The Dark Side Of Cheap Gear

23/09/2019Saphira Bloom-Quinn

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23/09/2019Saphira Bloom-Quinn

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Is there really a difference between cheap and top-range gear? Quality of product is one thing, but there are plenty of other ramifications of purchasing cheap gear that we don’t see.

I recently decked myself out in a full hiking kit from ALDI, and headed into the bush to give the gear a run for its money – which isn’t a lot. For nine items, undies to headtorch, I paid just $300. After a few months, most of the gear was falling apart. Some of the items didn’t even live up to their function. But that’s not the worst of it.

Saphira Schroers, I Tested A Full Kit Of Cheap ALDI Hiking Gear Over Nearly 100km, hiking pack, tear

A backpack from ALDI that didn’t survive Saphira’s gear test.

All of the ALDI gear was made in Bangladesh and China, which are hotspots for fast fashion and the ‘modern day slave’ industry. In 2013 in Bangladesh, more than 1,100 people died when the building they were working in, Rana Plaza, collapsed due to cost cutting and poor regard for worker safety. Workers in the garment industry can work up to 16 hours a day for well below a ’living wage’ (minimum wage in Bangladesh is about $92 AUD a month, but many workers don’t even receive this), and end up essentially enslaved and unable to build a better life. Child labour is also common.

Does supporting this industry align with our values as outdoor adventurers? Is this the kind of world we want to support – a disposable culture of throwaway items? Paying $200 for your boots doesn’t guarantee the maker got paid fairly. But paying $30 means for certain that they didn’t.

Buying good quality gear reduces resource consumption and landfill from made-to-break gear. It lasts longer and ends up at a better cost in the long run. Plus, better quality gear usually has robust warranties (brands like Thermarest and Osprey have lifetime warranties) which will ensure your purchase is a one-off that lasts a lifetime.

Borrow Your Gear

The extra time you spend saving for good quality gear shouldn’t stop you getting outside. In the meantime, consider borrowing gear from mates – a backpack is easily swapped between people. If you’re part of a club, see if they have gear for members to use for free.

Photo by Mattie Gould

Thrift Your Gear

Thrift stores can be filled with some serious gems. I’ve found a North Face windbreaker, Quechua hiking pants, and even Scarpa hiking boots for under a tenner each. Buying used extends the life of an item and prevents it from going to landfill. It’s also a cheeky way to avoid directly supporting crappy companies – because, technically, they never see your dollar.

Buy From Better Companies

Consider Kathmandu, who are doing great things for social responsibility. They list the exact locations of all their factories (this is almost unheard of in the clothing industry), pay minimum wage, and are working towards paying a living wage (minimum wage is not always a liveable wage). They’re also accredited by the Fair Labour Association for compliance with fair labour standards throughout their supply chain.

Rachel Dimond, Kathmandu, xt series gear test, snowy mountains, kosciuszko national park, nsw, packs

Photo by Rachel Dimond

Then there’s Patagonia, an international leader in ethical outdoor gear. They’re known for their ‘Don’t buy this jacket’ advert, which ran in the New York Times to inform consumers about the resource cost of its R2 Jacket. With lifetime warranties, free repairs (even if your gear isn’t Patagonia brand!), reasonable repair costs for wear and tear, and a loud voice for environmental issues, Patagonia is a great choice if you’re buying new.

Buy According To Your Hiking Needs

You don’t need top of the range gear for small day hikes and overnighters at a drive-in campsite. Buy gear that matches up with the kind of trips you’re going on. Spend your extra dollars on buying well-made gear, rather than high-tech or extra stuff.

Feature photo by Miranda Fittock

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COMMENTS

Mark says:

26/09/2019 at 11:27 am

I’d seriously consider rewording your article as you state that you are certain that Aldi is not paying workers fairly and promoting modern slavery and that is a big call based on an assumption. I don’t think Aldi’s lawyers would appreciate it or agree.

Anyway this is a previous statement from them on the matter
https://www.aldiunpacked.com.au/aldi-stands-opposed-to-modern-slavery/
Saphira says:

26/09/2019 at 6:24 pm

Hi Mark, thanks for sharing that statement from ALDI and your own views.

