Grassroots Capitalism

Two years ago, I blogged about social activist group Adbuster's move to manufacture shoes.

It's been over 10,000 pairs of shoes later and Adbuster's 'Blackspot' line of shoes offer both a sneaker and an industrial styled boot. But what makes the difference between these and other shoes is that the entire thrust of the company is to do no harm.

The shoes are manufactured in a Portuguese factory, where the starting pay is 35% above the country's minimum wage and the workers are treated well. The shoes are made from organic hemp, processed naturally without the use of chemicals. The sneaker is 70% biodegradable whereas the boot has a sole made from recovered car tires. If you visit the Blackspot sneaker website, they're quite upfront about what the costs of the shoes are, and where the money goes.

Just under $12US of every Blackspot boot sold goes to the worker. Contrast this to Nike where the average cost of wages per shoe is around $2.75US, and - as accounted by their own corporate social responsibility reports - up to 50% of the audited contracted companies are paying below the legal minimum wage.

As mentioned in my original post on the subject, it's great to see an activist group actually stepping up and providing us with a solution while bringing attention to the problem.

But what I find most interesting about the Adbuster venture, is that they're extending stakeholder status to their customers. When you purchase a pair of their shoes, you become a voting shareholder. For all the companies and organizations that pay lip service to the customer being number one, here is a company that actually is doing it. Granting the customer the right to vote on how the profits of the company are used and the price points for future products. Imagine the sudden improvement and focus on customer service, if at any point a majority of customers had the ability to fire company management.