I am outraged!(Longish)

[GraysonKelly]

Hi,
I'm on a roll today. I don't watch much TV but today I just happened to catch Real Sports with Bryant Gumble and I cried. i cried hard. I had no idea that the companies that I have always loved and gotten all of my equipment from (Mitre) for the sport that means to more to me than anything else (soccer) uses children to sew their soccer balls. They did this special about how in India, the people that run the Mitre soccer ball production company pay these children pennies every day to sit there and sew soccer balls in order to "pay off loans" the company makes to these kids' families for food, medicine, and other basic needs.
This is criminal!!! I cannot believe this! I never thought myself naive but apparently I am and I'm so sad. I cannot believe that a sport that I love and have loved since I was 6 has been sullied by this. I think about how those kids should be playing with those balls not making them!!!
So be aware, if you buy a soccer ball made by Mitre and it has a serial number on it that starts with 28907, don't buy it because it was probably made by a 6 year old kid who is trying to pay off a loan that the soccer ball company made to his family so that his mother could buy medicine to save his baby brother.
Gray
Sorry this was so long, but I'm really upset about this.

[badgercat]

That is really disappointing to find out that a favorite company has such little respect for their workers. Good for you, though, for being concerned about the products you buy, and I don't think you should beat yourself up or consider yourself naive. Unfortunately it's so hard to keep track of where things come from to know whether or not the things we buy are manufactured with environmentally and socially ethical practices. Not to mention that it's expensive--especially to someone like me whose income is currently about 99% student loans--to "shop responsibly."

I just try to do my best with my knowledge and means to support ethical companies and not beat myself up too badly over stuff like this. :/

[crazycanuck]

Sorry to tell you this..it's not a new thing.

Good that you found out though!

[tulip]

Flea Markets! Buy used stuff at flea markets (at least balls). I've been searching for a football at flea markets but I can't seem to find one. I guess I should wait until basketball season and then people will get rid of their footballs.

[Trek420]

Sorry to tell you this..it's not a new thing.

Good that you found out though!

Yep, clothing, especially athletic gear, and don't even get us started on chocolate. Chocolate

+1 on what tulip says, keep playing the game you love but reduce, reuse, recycle when you can. Try freecycle, is there a Play It Again Sports near you?

www.playitagainsports.com

This has been a pretty sensitive issue on the board.

Whether fair treatment of labor and/or enviornmental issues it makes a difference what where when how much you buy. Sometimes it's easy to stand paralyzed at the shelf "this is organic .... but should I buy at a Box Store which may have labor issues? This one's made by fairly paid adults with health care bennies .... but it's overly packaged .... this one is .... oh, I give up "

It's not easy being green or being a consumer.

Pretty civilized discussion of trying to balance here:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=14298

[Flur]

Wait! What's this about chocolate? What do I need to know to be a responsible chocoholic?