How and Why We Choose Our Manufacturing Partners
At Oboz we choose manufacturing partners based on several factors – quality, delivery, transparency, price, and their ability to meet our Manufacturing Code of Conduct. We build our shoes at various partner facilities in China and Vietnam, with components manufactured in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and China. We would love to build our shoes in the U.S., for a host of reasons – creating and maintaining solid manufacturing jobs in America, easier communication, shorter lead times, to name a few – but, the fact of the matter is there is not a sufficient infrastructure to manufacture athletic footwear here for a small company like ours. While there are documented accounts of environmental degradation and human rights abuses in China (as there also has been in the history of the U.S.), we believe that better conditions will prevail around the world if responsible American companies engage the global community rather than retreat from it. By working with our manufacturing partners we can insist that they continue to meet or exceed our code of conduct with regards to environmental practices, worker’s rights and safety. That being said, should one of our routine audits of a factory partner expose non-compliance of this code of conduct, and we find a management team unwilling to immediately correct the issue, we will discontinue our relationship. We believe that by simply walking away from a problem, the problem will most likely continue to exist. Therefore, we believe in working with our partners to find solutions. We do not use a third party agency to develop and commercialize our footwear. We do it ourselves, which means that a senior manager from Oboz is in our manufacturing facilities every 4-6 weeks, ensuring the highest product quality and the factory’s commitment to our standards.
Manufacturing Code of Conduct
Health and Safety—Work is placed only in locations where no unusual risks are posed to the safety and well-being of Oboz’ employees. This means we will avoid countries where incidents of political and/or social unrest or other factors may jeopardize the personal safety of our staff.
Work Environment—Suppliers and manufacturing partners are required to provide their workers with a safe and healthy work environment (and living space, as appropriate), in compliance with local laws and regulations.
Employment Practices—Workers may not be younger than 16 years (or younger than school compulsory age, if that is older than 16 years). All forms of forced labor are prohibited. Wages and benefits must meet legal requirements or the prevailing local industry standards, whichever is higher. Preference is given to business partners who work to respond to local community needs and the betterment of their employees' standard of living. Working hours may not exceed 60 hours (regular and overtime combined) per week on a regular scheduled basis, and overtime is to be compensated appropriately according to local and/or national law. We seek to work with partners who do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, beliefs, heritage or citizen status, sexual orientation or disability.
Freedom of Association—Supplier and manufacturing partners are required to recognize and respect the legal rights of employees to free association and collective bargaining, including joining or not joining any association. If a specific country's law restricts the right to freedom of association, vendors are required to allow employees to raise job-related grievances without penalty or reprisal.
Environmental Commitment—We work to conduct our operations in an environmentally sensitive fashion and favor doing business with vendor and manufacturing partners that share our values. Vendors must commit to the disposal of production waste materials in an environmentally responsible manner according to the local laws and regulations. Vendors must ensure that manufacturing is done without the use of harmful and/or noxious substances.
