Made in USA

Articles of Interest

This episode of Planet Money explores the reality behind 'Made in USA' clothing, challenging the assumption that domestic production equates

Key takeaways

• Made in USA does not guarantee ethical or sustainable production; many U.S. garment factories are small, hidden operations with poor working conditions.

Main topics

• Ethical fashion and consumer responsibility
• U.S. garment manufacturing industry

Notable quotes

"Made in the USA is not the bastion of virtue that Sarah imagined it was."

Conclusion

The episode reveals that 'Made in USA' is not a solution to ethical fashion concerns; instead,

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) The idea started out, I have a four-year-old and a one-year-old, but when I had my first baby, I remember she would just be like laying on my chest or in my arms or on my lap. And, you know, I used to buy like really kind of crappy fast fashion clothes. Speaker 3 (0:19) Like I just like grew Speaker 5 (0:20) up shopping at like the $5 store, which I loved. And I remember being like, oh, I really want to buy at least like good t-shirts. So that her little face and her little mouth that she sleeps on me is like on something that I can feel good about her like laying on. So then I set out for like a year and a half to try to find a t-shirt that I could feel good about. A Speaker 4 (0:42) t-shirt that looks good, that feels good, Speaker 5 (0:44) that is good for the environment. And then ideally the last layer was like... Sarah Speaker 2 (0:52) Gonzalez usually covers economics. I mean, I don't cover fashion. She's a reporter and host of the NPR podcast Planet Money. We're an economics podcast and we're like fun and narrative. So Sarah found herself in a pickle that a lot of us might relate to, which is this eternal question. How do we buy clothing ethically? Is that even possible? Speaker 5 (1:16) I mean, it's so hard to be a good shopper, you know, and then you have like children and they grow out of things and so you have to buy them more things. I'm like a bad consumer. Like, where should I buy this T-shirt that I can feel good about? And then I did an interview with a remarkable woman. Her name is Aisha Barron-Blatt. She's the CEO of this group called Remake. Their whole thing is like, we want to like remake the fashion industry. I was asking her, like, you tell me, like, where do you shop? Like, you've dedicated your life to this. So like, Speaker 4 (1:47) what do you do? You know, there are certain companies that I like very much. But for the most part, for the last decade, I'd say I've bought very little. Like, you come see my closet and there's, you know, six classic pieces. I do a little rental, a little vintage. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You have like Speaker 5 (2:04) six pieces of clothes in your closet? Yeah, Speaker 4 (2:09) yeah, six dresses, that's it. Speaker 5 (2:11) So she has six pieces of clothing that she, like, owns. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like, this is kind of like the moment when I was like, what? And she, like, rents. She rents clothes and does, like, that kind of thing and thrifts and, like, swaps with her friends. I just, I know too much to want to have very much from this industry. I know too much to want to have very much from this industry. I don't think she was, like, preaching, like... this is what you should do or that even she is the best consumer ever. I think the short answer was basically you cannot buy your way out of this problem of bad labor conditions, bad for the environment. Like buying clothes is not going to solve the problem. Speaker 2 (2:58) Not even if those clothes were made in the USA. Who Speaker 5 (3:02) doesn't like the idea of things being made in America? I mean... Not for like patriotic reasons, just like made in the USA has to be like the first step. Like, well, we're getting to better labor conditions and better for the environment. And she was like, why would you think that? Like, where did you get that from? And I was like, I don't know. Like, isn't that like the goal is made in the USA? Speaker 2 (3:23) Made in the USA is not the bastion of virtue that Sarah imagined it was and that I imagined it was, honestly. But I had no idea what the garment industry in the United States actually. looks like. I remember being like, where Speaker 5 (3:37) are the garment factories? Like, where do you like? I've never seen one. I've never been like, oh, look, they're making clothes there. Like ever. I used to live in New York City. I never like stumbled upon these things in any real way. And And most of them are like tiny, tiny operations. Like 76 % of our garment factories in the US have less than 10 workers because they're like so hidden. You can't even, you don't even know where they are. Like I went to some garment factories and I would show up and I would be like, this Speaker 6 (4:07) is like a house on Speaker 5 (4:09) a street with all the other houses. But technically it's a garment factory, but it just, you couldn't tell. In New York, it's like some unit on top of a restaurant. They're so small that they're not. It's not like we make clothes here, you know? So they exist, but they're kind of like hidden. They're really, really difficult to find online. Like really, they're quite hidden. Speaker 2 (4:32) But Sarah Gonzalez has pulled back the curtain on the U.S. garment industry for an episode of Planet Money that I think is one of the best pieces of fashion journalism I have ever heard. I couldn't not share it with you. I Speaker 5 (4:45) started working on it, setting out to like find a... t-shirt I can feel good about. And then all of a sudden, like the conversation was made in the USA, made in the USA. And then I was like, wait, I don't know Speaker 6 (4:55) if this is the Speaker 5 (4:57) future we actually want. Speaker 1 (5:00) After the break. Speaker 1 (5:03) This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, one thing we like is a good mystery. Sometimes about really big things, things you hear in the news. But most times, the little mysteries are the best. Our lost and found is currently filled with pants. I don't know, I've never seen this happen. I've got skirts, I've got shorts. Wait, this is true? This is true. Mysteries of every size, each week. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (5:34) Maria doesn't speak any English. No, Speaker 6 (5:36) casi no. Speaker 5 (5:37) Not a word, she says. Speaker 6 (5:38) No, no, no, nada, nada, nada. But Speaker 5 (5:42) she does know some. Like sizes, she knows sizes. Small, mediano, large, extra large. She knows label, ticket, all words related to her job. Manager. El mister. El mister. El patron se le dice mister. Okay, the boss, you Speaker 6 (6:00) just call him mister. Hola, misis, misis. The boss is a girl, it's a missus. Missus over here, Speaker 5 (6:07) missus over there, she says. You gotta call your bosses mister or missus, she says. And I'm like, this is all English, Maria. Speaker 6 (6:16) Mister, missus. Maria Speaker 5 (6:19) is a garment worker in the U.S., one of not that many left. She's originally from Puebla, Mexico. Sweet potato city, she says. Proud. nodding her head and making a little fist to herself when she says it. Maria is only 73 years old, but she has the presence of both a much older, comforting grandma and somehow also like this easily delighted kid. She has those little grandma sandals on and a little white flower tucked behind her ear. Whenever Maria sees a flower, she picks it up, puts it in her hair. Speaker 6 (6:56) We've been doing this since you were a little girl. Speaker 5 (7:01) It makes her happy. A little flower in her hair. Maria has been in the U.S. almost 30 years, and she has done the exact same job the entire time. She's a trimmer at a garment factory in Los Angeles. Speaker 6 (7:18) Half Speaker 5 (7:18) of what is Speaker 6 (7:19) left of the garment manufacturing industry in the U.S. is in Los Angeles. Speaker 5 (7:25) And when I ask Maria what a trimmer does in a U.S. garment factory, Maria reaches for my shirt. She tucks her hand under the bottom of my shirt, at the hem, the back of her warm fingers, on my bare stomach, the way only a grandma can do. That was so cute. She taps all the places on my top where a piece of thread would be left behind when a hem or a seam or a stitch ends. The side of my stomach at the side seam, my shoulder where a sleeve was sewn on, the back of my neck where the tag was sewn on. And when she's tapping me like this, it feels like something my grandma's sister would do, actually. Like this blessing. Speaker 6 (8:15) And when I tell Maria, she Speaker 5 (8:16) looks at me like, I understand. Maria's job is to cut off all the leftover thread. That's what a trimmer does, all day, crouched