New Square Shop Has Moral Fiber

All Is Fair, a retail outlet that only sells products made by unionized workers, opened for business yesterday at 45 Mt. Auburn St.

Dozens of students and labor activists from the Boston area stopped in to browse the eclectic offerings for sale, ranging from clothing and shoes to coffee and chocolate.

The store, which will stay open until Dec. 26, is the newest venture of No Sweat Apparel, one of a handful of ethical clothing companies that have emerged in the past few years.

CEO and founder Adam C. Neiman, Class of 1978, said his company had decided to open an outlet in Harvard Square because of the diversity of potential customers in the area.

“With such a remarkable band of people here, we thought that there was no better way to spread our brand and our mission than to set up in the Square for the holidays,” he said.

Neiman added that All Is Fair is not targeted at a particular clientele.

“We have these 15-year-old punk rockers in London who tattoo the No Sweat brand on the back of their necks, and we’ve got 50-year-old union officials in Arkansas,” he said. “Our market is that and everything in between. It’s a big tent.”

Neiman said that he believes that consumers can play a major role in determining the standards in the labor industry.

“Every time we take out our wallets, we’re voting with a dollar for the world we want,” he said.

Some customers who visited All Is Fair during its grand opening yesterday afternoon—many of whom said they were involved in free-trade and workers’-rights causes—told The Crimson that they were pleased with the products on display, but noted that their main reasons for making purchases there would be humanitarian ones.

“The prices are reasonable, although it’s certainly possible to find cheaper stuff,” said Erin L. Stephens-North ’08, who is a member of the Harvard Progressive Advocacy Group. “I wouldn’t necessarily come here to get the outfit, but more to support the cause.”

T-shirts at the store sold for $17, while hooded sweatshirts had a $26 price tag. The products came from factories inside and outside the U.S.

No Sweat’s flagship product—a shoe that closely resembles Converse’s Chuck Taylor high-top sneaker—was priced at $40. No Sweat places a detailed list of the benefits earned by the Indonesian factory workers who make the shoes and challenges Nike, which owns Converse, to do the same.

Marie C. Manna, who is a union organizer for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, said that she was “surprised to see that there was such a selection here,” adding that she thought that the “100% Union Made” tag would attract customers.

“I think people would like to buy things made by people who were not exploited,” she said.

Cambridge resident Justin F. Crane ’00 said that he probably would not buy the apparel at All Is Fair, although he did not doubt that others would. Crane noted that other ethical clothing companies, such as American Apparel and U2 singer Bono’s Edun Clothing, offered more conservative garments that he found more appealing.

Neiman said No Sweat’s clothes offer “a more European or Latino sensibility” that distinguishes them from the company’s competitors.

And although all the workers who make products sold at All Is Fair receive union-level wages and benefits, No Sweat has proved to be a profitable business, Neiman said.

“Profits come out all right because labor is an incremental component production costs,” he said.

According to Neiman, stores like All Is Fair are aimed to demonstrate that companies can sell union-made products and still have the bottom line come out in their favor.

“We’re trying to show the industry that you can treat your workers well and run a business profitably. We wouldn’t be doing any good if we didn’t turn a profit.”

—Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.