How do you avoid buying clothes made by child labourers or in sweat shops?

hey gang,

I would really like to start buying clothes that were made without the use of child labour or in sweat shops, but I don't know how to go about finding information on these brands.


So does anyone have any tips?
Or know of any brands to support or to boycott?


Thanks for your help

Riley

 

avoid Nike and read tags..if it is a totally 'hot' western style made in a third world country, especially one of the poorer ones-beware..
research and google,
peace
Delynasa

 

Learn to sew.

Or find the companies which have replaced their human workers with robot's (the rest went to china or other places with lax or non existant child labor laws)

 

learn to sew indeed, and then learn to weave your own fabrics, dye them etc. course, then youd need to spin your own threads and yarns, and for that you need some wool or to grow cotton or flax.

learn to upcycle thrift store finds, but in most cases unless you make it yourself you have to check each component to really KNOW it wasnt created in a sweat shop.

 

Yucca is also another excellent source of plant fiber, some varieties better than others of course. I could try and find some of the links on designs for simple looms.

I'm also finding that the fruit stalks as well as the flower stalks on the male Date Palm's are an excellent source of what appears to be a quite strong fiber, individual strands average over 2 feet in length so it already beat's Yucca in my mind for that simple reason.

Only hand pulled so far, but I'm thinking some sort of rolling mill might do in helping to split the fibers apart?? The fronds have plenty of fiber too but they dont really take to retting well so I'm quite happy with my find as having to grow a suitable patch of Spanish Dagger would just be far too time consuming i.m.h.o.

Hoping to also find some "Indian Hemp" which was also widely used by Native Americans for fiber, and not the illegal commercial variety (fucking industrialist bastards starting war's on plants in the name of profit and disguising it all in a facade of trying to save the public from their own hedonistic desires... fuck the corporate lobbyists and their armies of Federal goons and hit squads...)

But I digress,,,

I love google b.t.w., didn't find the links I had before, but a really neat site on textiles & how-to.
Google for joy of handspinning dot com.

 

On an afterthought I've decided to bring one very sad fact to mind.

In many places where child labor is allowed, the families really depend on the extra income as do the children as a means to simply survive. It's not like they work there for the great Pension plan's or the free coffee in the lunchroom from starbucks or anything, they simply need to eat and pay medical bills and most of these places dont have the same infrastructure as more developed nations to provide housing and food assistance to the poor.

So while it may seem to be the morally right and politically correct thing to do, just remember that you may just be helping to starve a small child to death somewhere in the 3rd world tonight.

 

It's really not that hard to make your own...?

 

Buy local from local artisans. Old ladies who sew, I've found some cool hats. Commission people on this site or elsewhere to make you some clothes. Dont shop at walmart and most importantly read the tag.

 

And if you don't have many local artisans about, try Etsy

 

But be sure to send some money to "Feed the Children" or some similar organization as you are essentially putting a family out of work in some 3rd world nation where they don't get government subsidies like food stamps or housing assistance.
Unless of course you feel good about making some poor little 5 year old Girl who used to have a job at the dress shop sewing go to bed hungry and homeless, then by all means carry on.

 

Buy local! That is, if you can. I'm lucky because sewing is really big here and there are a ton of local clothing stores that sell clothes made by local people.

One company that I can think of that I buy online is Xylem Clothing. It is based in Portland, OR and that is where the clothes are made. The internet is a good place to search for ethical clothing companies.

 

There are also some companies that employ people in developing countries, but pay them a better wage and it's not quite so much like slave labor. I can't think of any names, but I know that they are out there. Try a google search.

 

Yeah, and thrift stores are cool because it is basically recycling, you're not supporting the companies that employ children etc.

As far as supporting child labour for the sake of 'feeding hungry children' well if enough people protest and get proactive about it, boycotted companies will be forced to improve factory conditions...


However, people will buy products that use slave shops and child labour anyway, it's like becoming a vegetarian to stop slaughterhouses, the meat will be in the store anyway....but avoiding it is a step in the right direction.

 

Yea, I already buy clothes from thirfit shops, but how is that preventing child labour? I mean chances are you could find nike or any other big western brand at one, I suppose your getting more out of the clothing, but still...

 

yeah avoid nike, they blow dick - adidadose is chilllin. icy

 

So Adidas is good?

 

well it's recycling the clothing, so no money goes to support slave/child labour. it's like buying a guitar from a pawn shop , you k now u're not mutilating a tree for that guitar, the money to that corporation has already been made.... I would say to avoid buying even thrift nike and things like that...a lot of thrift stores are by commission anyway, so you're helping local people, and a local business.

 

I can dig the part about supporting local shops and recycling, but that still is not preventing the clothes from possibly being made by child labour in the first place if you get what im saying.

 

Well thats so cool to see you are all so anti child labor you're willing to let these children starve to death to prove it...

 

Totally makes sense man...i suppose thrift-shopping is just a better means of shopping if you have the option between that and buying those products new.