You are right, actually. Buying all the sweatshop-made goods makes you support not only the end producer (the sweatshop labourer) but also the sweatshop who abuses the labourer to come up with the products. But then, there is really no way a sweatshop company ever really loses, especially if they support and are supported by a governing body – if people oppose it in one place, they close shop and then re-open in a different location, preferably one where the people are desperate to earn for themselves and the governing authorities are desperate to earn even more than what they already have. Even if the authorities of the companies that run sweatshops are put to jail, they can still operate their factories like nothing has happened. Lawyers and government officials in Third World countries like mine know that the best way to earn money is to drag a case till forever, and make it entirely to your (normally foreign and First World) sweatshop owner/operator-client’s favour in the long run. So you see, there is no real way a sweatshop owner or operator loses for the benefit of his/her workers. :S

My perspective is that until people take concrete protesting action and also make it known that they do not like sweatshop operators to treat their labourers unfairly, this cycle is never going to stop. It’s not enough that you don’t buy their products, because such loss isn’t easily felt by owners and operators. You have to TELL THEM that you’re not buying their products, and tell them WHY NOT. Sweatshop owners and operators are stubborn and only believe things that are backed by statistics and a genuine proof of losing face due to unethical practises; I’ve learned that they would be forced to act fairly and justly only if they are told to their faces that they are in the wrong. But even then they can choose to ignore statistics and ethics entirely.

As for the non-ethical view, well, yes, the quality sucks. But here in Asia we’re all in a rush for new, “modern” (meaning, Western) things and we’re only too willing to discard our beautiful but painful Asian pasts for that.

Oh if only more people in the West were like you Tricia. Unfair labour practise and wasteful use of resources are two of the reasons why, even if I have an American boyfriend and I am educated in the Western arts and sciences, I cannot quite find it inside myself to forgive Westerners (Europeans and Americans alike) for their their continued colonial and imperial grip on my country, among so many others in Asia. It doesn’t help that so many Westerners – some of them Filipinos born in the West – actually encourage these labour practises and this depressing perspective against one’s own culture.

i love things, i love collecting, playing and buying things, but i can’t in good faith go around ignoring the ramifications of it all.

i’d love to read what you have to write about it…

it’s okay, dissenting views are welcome!

so, are you suggesting that we buy sweatshop made clothing and other products, despite how we politically feel about buying those products and how they are made? are there perhaps other solutions? if so, that’s something that i think all sides need to work on…and it’s likely to be a huge task.

i do understand your point, however!

i could be wrong, but i feel as if there needs to be accountability on the part of these companies, manufacturers, factories, or sweatshops, toward paying their workers a fair wage, by treating their workers in an ethical manner. this fair treatment of workers can be (and is) used as a marketing tool to some degree, if it is honest, if the powers that be recognize the human worth of their workers. this fair treatment of workers also needs to be supported and enforced by the governments of these nations. sadly, it is not.

the choice between buying used and buying new sweatshop-made clothing is a difficult one, as you point out. more often than not, i do not personally feel right supporting a company or companies that use people in that kind of unethical, reprehensible manner. i’m not trying to punish the underpaid worker, i am trying to punish the company that supports that kind of business practice. perhaps it is futile, and perhaps i’m misguided. but when i buy something used, i feel that i am not contributing to the profits of a company that behaves in an unethical manner towards it’s workers. and outside of human ethical issues, i’m not buying a new, cheaply made piece that i will be required to dispose of within a short period of time, because of it’s built in planned obsolescence.

the issue obviously goes deeper than clothing, and stretches into the issue of economies and politics within a nation, not to mention world politics and world economies, and the disparities inherently residing within that context.

thanks so much for bringing this point up! and for giving your voice to the issue.

Just because you boycott the sale of cheap sweatshop-made products does not mean that sweatshops will stop operating. For as long as people are desperate to earn even less than a meal’s worth, and for as long as the demand is high, sweatshops will continue to exist.

Also, most of the stuff you have now on labels like American Eagle Outfitters are made in China and in Third World countries. I know for a fact that we here in the Philippines make and sell Old Navy clothing.

I’m sorry to provide such a dissenting view, but this is something I’ve seen firsthand. It’s a life I very narrowly escaped from living.

I’ve been into thrifting as long as I can remember. When I lived in L.A., most of my wardrobe came from Jet Rag’s $1 sale. I still have a lot of that clothing. What my mind is turned toward lately is just having LESS. Less of everything, and that includes clothing. By most Americans’ standards I have very little, and yet when I look into my closet, I see so many things I never wear. Fashion is fun- it expresses our personality- but I think we need to start looking at clothing more as a necessity. If we really start to examine why we buy clothes- it usually isn’t because we need then, but because we want them. Because we saw something cute on someone else or in a magazine or on a blog or on t.v.

My thought is that if you need something- a new pair of jeans for example- and H&M is what you can afford, then go for it. Just don’t buy a new pair of jeans every year or every season. Buy them when you NEED them.

I gotten so sick of this issue that I do my very best to not even go to major stores and malls anymore unless I have to have something that i can’t/don’t want to make, like jeans. I try to sew all of my own clothes from recyclyed materials and I’m now selling them and there is a demand, despite the higher price point. A few days ago, I decided to go through my waredrobe and clean it out/recyle it all: I ended up ditching 26 tops. 26 CHEAP TOPS that I had collected in the last two years at places like Target and HM. I’ve made a new adventure of shopping: I go thrifing once a week and if I buy something, I am obligated to give something up in my wardrobe that I don’t need or that is a cheap article I never wear. It’s a challange, but it’s fun. Everything else I try to make myself or buy from other crafters on Etsy. I agree that it’s cheap to get all your clothes at H&M, and they often have fun stuff, but ethically, I just can’t deal with it anymore. It’s so wasteful. I think that if more people got a little daring with their clothes, there would be a recycling revolution–out with the cheap crap and in with all the stuff we can remake into something interesting and clever. (I use wardrobe remix for inspiration. Thanks!)

I agree with Sarah: Learn to art/craft of thrifting and a few simple sewing techniques, and you’ll come closer to a sweat-free life. And have a fabulous, one of a kind wardrobe.

or were you referring to something else?