Project Repat

Published in Next American City Magazine by Bill Bradley Planet Money’s Adam Davidson has a story...

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:57:00 -0400

Published in Next American City Magazine by Bill Bradley

Planet Money’s Adam Davidson has a story in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine about what he calls the “t-shirt phase.” Basically: Most rich countries go through an economic growth period where an excess of poor farmers work for low wages in unsafe textile factories.

Britain, Davidson notes, went through its t-shirt phase in the late 18th century. America has gone through two — New England in the 19th century and the South in the 20th. The t-shirt phase is ruled by a “race to the bottom,” where factory owners strive for the lowest price, achieved by hiring workers on the cheap. If your price is literally pennies cheaper than the opposition, you’re primed to cash in with big mass-market companies watching their bottom line.

“Pennies at wholesale,” Davidson writes, “become dollars at retail.”

When the t-shirt phase nears its end, factories and economies must switch gears and join the race to the top, which means hiring skilled workers to make more premium products. Bangladesh, where an eight-story apparel factory collapsed in April, is at the apex of the race to the bottom.

Davidson wonders if perhaps Bangladesh could be the last country to weather the t-shirt phase. As the largest apparel exporter in the world, he argues, it should be in a position to have factories paying fair wages and providing safe work spaces.

Which is something Nathan Rothstein and Ross Lohr are trying to accomplish here in the U.S. Working with textile workers based in mills around the country, their company, Project Repatturns your favorite old t-shirts into a blanket. The idea is to reuse goods and keep skilled workers employed. They’re also taking advantage of e-commerce in a developed economy — not everyone can afford the luxury of repurposing a surplus of t-shirts for a blanket — and making a specialized product with raw materials (your old high school track t-shirts) that are both cheap and abundant.

Yet it’s worth noting that Project Repat couldn’t exist without third world factories in the first place. The majority of those shirts were likely made offshore.

Project Repat just launched a new partnership with 99 Degrees Custom Manufacturing, a female-led company in Lawrence, Mass., a city with a long tradition of manufacturing. Brenna Nan Schneider, 99 Degrees’ founder, grew up in a manufacturing family in Pennsylvania and is trying to initiate a new model for today’s age that can produce livable wages for skilled workers. Rothstein and Project Repat are guaranteeing 99 Degrees a certain number of blanket orders a month and hoping that a Kickstarter campaign gives the company some stability in the early stages.

I’m not sure if we should call this part of a new race-to-the-top movement — the U.S. reached the end of its t-shirt phase a long time ago — but Rothstein’s intentions are sound. American manufacturing is lacking. And by paying fair wages to workers with a valuable skill set, it’s hopefully showing more companies that American textile manufacturing can still be a viable business model.

Dear supporters, We are very grateful for your support during our first year of business and...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:00 -0400

Dear supporters,

We are very grateful for your support during our first year of business and have really enjoyed the opportunity to make thousands of t-shirt blankets for you. We feel we know our customers really well, partly because we can see all that you and your family have accomplished through your t-shirts.

Now we are asking for your help. Like you and many other Americans, we are frustrated with all the textile manufacturing jobs that have left our country over the past twenty years, and all the big businesses that sit on their cash and don’t use it to help out other entrepreneurs. We knew we needed to take a stand, and help where we could, and now we are asking you to join us as we help create more fair wage textile jobs in the USA.

Our new production partner, 99 Degrees Custom Manufacturing is led by Brenna Schneider, who is creating a new model for a textile manufacturing business that not only empowers their workers, but creates a bridge to more advanced manufacturing skills and higher wages. To help her launch her business, we have guaranteed her a certain amount of blankets per month and loaned her money to help with start-up costs.

We are now using the kickstarter platform to launch new products that can give her business financial security.

Here’s how you can help

1. Buy a t-shirt onesie, computer case, tote or blanket made from your t-shirts on our kickstarter page

2. Share our kickstarter video with your friends

Thank you for all of your support,

-Nathan and Ross

Video

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:01:40 -0400

Published in GOOD We expect bosses to have the common sense to...

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:23:59 -0400

Published in GOOD

We expect bosses to have the common sense to create a safe working environment for their employees, especially when the sky is falling.

Unfortunately, this is not what happened in the most recent tragedy in Bangladesh. When garment workers—who happen to make clothes for some of the largest brands around the world (Wal-Mart included)—alerted their superiors to crumbling walls, they were told to keep working. A few hours later, more than 400 of them were killed. This comes only a year after Aminul Islam, a union organizer, was brutally murdered for his attempts to organize the textile industry workers.

These stitchers and sewers were making little more than $1 a day and some of the world’s largest brands were using their labor. The response from the global brands is to first deny they knew anything, saying, “This factory was a subcontractor,” then to admit guilt, and say, “We will work with regulators to best oversee our subcontractors.” As the world turns its attention to the next tragedy, the big brands hope consumers will lose interest, and stop sharing stories on Facebook and Twitter about Bangladesh. They are probably right. Most people will forget, and continue to buy cheap clothes, but we are missing the point—and the lesson—if the tragedies don’t force us to change our behavior.

