Hey, I went to business school. I’m married to an economist. I get how this works.
Stuff gets made (and work gets done) where it can be done most cost-effectively. And this works especially well when we ignore the rotten Bangladeshi-style working conditions that put Triangle Shirtwaist to shame.
But I do have a couple of problems with everything being off-shored.
One is the bad-for-democracy feeling I get at the thought of how easy it will be for some captains of industry to completely discount their fellow citizens when they realize that, not only are we no longer needed as producers, we’re no longer needed as consumers. We have seen how the tobacco companies niftily shifted their marketing attention to the third world once most Americans stopped smoking. And now they’re waking up to the light-bulb notion that, hey, we don’t need these jamokes to buy cars or iPods or pocketbooks, either. So, given that we don’t need them as buyers, we really don’t give a hoot whether they’re workers, either. Thus out Henry Ford’s down-home dictum that if you paid your workers well enough, they’d actually spend some of it on the stuff they were making.
My other problem with full-bore off-shoring is a perhaps mistily sentimental attachment to the importance of actually making things.
Perhaps this is just the H.H. Brown old combat-boot assembly line worker in me, I am always happy to read about manufacturing segments making a comeback.
But skilled manufacturing – even if they could find enough skilled-enough workers - can’t employ everyone. So maybe we could use a few manufacturing jobs at the cruddier end of the job spectrum – jobs that could be available to low-skill, no-skill workers who wanted to do something other than flip burgers or work as home-care aides.
Into this category, I’m assuming that tee-shirt manufacturing falls.
So I do hope that Thompson Tee makes it.
Not only do they make their tee-shirts here, but eponymous founder Billy Thompson is trying:
…vehemently to keep the entire supply chain of his T-shirt company located in the United States, but doing so is proving harder than he ever imagined. (Source: Huffington Post.)
Thompson is looking for investors to expand what he says is both a sustainable and profitable business, but has found that most investors will dime-in only if he moves production out of the country. And he wants to keep his entire supply chain here.
Sigh!
Thompson’s tees aren’t cheap, but they are, apparently, sweat-proof – patent-pending technology, woo-hoo. Thus you don’t have to buy as many to replace the grodie, pitted out ones that you work up a sweat in. So, yes, $30 may be a lot to pay for a skivvy shirt, but…
I actually pay almost that much for my workout tee-shirts, shirts that have some sort of evaporating magic to them that cotton shirts do no. So I’d be game to buy a couple of Thompson tees.
Now Thompson is turning to the public for aid. On June 1, he's kicking off a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help expand the company’s operations in the U.S.
He's looking to raise at least $25,000 to cover materials and labor to launch a new “Classic Tee,” without the added underarm protection, and to introduce black shirts to his line of products.
Hmmmm. Don’t know what the advantage is to having a more expensive tee-shirt without that “added underarm protection”? Can’t you just buy a package of three Calvin’s at T.J. Maxx and toss out last year’s mutts with the stained arm pits?
The company promises that for every 2,000 shirts made by Thompson Tee, one American job will be added to its supply chain.
Okay. That 2,000 shirts = one job sounds like some fuzzy math in action.
Still, I’m in, all indie-a-go-going for Thompson to the tune of $50.
Look, Ma! I’m a crowdfunder.
My investment entitles me to something or other. Not quite clear whether it’s free stuff, or the right to order stuff at a discount, or whatever. Whether I end up with a reward for my goodness is largely irrelevant. I’ve spent plenty in $50 increments on zilch, so, I approach this investment with some no sweat sang froid.
But if there are some goodies in store, I will be sure to get one for my sister Trish. Not to imply that she sweats. The Rogers girls simply don’t.
No, her very own sweat- and sweat-shop proof tee-shirt will be her payback for sending me the link to this article.
Black or white?
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