Patagonia T-shirt
It's made out of 4.8 plastic bottles and .26 pounds of fabric scrap. Should we be obsessing over pima cotton? Does it make a difference? The drape of the t-shirt is just a fashion trend as well.
The free trade certified sewing is any shirt that gets made in a free trade shop (certain conditions have to be met to qualify) earns a premium for the workers who are actually sewing the shirts. It was bare minimum a 2 week salary payout however the workers wanted it. I realize Patagonia is likely doing the bare minimum in order to qualify for the Free Trade Certificate and it's great for marketing. I can only imagine the margin on a t-shirt made out of plastic bottles and fabric scrap that they are charging $35 for.
I guess I have found myself in a little bit of a clothing of the future fascination. I am maybe rethinking a lot of what I thought to be true. This doesn't mean I should go out and buy a bunch of Patagonia clothing. Certainly not. I already have more than enough clothing and this is after rounds and rounds of minimizing. My goal is to never buy a piece of clothing ever again.
My grandmother was a bit of a gipsy. Extremely poor living in the projects of England. Her family could not afford clothing so they would go to the local Goodwill. She found a dress that she really loved. She wore it to the first day of school and got mercilessly bullied because it was one of her classmates dresses. My grandmother had no other choices so she continued to get bullied the whole year. We could change that.
Clothes are this signifier of status.
Yeezy T-shirt
What the fuck?
Speaking of margin..... $120 for a cotton t-shirt.
If he started giving this stuff away to poor kids in Chicago that would be pretty awesome. I think what he wants to do is get the price point down so the middle class can afford it so he can make billions and was just talking shit. I don't know how many times I have heard this from some executive or even mid-level managers, "Oh, well, we just have to get our profitability at x before we can do ...." *Profit gets to x* "Oh, well, we just have to get our profitability to x before we can do ..........."
So, we have to figure out our own ways. Waiting on neoliberals to change neoliberalism is like waiting for godot. I think if we can just start on those 3 things: shelter, food, clothing we can make a change. Although, maybe not. It is a complex problem. I think Denmark has done some great work in general but especially with their co-op housing over there. That is a start. Food there is a number of things that can be done. Clothing I just hashed out some things that were in my brain. I am really interested though. What do you think clothing will look like in the future? Especially, if we can push towards a more anarchistic socialist culture. Maybe we go to Montana and start a commune. I know architects, designers, carpenters, electricians, etc. Or, maybe we inhabit an already existing small artsy, hippie kind of town.
There was guy on another forum I used to post at that was like the ultimate capitalist. He was $10 million+ freeroll rich from sports betting and investing. Some of his rules were:
- Live alone. At least a 2 bedroom apartment in the city center
- Clothes should be the most expensive you can buy. Go into debt if you have to. It makes that much of a difference.
- Women will think less of you if you don't have a filet mignon with expensive wine
His rules are actually probably great for the successful capitalist. I remember he also used to say:
- Continue to increase spending with your capitalist trajectory. Basically, always be spending and that will give one the motivation to increase earnings and then you have to do well at that earnings because you have gotten used to the increased spending. Basically, rinse and repeat until you hit the peter principle.
I think I had to live through it to get to where I am today. I was not made for a capitalist society. It gives me more motivation to figure out how to live in this world and how to change it so people like me can be a little bit more mentally healthy and happy. There are many worse off than I surely. That is the point.
I made $10k last year and I am not doing so bad. I do feel a calm, a clear conscience, a serene soul. It's nice not being in a rush all of the time. The thing is though my shelter is free, a lot of my meals are provided by my parents, and I already have more than enough clothing. I'm bad off but I am not that bad off. To be honest, of course I would prefer a 2 bedroom apartment in the city center but that is not realistic. I don't want to slave at a job I don't like just to live in a coop housing situation necessarily either. Meh, I guess it just comes down to finding something not too unpleasant that gets me close'ish to a living wage and not succumbing to the achievement-subject way of life. |