How are these sneakers green if they are made by Nike? Who cares if they are made of hemp, Nike is still considered a horrible unethical, ungreen company.
I think the Adbusters Blackspot sneaker is much better. It is ethical in environmental, economic and soical ways.
Here is the link, and I am in no way affiliated with them. Perhaps this fits into the 'almost' category.
http://adbusters.org/metas/corpo/blackspotshoes/

Hello? Converse are made in China last time I checked.

What you want are NoSweat apparel's union-made sneakers.

So, are Converse shoes made by child slaves or whatever? I've not bought any since Nike took their company over, but I'm very curious to know what changed at Converse. They'd already been manufacturing overseas before Nike bought them. I can't find any information on Converse's current practises.

Oh common. Why do people always whine and complain about everything.

How do you know the conditions these shoes were made in? You don't. You shouldn't assume anything.

You people are never happy. First you complain about non-renewable energy, and then when people start building windpower you complain about how the windmills are killing birds. Nothing in life is perfect so live with it.

Hemp is a complete plant. But don't commercially grown crops
pose the same environmental problems as cotton if the fields are pumped with fertalizer and pestacides.

I am not defending the site. I don't represent the site. I am just reporting what I Googled. Nike is the largest retailer of organic cotton in the world. They have something called NEAT since 1993 that try to be green. I only found articles that said they are made in China which is better.

Enrique, one of the great things about Hemp is it does not need that much pesticide. Mike, until I see something that actually says Nike is not green, I don't consider it a complaint. #1 in world for providing organic cotton does not seem that bad to me. NEAT. China is not that bad.

Mike, rather than give us crap for not being down with slave labor and/or sweatshops, why don't you enlighten us as to why those are good practices....

Or you don't have to waste our time and we can get No Sweat Apparel (http://www.nosweatapparel.com/) shoes which look just like Converse and cost $42 for the canvas ones or $55 for the HEMP ones.

So get this, the shows made by Nike using sweatshop labor cost more than the union made fair labor shoes made by No Sweat.

When we have the choice to be both green and human friendly, why not?

David

I'm not quite up to date on Nike, but from what I remember reading, they did clean up their act fairly substantially after the big sweatshop scandals. I might have read about that in a piece or book by Naomi Klein. I'm sure someone here knows more than me about this, though.

I would only buy the old converse, the ones made in the 80's. Those are the only good ones anyway.

Unless things have changed recently, Nike doesn't manufacture Converse but they do own the licensing and control of the name.

i don't think this is too green. If you want some hemp shoes go check out No Sweat's new hemp model. www.nosweatapparel.com

while this is a good idea converse sneakers are still owned by nike which uses sweatshop labor.... your best bet is to check out the shoes at http://nosweatapparel.com/ where they have shoes that look just like converse!

here's how the converse/hemp atrocity occured. This guy named jeff joseph in venice california got w/ some folks at a producer who has rights to produce converse goods.

the only reason they are using hemp is because they could acquire the hemp cheap and can get new business by showing kids they are being ecologically friendly, which is a lie.

this guy jeff is a walking eco massacre, he is more harmful on the environment than most families.

to me, this brings the real issue forward. How smart are we? if we buy a good product from a bad person or company, how much good are we actually doing?

please contact me if you would like to be part of something powerful and good for everyone that is good.

as a side note, I would like to say that over 70% of the worlds hemp comes from china. they have a special pact with our government not to grow enough hemp and to not sell it too cheap to the american market.

does anybody have any children's shoes they can recommend? the nosweat shoes are too big for my son and we'd like to find something that was fair labor.

Actually the No sweat website states in response to the environmental question:

Will your company be environmentally friendly as well as labor-friendly? Will you be offering organic products?

As a socially responsible company, good environmental standards and practices are a serious concern of ours. The exploitation of humans & the environment are intimately related. However, our first and foremost objective is to provide quality working conditions and a decent living wage for the garment workers. We believe that when humans are exploited they care little about the environment. Their first concern, understandably, is to feed their families. So we start at the root cause, exploitation of humans. The second step, for us, will be to improve the environmental impact of production processes. We are currently experimenting with organic T-shirts and hemp sneakers. If demand is sufficient we’ll be offering more..

I t sounds like they are all for labor labor rights but haven't been able toget on the environmental issue.

I don't approve of child or slave labor to make the sneakers, but the converse chuck taylor sneakers that they make in china now are much, much better than the ones made here in the USA.

Who cares if they are made by Nike? Who actually cares if they are "un-green"? People buy Converse because they are an enduring design that, even today, are better than all other basketball shoes (just about all shoes today are mainly "for show"). Enviromental activists think they are changing the world somehow by doing miniscule things like buying an off-brand, All-Star rip-off, but Converse are, and always will be, the best selling shoe ever, and buying "more green" alternitives won't stop that fact. I buy Converse branded All-Stars, and I am damn proud of it. Buy, do, say, etc. what you want, not what someone else tells you to.

Thank You For Your Time,
Will Griffith

wow... FINALLY! i didn't think anyone cared about sweatshop labor...
sooo okay info time!
------------Nike sneakers----------
Workers paid per item: 1.50 - 2. 60
Cost to consumers: about 50x that much

pretty messed up if you ask me...

how much are they

i Love my converse shoes