I really love the Jordan brand. The most important and expensive purchase of my entire childhood was the massive $120 my parents sacrificed in 7th grade so I could get the black Air Jordan IVs that most of my teammates were getting for our basketball team. I only wore them at games and kept them in the box. I could still be seen wearing them deep into my high school years. After college, when I finally made a little money, I splurged to buy a retro reissue of the same shoes, this time a new white and silver colorway. Much older now, I paid $220 for recently re-issued exact replicas of my 7th grade kicks.
I have a great story about getting a free pair of Jordans from a pro athlete. I have a secret stash of never worn early-release Jordan Futures in my garage. I was hoping to treat them like startup stocks I purchased that will someday pay for my kid’s college, but then Jordan flooded the market with every variation of that shoe. Good thing I like to wear them.
I’ve had Jordan brand shorts, flip flops, hats, and I’m ashamed to admit it but I spent a few dark years flirting with fake Chinese Jordan knock-offs.
Here’s the problem: I’m pretty sure Brand Jordan is evil. I don’t have proof or evidence, but all indicators of the current globalized shoe business tell me that child labor, sex trafficking, and other forms of exploitation are fundamental to the secret Jordan recipe.
I recently started buying TOMS shoes… and sunglasses… and bags… and any category of product that makes me at least feel like I’m giving my money to a company trying to be good in the world. I’ve heard all of the criticisms of TOMS. I think the courage they have had internally to study the impact of their giving has not always given them the news they wanted to hear. Being the root source of dependency on aid is an ugly externality they never intended. Yet they’re making improvements and diversifying the ways they invest their capital toward true improvements to the planet.
They don’t make athletic sneakers, and even if they did, they don’t make Jordans. They don’t make the Jordan IV. My nostalgic connection to that shoe cannot be replaced, so I keep buying them and feeling guilty about it. Laugh at me all you want, but it’s a true concern.
Here’s my wish: Brand Jordan, after decades of success and cash accumulation, decides to revolutionize their supply chain to be certifiably 100% free of any form of exploitation or damage to the Earth.
How? For starters, they can get certified by Made In A Free World, ( https://madeinafreeworld.com ) a non-profit that provides world-class auditing services to identify any forms of human exploitation within a company’s product and/or process.
Very few large companies acquire this certification, because there’s no marketplace of pressure to do so.
I created this image to remind myself that there are probably slaves involved in each pair of Jordans, and I plan to create little stickers and put them on all my shoes until Brand Jordan proves otherwise. I’m hoping other people will share this image, and that eventually it makes its way to a Brand Jordan executive who realizes it represents a lot of people that love their shoes, but just can’t keep buying them without proof that they’re not simultaneously being complicit with the global slave trade.