Earth Shoes and China manufacturing

[Recycler]

It is surprising that Earth Shoes are so expensive, considering that they're all made in China under the usual working conditions. In fact, Earth Shoes is a subsidiary of MDI-shoes, which is the same company that makes all those inexpensive shoes for Wal-Mart in the same factories. These factories are not certified by anyone and the workers are required to live on the premises, so I think there are better vegan shoe choices out there.

[rincaro]

Source of this information?

[Recycler]

I called Earth Footwear and asked very direct questions. Their phone numbers are listed on their website. I forget where I originally heard that MDI (their parent company) is the maker of many cheap WalMart/discount shoes, but you should be able to verify that as well. Earth Shoes should be a lot cheaper considering how little they have to pay for Chinese labor. Their sandals are more expensive than quality non-leather Birkenstocks (which are made in Germany) or shoes from companies such as Vegetarian Shoes (made in England).

[IamJen]

Recycler is correct, at least in part. MDI shoes is the parent company. I can't find a link stating this, but if you poke around earthshoes site, you'll see that all the logo copyrights are licensed to MDI Inc. They've long had operations in China. See here for their comments on the matter:
http://www.earthshoes.com/company.asp
http://www.earthvegan.us/display_message.asp?mid=786

As for recycled's claim re: workers living on site, there needs to be some data provided.

[lijahbaby]

Hmm. Thanks for posting that. I was going to ask for a pair of Earth shoes for Christmas but now I don't think I will. Their repsonse to the question in the second link is exactly how I imagine Nike or any other company that uses sweatshops would respond.

[cobalt]

Aren't the Earth Shoes at Wal Mart all made of leather anyway??

[Recycler]

It seems like every company that manufactures shoes in China always has a vague public statement ready that sounds great (Earth Footwear included). But they never seem to provide any details. When you call with very specific questions about working conditions, wages, etc., you usually get the run-around. I was able to ascertain that the workers at their factories are required to live on the premises (in group dorm rooms) and that the factories are not Fair Trade certified (they had no idea what I was talking about there). You can call Earth Footwear yourself to verify.

[Ocean]

Thanks for posting this info...I have been thinking about buying earth shoes, but probably never will now.