In the book, The Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart’s Green Revolution, author Edward Humes outlined how Wal-Mart realized that their bottom line could be improved by being more green. For example: One slight change in reducing box size for their toy packages could save several million dollars each year. Since Wal-Mart has such tremendous spending power, they have influence over their suppliers, and they laid down the law. In turn, the manufacturers they were working with had to alter their way of doing things to appease Wal-Mart.

But that same fight for the improvement of their environmental footprint has not yet been translated to their economic footprint. Like many other major apparel companies, they are dropping the ball. A key component of being a better partner to the earth is also treating your workers with respect, which starts with better wages. If a place like Wal-Mart (which is incredibly profitable) starts paying their employees a decent wage, other companies will follow suit. If Wal-Mart calls for this to happen, it will. When workers feel empowered and have the dignity to make their own economic decisions because they have more money in their pockets, we have created more consumers, and also a healthier work environment.

While the debate drags on about more regulation, we should heed lessons from William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s new book, The Upcycle. They make the argument that we need to stop creating systems that need regulation. For example: the new toaster with a warning label that says, “This toaster should be turned on a few times and allowed to heat up fully to burn off the coating on the wires.” This label is broadcasting that this thing exists, but it would be best for the health of humans and planet if it did not. The fundamental premise is that instead of creating something that is already broken or can be harmful, we should be creating systems that function well from the beginning.

Why create working environments that need to be regulated? Since the early ’90s, when Nike was chastised for the awful conditions their shoes were made in, they have made serious efforts to regulate and hold their suppliers accountable.

Unfortunately, there are huge flaws in this model for retroactive change. In Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse happened, there are more than 100,000 factories, and only 18 regulators. While the brands preach accountability and set new standards after disasters, they can instead identify production partners from the beginning, like Alta Gracia in the Dominican Republic.

We can apply the same principles of the “upcycle” to building textile manufacturing environments that empower workers. There are places with these practices already in place, like Opportunity Threads in Morganton, NC and 99 Degrees Custom Manufacturing in Lawrence, MA, where workers are not just treated like cogs in the machine, but as active members of society that deserve both fair wages and the opportunity for upward mobility.

Just over 100 years ago in New York City, managers locked doors and prevented garment workers from escaping from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which killed more than 100 people. The result was a healthier working environment in the USA, with more regulations to prevent catastrophe. Maybe now is finally the time to address the root cause of the problem: let’s stop building bad textile manufacturing working environments. We have started to ask where our food comes from, and now we should know how the people making our clothes are treated.

http://www.good.is/posts/lessons-from-bangladesh-it-s-time-to-end-fast-fashion

All disney t-shirt blanket

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:33:27 -0400

All disney t-shirt blanket

Scenes from the Boston bombing memorial

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:27:56 -0400

Anybody have these t-shirts locked up in their closet? Time to...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:56:44 -0400

Anybody have these t-shirts locked up in their closet? Time to put them into your t-shirt blanket

26milesofawesome: Boston Marathon, 1939, via Boston Public...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:31:09 -0400

26milesofawesome:

Boston Marathon, 1939, via Boston Public Library

The Digital Public Library of America has some amazing photos of...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:19:12 -0400

The Digital Public Library of America has some amazing photos of the Everett Mills, where one of our production partners currently operates today.

Here’s a few facts about the magnitude of Lawrence’s economic output over 100 years ago

In 1900:

- Lawrence produced nearly 25% of all the woolen cloth in the U.S.
- 65% of manufacturing output, 67% of all the capital invested, and 66% of expenditures for material were from woolen mills.
- 52% of the city’s wages came from the woolen mills.

The city was also home to one of labor’s most important strikes, Bread and Roses, in 1912.

Read about the history of the strike here

On Monday, we are joining other businesses to support the Boston chapter of the American Red...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:42:44 -0400

On Monday, we are joining other businesses to support the Boston chapter of the American Red Cross. You can sign up to participate here

Repat named to the 'Best of the World' List

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:51:01 -0400

Today, Project Repat was named “Best for the World” for creating the most overall social and environmental impact. 67 companies worldwide were recognized by the nonprofit B Lab, with the release of the second annual ‘Best for the World’ list. The B Corp Best for the World List honors businesses that earned an overall score in the top 10% of all Certified B Corporationson the B Impact Assessment, a comprehensive assessment a company’s impact on its workers, community, and the environment.

A tribute to the Boston Marathon victims through Race tshirts

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:39:04 -0400

All around the country people have been sharing their race shirts via social media as an act of solidarity with the runners and fans who were at the Marathon yesterday. Here’s our tribute

Crescent City Classic

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:09:47 -0400

Crescent City Classic

Photo

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:08:14 -0400

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:17:46 -0400

My wife, who stands at the finish line regardless of the weather to cheer on each and every...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:50:22 -0400

My wife, who stands at the finish line regardless of the weather to cheer on each and every Marathon finisher and myself, wearing my Little Rock Marathon shirt. — Matt Henslee

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:45:05 -0400

Photo

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:46:07 -0400

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:38:39 -0400

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23raceshirt&src=tyah

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:36:16 -0400

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23raceshirt&src=tyah