In a spare 2 minutes today I glanced through the SCMP magazine and there was an article on The BlackSpot Sneaker. What is it, I hear you ask. Put simply it's a sneaker made by a bunch of anti-globalisation trade activists as a means to dent Nike. Nike bought Converse last year, so these guys thought the best thing they could do was rip-off Converse's copyright and create a brand in the process. No doubt it's made in environmentally friendly, worker friendly somewhere-ville, USA. It's got a logo and ad campaign. It is essentially a competitor to Nike.

Let's take a second here. I'm not a big Nike fan but anyone that can convince people that sandshoes are worth forking out several hundred dollars a time deserves their money's worth. They copped a whole lot of pressure, some perhaps even deserved, for the factories that were making the shoes in Asia. It was fashionable to boycott Nike for using sweatshops. So Nike responded. They dedicate whole chunks of their website to "Responsibility" and there's a whole section on "Workers & Factories." Regardless that Nike helps provide (relative) good paying jobs to people who would other really be working in sweatshops for local businessmen. And that Nike, just like any large company, has to put up with constant sniping simply because it is successful. The best these anti-Nike groups can do is try and take Nike on at their own game.

I'm no expert on copyright law but if someone started selling Converse rip-offs, I'd be suing their backsides to kingdom come. I didn't pay a fortune just to see a bunch of hippies and anarchists try and make a buck of my hard work. Here's an excerpt from Blackspot's blurb:

For years, Nike was the undisputed champion of logo culture, its swoosh an instant symbol of global cool. Today, Phil Knight's Nike is a fading empire, badly hurt by years of "brand damage" as activists and culture jammers fought back against mindfuck marketing and dirty sweatshop labor.

Now a final challenge. We take on Phil at his own game - and win. We turn the shoes we wear into a counterbranding game. The swoosh versus the anti-swoosh. Which side are you on?

Adbusters has been doing R&D for more than a year, and guess what? Making a shoe - a good shoe - isn't exactly rocket science. With a network of supporters, we're getting ready to launch the blackSpot sneaker, the world's first grassroots anti-brand, with a ground-breaking marketing scheme to uncool Nike. If it succeeds, it will set a precedent that will revolutionize capitalism.

I've never been a fan of anti-globalising, anti-trade, anti-capitalist idiots. These guys take the cake for hypocricy.