I definitely understand where you’re coming from. Unfortunately, the garment industry by its nature does not provide information or numbers to the public that would allow us to say for sure that workers are not being paid a particular amount. ALDI either doesn’t know (due to subcontracting and being removed physically from the factories) or it hasn’t shared it. There is lots of evidence of worker mistreatment and labour violations in general, so we cannot wait for the industry to start coming clean before we start calling for change.

I stated that it not possible to pay fair wages on a $30 boot. ALDI does not provide enough information for me to do a cost breakdown, however, considering that ethically produced boots retail at over ten times the price, I believe this is a fair assessment to make.

Furthermore, the legal minimum wage in China/Bangladesh is recognised as being below a living ‘fair’ wage, and ALDI has only publicly committed to paying the legal minimum wage. I think this supports my claim that ALDI does not pay fair wages for this gear.

I also wrote that ALDI’s suppliers are located in two hotspots for the very worst conditions of the garment industry, with conditions so poor they have been termed modern day slavery. This term encapsulates that notion that people may still be essentially enslaved even when minimum legal requirements are met, if those legal requirements are not sufficient to allow them true freedom.

Some of these initiatives that ALDI has outlined are great, but they have also only come into effect very recently. The standards set the bar very low – no child labour, legal minimum wages, no forced labour. This does not protect workers sufficiently. The most recent external report by Baptist World Aid suggest audits, wages, and worker rights remain a problem (despite the newly announced standards), particularly in Final Stage Production and Raw Materials Extraction. This report is freely available should you wish to see a comprehensive breakdown of the ethics of ALDI’s supply chain. Potentially, this is simply because it takes time to incorporate these new regulations. Hopefully this is the case – only time will tell.

ALDI’s social responsibility standards do not place limits on overtime hours or on the rate which must be paid for overtime. It does not prevent subcontracting, which is a huge risk for being able to audit and monitor compliance to ethical standards. There are no policies protecting temporary or contract workers, no public list of suppliers, no publication of the results of audits, Again, it’s a good start, but the specifications are vague. A two page document is not transparent or detailed enough to ensure production is actually ethical.

I appreciate that ALDI intends to, or has started to, independently inspect their factories in Bangladesh, but the details provided on this are extremely vague and therefore not sufficient for consumer confidence. Exactly what happens at these inspections, how often they occur, etc is again left unspecified. External reports by Baptist World AId suggest that these random, unannounced audits are rare (1-25% of all factories over a period of a year). There is also evidence that violations for wage payments are regularly unresolved, according to the same report. In short, ALDI has rules, but the exact consequences of violations, or how they are prevented or rectified, remain unclear. This is problematic considering the low prices of the gear are a red flag for labor standards.

Fast fashion, which this collection of gear unequivocally represents, is a huge contributor to unethical working conditions. High quantities of goods produced at very quick turnaround times, for a very low cost are huge risk factors for creating an industry with poor worker safety, standards, and wages. This is, at its core, what I mean by modern day slavery – it’s an industry operating on the bare legal minimum.

I hope this clarifies the meaning of my writing.
Alex says:

27/09/2019 at 6:19 pm

Awesome article and a thought provoking read. Can really see that you’ve put your research into this one, especially with that comment response above. I’ve shared the link to this in my own email newsletter 🙂 Nice work Saphira!
1. Tim Ashelford says:
  
  30/09/2019 at 9:11 am
  
  Glad you enjoyed it Alex! Saphira did a great job hey? Thanks for the share!
2. Saphira says:
  
  30/09/2019 at 9:27 am
  
  Wow Alex, I really appreciate you sharing this piece and getting the word out on why it’s important to think about the ethics of our choices in the outdoor industry!
Leigh says:

09/10/2019 at 11:30 am

Thank you for covering this. The more we get people thinking about their choices the better. When we see products so cheap on the shelves of stores it can be easy to forget about the people who made them and the true cost of producing them. I don’t think anything you wrote could be considered defamatory, the more pressure on retailers to operate ethically the better. Plus, buying quality gear means it lasts longer and saves us consumers more in the long run! I’m personally not a huge fan of Kathmandu and feel there is a certain amount of greenwashing going on there but Patagonia are amazing.