How Far Did Your T-Shirt Travel?: Dirt to Shirt Permaculture Design for Apparel

After NAFTA was passed in the 1990s, apparel companies moved their manufacturing to businesses overseas. Over 98% of apparel worn in the US is made overseas. Check your labels. The way we grow fiber, ship it, turn it into clothing, and ship it back to the US has a huge environmental and social impact. Watch Eric Henry's TEDx talk about his T-shirt business right here in the heart of North Carolina. http://tsdesigns.com/ He's trying to create a whole-cycle process of developing clothing "from dirt to shirt."

Note to Forum gods and goddesses: Can we create a Forum under "Living" (or somewhere deemed more appropriate) called "Fiber Plants and Apparel" ?



Thom Illingworth
Greensboro, NC

Oh, how cool is that?

Along these lines, Galadriel posted this YouTube about a 150 mile wardrobe in my thread about looking for natural winter gear.



I like the "from dirt to shirt" motto - very descriptive!

TSDesigns is one of the field trips that Will Hooker takes his Permaculture class on in his NC State course.
Lecture # 21 here: NC State Intro to Permaculture

TSDesigns is an outstanding example of how it should be done. They even have chickens!

Even looking at the label can be deceptive. Until very recently, the Island of Saipan (which is a U.S. Territory in the south Pacific) was host to many garment manufacturing 'sweat shops'. They employed foreign (mostly Chinese) workers in near slave conditions. Being a US Territory allowed them to use a "Made in the USA" label.

However, dozens of garment factories also opened; clothing manufacture became the island's chief economic
force, employing thousands of foreign contract laborers while labeling their goods "made in the U.S.A."
and supplying the U.S. market with low cost garments exempt from U.S. tariffs. The working conditions
and treatment experienced by employees in these factories were the subject of controversy and criticism.

As of March 2007, 19 companies manufactured garments on Saipan. In addition to many foreign-owned
and run companies, many well-known U.S. brands also operated garment factories in Saipan for much of
the last three decades. Brands included Gap (as of 2000 operating six factories there), Levi Strauss,
Phillips-Van Heusen, Abercrombie & Fitch, L'Oreal subsidiary Ralph Lauren (Polo), Lord & Taylor,
Tommy Hilfiger, and Walmart.