*Each Monday, Prophet’s Chief Curator and Provocateur, Andy Stefanovich, or a member of our innovation team* shares a Monday on-ramp with Prophet employees across the globe. We’ll begin sharing them here, and encourage you to join the conversation by answering questions and providing your own comments below. Happy Monday!
TOMS Shoes, and their One For One(TM) program, is the perfect example of humanitarian marketing. It’s hard to fault the over one million shoes they’ve given away, or their efforts in raising awareness for the prevention of soil borne diseases. Their website is like a giant daily affirmation of wholesome goodness, with quotes like “Giving is what fuels us” and the “…movement about making choices to improve the lives of children.” (philanthropic driven) Taking an alternative point of view to TOMS, and their responsibility branding, is like hoping Joey gets put down at the end of the movie War Horse (spoiler alert).
But according to some international aid experts, TOMS might be creating some unintended consequences - creating more harm than good. In her blog ‘Good Intentions Are Not Enough” Saundra Schimmelpfennig points out the unintended, and detrimental consequences of marketing programs like TOMS One for One(TM) on the local economy. The one-million shoes TOMS donated took one million potential customers out of the local marketplace. “They ship in goods for free that outcompete local goods, it’s a short-term solution that could create long-term problems.”
With that said, Good.is.com recently profiled Canadian Tal Dehtiar and his shoe company Olibertè Footwear, which may offer a more sustainable alternative to economic development in Africa. Tal’s company is committed to creating “fair jobs, with the goal of contributing to the development of a thriving middle class.” (purpose driven) His company makes premium shoes, in Africa, using African materials. Tal has not taken a contrarian view of TOMS — in fact he recognizes their efforts at raising awareness. “With TOMS shoes, the best thing is the awareness they’ve created.” But he thinks there is a better solution than charity.
Dehtiar, and Olibertè, believes that with “the right partners, each country within Africa has the means to grow and support its people.” This is a contradiction to the negative stereotypes of Africa as impoverished and corrupt. Tal believes there is a growing middle class in Africa, and that by creating opportunities (rather than handouts) for the middle class, you create a more efficient and sustainable path to economic security. “When it comes to footwear,” Dehtiar said in the Good.is.com interview, “we don’t want people to think of Africa as the next China. We want them to think of it as the next Italy — think quality.” (I like the emphasis on quality versus cheap labor).
Each vendor and manufacturer partner is screened and monitored on a “play fair” metric to ensure they comply with the Olibertè’s standards and policies. “At all factories, women comprise approximately 50% of the workforce, including junior and senior administrative positions. All partner factories exceed local labour standards and workers are provided current benefits like subsidized or free lunches, tea breaks and women are provided job security with maternity leave.”
Olibertè also has the standard commitments to the environment, including a reduction in water usage in the manufacturing process as well as a commitment to local and humanitarianly raised leather (cow, sheep, goats). But it also has a very unique recycling program: “We offer 3-Way Shipping which means that once you have enjoyed your Olibertès, if you can’t donate or reuse them, we will take back the shoes and recycle them.”
“Our goal is to be the reason 1 million people are employed in manufacturing in Africa,” he says in the interview, “We want to show that these models work and we want to encourage others, like Nikes and Levi’s of the world, to so the same.”
*This week’s on-ramp was brought to you by Geof Hammond in our Richmond office.
