I just attended the Human Rights Conference of Amnesty International. There I heard of case of Mahmoud Hussein who is a 19-year-old student in Egypt. He has been languishing in an Egyptian jail for wearing a “Nation Without Torture” t-shirt. He was arrested but not been charged or tried for any offences. He has been tortured and…
That sea of yellow is a crowd of Malaysian anti-corruption protesters. Their protests which feature the color yellow, in particular people wearing yellow t-shirts are growing increasingly powerful as reported by many news agencies. The shirts all say #Bersih4 and Bersih is Malaysian for “clean.” They are calling for clean elections since the head of…
Two quick points on this cover of this issue of ECOTEXTILE: 1. ECOTEXTILE is an excellent source for information on the sustainability end of the business. You can get headlines via email for free or subscribe for the full articles. 2. There lead article this month make a great point regarding sustainability, both environmental and labor claims…
A couple months ago I posted a warning about ship timing. Before the holidays carriers are covered up with Christmas gift deliveries. Well… the saga continues as the winter weather takes it’s toll on cities in the North. A week ago I fell victim to a horrible shipping error. We were shipping 3 pallets with $25,000…
Before the Sacramento Kings basketball game February 1, the players were wearing shirts celebrating Black History Month. However, in the stands they had about 20,000 shirts with monkeys on them. Not intentionally rude (as they celebrated the upcoming Chinese New Year on February 8th), but utterly clueless. You would have to be living in a…
It was announced by the Washington Business Journal this week that CustomInk bought Represent. Represent is about celebrities (and others) selling t-shirts to make money for charity. Their most well-known shirt being FUCK CANCER by some celebrity actor dude. Reportedly CustomInk paid $100 million for Represent which is owned by basketball star Kobe Bryant and other LA…
There is an interesting article at brandchannel.com about Dov Charney, now that he appears to be permanently ousted from the company he started, American Apparel. They report that an investment firm may back him in starting a new garment company. Their advice is basically don’t be bitter and grow up. Not bad advice I suppose…but…
The New York Times has reported that a bankruptcy judge in the American Apparel bankruptcy reorganization case has ruled out Dov Charney’s 11th hour appeal for a different plan and this will leave Señor Charney out of the company on all levels. The Times reported however, “The judge expressed sympathy for Mr. Charney. “I have no…
We are on the eve of attending our industry’s big show, ISS in Long Beach, CA this week. However, I was reminded this week that if you keep your eyes open, you can learn things from outside your industry almost as well as within. My pals at Iggy’s Bread always give me inspiration on how…
The New York Times this morning is reporting that American Apparel has filed for bankruptcy. It always is a scary word, this “bankruptcy,” but at least two big equipment manufacturers and one big garment company in our industry have gone through it and come out as very strong companies afterward. There really should different words, but instead…
