Regulars to Ethical Athlete will recall that back in April I highlighted an article from The Independent investigating claims that Adidas branded clothing for the Olympics was being produced under sweatshop conditions. The Independent were not the only news source to cover this story and it created a bit of a buzz. In the last couple of months that buzz as died down a little, until this week when Adidas finally commented on the allegations through the medium of their corporate blog, with a post by Bill Anderson, Adidas’ Head of Social & Environmental Affairs for Asia Pacific and New Zealand, titled:
“Poverty Wages” in the sporting goods industry – What does this mean?
I’ll let you read the article here and form your own judgements on it, but to summarise, Anderson claims that allegations about the conditions experienced by workers in factories contracted by Adidas are sensationalist as they do not adequately take into account the local economic situation. The details of the argument are unlikely, however, to satisfy Adidas’ critics.
I recommend that you head over to the Adidas site and read their point of view (after all, even global mega-corps are entitled to have their say), but also please make sure that you read the comments and add your own opinion. This looks like a debate that will rumble on for some time…
