Sizing Up Athletic Shoe Makers

Forget sweating it out at the gym, on the bike path or along the running trail. Figuring out what running shoe to buy is enough to give any conscious consumer a total workout.

"Runners go through running shoes at unprecedented rates, causing a lot of waste," says ultra-marathon champion Scott Jurek, who worked with running-shoe company Brooks to develop a more eco-friendly shoe. "While it would be wonderful if every company was completely green, we have to start small," he adds.

Starting small, such as reducing polyvinyl chloride (PVC), is how many companies have changed from being the target of environmental and labor non-profit campaigns into more responsible corporations.

On the environmental side, all the manufacturers to the right have eliminated glues containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like neurotoxic toluene from their products and replaced PVC, a plastic that generates carcinogenic dioxin during production, with less-toxic ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) or thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU).

Moreover, after decades of bad press surrounding labor abuses, several manufacturers sought external help. The third-party Fair Labor Association (FLA), with whom Asics, Adidas, Nike and Reebok work, allows FLA representatives to make unannounced factory visits at random to ensure factories provide safe, healthy work environments. Although effective, the FLA has been criticized for not requiring living wages rather than local minimum wages, which often don't provide workers and their families with the basic means to survive. Another auditor used by Nike and New Balance, the non-profit Verité, is paid by manufacturers to monitor their factories and then work with factory owners to improve conditions if they're found undesirable. Brooks's parent corporation, Russell, relies on the independent verifier CSCC, which audits all new Brooks factories and conducts unannounced visits to ensure factories comply with the company's code of conduct. Russell belongs to the FLA's collegiate-licensee program, which monitors university apparel production.

Responsible companies have begun publishing the names and addresses of their factories to maintain transparency and consumer confidence. Despite these good intentions, companies can still improve in issues like the living wage and supporting labor unions.

To help you make sense of it all, below we've listed a few of the more responsible, mainstream athletic shoe companies, what they're doing and where they need improvement. And remember: "It's not enough just to shop for green products," says Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com. "Consumers must also let companies know when they think a company is doing the right thing—or the wrong thing."