Blackspot Anticorporation

The Black Spot Anticorporation is a project of the Canadian newspaper critical of capitalism Adbusters, best known in Germany by buying - Nix - day. As part of the Adbusters Media Foundation is not for profit. It is an experiment, to what extent one can remove large enterprise market share, " anti-capitalist".

History

After Adbusters initially only exhorted to distance themselves from brands by over-painted trademarks on its clothing with black dots ( = "black spots" ), wanted to Kalle Lasn, the Adbusterschef, cause in the long run the big brand companies actual sales. That's why the Black Spot Anticorporation was founded. Their first products are two different types of shoes that are clearly against Nike, in contrast, Lasn has an obvious personal dislike, directed.

Blackspot sneakers

The classic Blackspot Sneaker V1 is the modeled Converse All Stars. He stands next to a slightly different design, above all, by the absolute absence of logos and ethical production from All Star from. The shoe is made of vegan materials, primarily Biohanf, and is produced by unionized workers in a Portuguese factory. Cause for development was the acquisition of Converse by Nike in 2001, and the related relocation of Converse production to low wage countries.

The Black Spot unswoosher (V2 ) developed further the concept of V1 and combines it with a more individual look. So Recycled car tires are used for the sole. Here again taken a clear position against Nike: The name " unswoosher " refers to the Nike logo, the Swoosh.

Both shoes are little more than an independent network, distributed on left culture or vegan products specialized shops. Buyer of shoes get access to special Internet forums where they can discuss and vote on the future of the Black Spot movement. This reflects the attempt to create a kind of grassroots capitalism to establish.

Criticism

Blackspot is considered commercially - market economy marketed very unwise. Thus, Adbusters decided, for example, when choosing between a Portuguese factory and an Indonesian, who offered to produce at a much lower price for the more expensive, because it was a union factory. Also refused to be a massive campaign of opposition to manipulation. Is correspondingly small market share: since the beginning of the 2003 campaign, just over 20 000 shoes have been sold worldwide. The challenged by Black Spot " evil capitalists " smile at the campaign so far, at best, such as the appeared in Forbes in March 2006 article " Self- loathing Sneakers " quite clearly shows.

However, there were also a lot of positive response to the action, primarily of smaller left-wing websites and magazines, but also in articles from leading newspapers like the New York Times.

Over time, there have been a number of complaints about massive quality defects. Thus seams opened after a short time, or customers withdrew to extended wear sore feet to. Such problems should, given the relatively high price not actually occur. To be fair, this is an argument that defective shoes be exchanged very easily and the shoes well einliefen at most in a few days. Nevertheless, the question arises whether the price is not significantly higher than the value in use and is more owed ​​an ideal addition to value what is contrary to the anti- brand concept itself.