Jennifer: I’m Jennifer and I’m here at the Green Festival with Scott. Um, can you tell us a little bit about what you do here, what you’re doing at the Green Festival?

Scott: Yeah. This is the world’s first line of sports balls—soccer, football, basketball, and more—that are both eco-certified and third party fair trade certified. “Fair trade” meaning that it’s adults, not kids, who are stitching—putting these 650 stitches in the soccer balls.

Jennifer: Where are they made?

Scott: They’re all made in Pakistan, which is where 80% of all sports balls come from. The third party certification is a way to fight child labor, which is still rampant in this industry.

Jennifer: So what does it mean that they’re eco-certified? Is it something to do with materials, or…?

Scott: Yeah, 70% of a sports ball—a soccer ball or a football—is made of rubber. And that rubber comes from our rubber tree forests in India and in Sri Lanka, and those forests are third party certified by the Forest Stewardship council, FSC. You’ll see that FSC mark on lumber at Home Depot—

Jennifer: Yeah, I thought it only had to do with paper. So it’s also, rubber can be FSC-certified also.

Scott: Yeah, from the rubber trees. So underneath the canopy of our rubber trees is actually tea bushes. So it’s not only eco-certified rubber, it’s also fair trade certified. So a lot of the tea companies that—you and I drink their fair trade tea—it’s our rubber trees that are growing on top of their tea bushes. So it’s a nice, holistic, positive solution.

Jennifer: So, getting away from the monoculture sort of thing?

Scott: Exactly. Monocropping is bad.

Jennifer: How do these compare, pricewise, to other soccer balls, or footballs, or…

Scott: Pricewise, they’re identical. At our entry-level, like our club- and training- levels, they’re the same price quality. So if you put one of our sports balls next to one of the major brands’, you’ll see no difference in quality at that price. At our higher end, we have some premier match balls, and match balls like for soccer. We actually undercut the competition by about 20%.

Jennifer: So when you say premier match balls, is that like professional level?

Scott: Yeah. Or collegiate level, or even high school where it’s, like the select travelling teams. The student athletes who are really quite good at their sport.

Jennifer: Where are you selling these?

Scott: All over the US and Canada. You can go to our website, fairtradesports.com, you can go to select Whole Foods markets around the country, or, in the case, if you’re in Chicago, Greenheart, which is one of our local independent fair trade stores.

Jennifer: Great. Thanks for all the information.

Scott: You bet.

Jennifer: Thank you.