all your buying for the four international ICS areas?
can you tell me where gilbert make their rugby balls, and how the fairtrade mark rugby balls differ. is there not an Atlanta Agreement insisting child labour isn’t used in any regular sports balls these days ?
Hey Adam, I’m sure you get this question alot, but you’re not the Adam Clayton from Ireland, are you?
:)
If so, thanks for the inspiring bass work for the last 20 years.
To answer your question…I can’t speak for Gilbert - I’m sure they are fine folks - but there are only two FLO-certified Fair Trade sports ball manufacturing facilities in the world - Vision and Talon - and I don’t believe they use either of them for their rugby balls. Part of why I started Fair Trade Sports was to show companies like Gilbert that it can be advantageous to source from certified Fair Trade facilities. I hope they begin to do so soon.
Yes, the Atlanta Agreement was created after Nike got caught using child labor on their soccer balls with a Time Magazine photo about a decade ago, I believe. The AA dictates no child labor be used directly for the sports ball creation, but it is a relatively useless and weak agreement for two reasons:
1) The AA has no “teeth” - there are no check-ups or punishments for failure to comply. It’s basically just asking the companies to act on the honor system, which is what got us in this mess in the first place.
2) The AA does not dictate a living wage for the adult workers (the children’s parents, most of the time). By not correcting the underlying problem behind child labor - poverty - the AA simply means the parents are forced to make their children work elsewhere. The Fair Trade certification system that the FLO created fights against this by paying the adult workers a certified living wage so they do not have to force their children to go to work.