Do Your Shoes Have a Soul?

As alluded to in the masthead of this blog, hippies and iHippies agree on environmental and social issues but may differ in areas such as the importance they place on style... or whether or not they even include that word in their vocabulary. An iHippie is not ashamed to be fashionable, but she also thinks about the materials and labor used in the production of her chic clothing. With that in mind, let's examine one of the staples of the hipster or mod uniform--the Converse Chuck Taylor shoe. The problem with these shoes is that they are manufactured overseas, and Converse is owned by Nike, a company that has long been accused of sweatshop labor.

"Oh no! Oh my!" you might yelp, "Now, what ever will I wear to the Wolf Parade concert?"

Never fear, my budding iHippie; allow me to introduce you to No Sweat shoes. These shoes are made by union workers in Indonesia (you can even check out the wages and benefits of the people who make them), and although No Sweat's legal counsel made them explicitly state on their site that these are not Chuck Taylors, I've been fooling my hipster friends for months now... and feeling doubly good about it.

So if you want to make a statement about labor issues while you're making a statement about your chosen crowd, head on over to No Sweat and pick up some soles with soul.