He won twenty Grand Slams, paid for the universally loved and admired tennis gentleman, became an immortal sports icon. As part of his non-sporting business activities, however, Roger Federer is repeatedly the target of criticism. Most recently, his stake in a shoe company came under scrutiny. Because of this, the Swiss giant is accused of being greedy.
Tourists passing through the center of Zurich on February 15 got a glimpse of a bizarre scene.
A man with an effigy of Roger Federer across his face sat behind a sewing machine, splattered with imitation blood. A woman approached him from behind and poured more liters of red paint on his head.
It was an event of the Swiss civil movement Campax, activists fighting, among other things, for human rights.
Federer was chosen as the prominent face of the footwear company On, which the famous tennis player promotes and holds a three percent stake in its ownership structure.
In addition, according to the company, he is involved himself and is said to help with product development with his “unique experience”.
The company has become a thorn in the side of not only activists, but also consumer advocates and major European media.
“Roger Federer makes an unforced error by partnering with a company,” the French daily headlined The world.
In advertising campaigns, the company flaunts slogans about Swiss integrity, quality and sustainability, its sports shoes bearing the Swiss flag and the name “Roger’s advantage”, but they are manufactured in Vietnam for a fraction of the resulting price.
It earns such staggering margins that a Swiss consumer magazine Pinch some time ago he called the prices of shoes “scandalous”.
“The On company pays just under 18 francs for the production of one pair of shoes (not even 500 crowns). But consumers will pay 190 francs for them (5000 crowns),” Ktipp found out from customs documents.
High markups are common for sports shoes, but even giants such as Adidas or Puma do not charge such margins.
In addition, according to sports doctors and orthopedists, the shoes of the On company are of poor quality, too soft, and frequent wearing can result in tendon inflammation and rapid wear of the material.
According to Le Monde, the company’s pricing policy is a sign of greed and hypocrisy.
“It creates a contradiction between the company’s policy on the one hand and the morality of one’s own actions on the other. It makes no sense to emphasize the struggle for noble values in the company’s announcements when the Vietnamese seamstress does not feel any of it,” the newspaper wrote.
Women in a Vietnamese factory earn less than 7,000 kroner a month, in addition to overtime and extreme pressure to perform, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance said. According to that, a fair reward is at least 12,000 crowns.
The 42-year-old Federer has not yet commented on the matter.
It is not the first time that activists have come under fire. Four years ago, he faced criticism from environmentalists for marketing cooperation with Credit Suisse, which provided billions of dollars to companies looking for new oil reserves.
The influential Greta Thunberg then joined the hunt for the Swiss superstar, and Federer reacted conciliatoryly.
“I take environmental impacts very seriously. As a father of four young children, I have great admiration for young activists fighting climate change. I appreciate them reminding me of my responsibility. I would like to use my position to dialogue about important issues with my sponsors,” said the Swiss in an official statement.
A few weeks later, he talked more about the whole issue. And he put on a more defensive tone after all.
“When I help one person, I’m criticized for not doing something for someone else. I’ve reached a point where I have to think very carefully about what I do, because sometimes someone uses my name for certain purposes,” Federer said in an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.
“But I also have to be able to overlook criticism. Because I can’t be everywhere, I can’t do everything. I’m also a father and a tennis player,” he added at the time.
Already in 2018, students reached the Credit Suisse branches in Lausanne and Geneva and played tennis in them, wearing white clothes and holding banners: “Credit Suisse is destroying the planet. Roger, do you support them?”
The Swiss bank responded to the attacks and stopped investing in fossil fuels and coal-fired power plants due to the global strategy to combat climate change.
