Do you know what “sweat equity” means? Some people would argue that it is a shame not to know, others would say who cares. I would have to admit that until I was confronted with this term I really had no idea, I got the concept now because I do have conscience, as I’m sure you do.

Do you care about the environment? Do you care about the great outdoors we enjoy everyday? All of us would balk and look down upon anyone attacking or polluting our precious land and environment. But what, my eco-conscious fair-weathered friend, do you think about sweat equity as it relates to all that expensive gear you own?

What is sweat equity? Well, from my humble point of view it is the blood, sweat, and tears that made those nice pair of five finger vibrams’ or Sorel winter boots you are walking around in.

Photo by : hoyasmeg

Who cares? I’m willing to guess a good 90% or more that are reading this very sentence have a problem with Walmart. Why? Well besides the fact they are a big corporation who is probably building a death star to take over the world, we all think of unfair treatment of the workers who may or may not produce many goods sold there.

That my friend is why you should care about sweat equity as it relates to your expensive or not so expensive outdoor gear and equipment.

Is it not inherent that the outdoorsy person has a mindset and ideals that look to the greater good? We love our outdoors and spurn pollution. We want fairness and good life for everyone. We all just assume that great companies that produce our eco-friendly and green gear do everything smelling like a rose. Do they?

It’s probably pretty easy to find out how “green” and environmentally friendly these outdoor products and their companies are, but how easy is it to find out if it was made in some third world country with workers being treated poorly and paid a pittance?

Do you want to buy a product that is made by someone who has to work 16 hours a day in a horrible environment for little to no money? Of course not. We want eco-friendly products made it a fair manner, by people who are not slaving away in a dark and dank dungeon.

This is sweat equity.

So is the outdoor industry open about its practices? You be the judge. On Patagonia’s website you can read a list naming their suppliers. http://www.patagonia.com/pdf/en_US/PatagoniaFactoryList.pdf

One of those suppliers is Yupoong Vietnam. A quick Google search of the company will bring up results such as “...Yupoong apparently violated the law in the Dominican Republic by refusing initially even to pay severance pay.” Sure a factory in a different country, but the same company none the less.  Also, another article claims that Yupoong would apparently move orders away from unionized factories to other non-unionized factories to close down the trouble, which you can read about here.
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/story/2007/03/20/bjb-garments-closure-threat

I guess the point is we are told companies are fair and work with fair suppliers to produce goods that don’t harm other people, but how do we know? Are we that naive? What do you think?