Fast Fashion Is Ruining Merch

If you watched even a little bit of this video, you probably already know this, but we made some Climate Town t-shirts! And honestly, watch the video if you want to know more about them, but here’s the link if you might want to consider buying one (US/Canada shipping only): https://merch.climatetownproductions....

And wait there’s actually something we can do about this maybe? Our friends at Climate Changemakers have put together a playbook on how to advocate for better fashion industry regulation with your state legislators: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/f...

A big thank you to Ethix Merch, who guided us through this process, and also runs our merch store for us. If you want sustainable and ethical merch for your company or 5K, you should really check them out: https://ethixmerch.com/ Quick note on the envelope - due to emissions analysis, Ethix is currently using a 100% recycled plastic shipper rather than a recycled cardboard shipper (explained here on their website: https://www.ecoenclose.com/blog/paper.... We're moving to a waterproof paper shipper shortly.

And another big thank you to TS Designs (Eric, Lydia, and the whole team) for creating shirts we’re proud to have Climate Town printed on. If you’ve been printing Climate Town on other shirts, please stop. And if you’re looking for shirts that don’t bork the environment too hard, made by people who get paid a living wage, check out TS Designs: https://tsdesigns.com/

Oh and that beautiful art on the shirts? Both designs are made by Margalit Cutler, a fantastic artist whose work you can see on their website: https://www.margalitcutler.com/

Special thanks to Jillian Clark (Roboro) for helping us review this episode.

And another special thanks to Walking Softer for their support on this episode.

And also special thanks to 10 ft Single by Stella Dallas, for letting us film in their beautiful vintage clothing store.

And now here’s a short and incomplete list of places you could look at for help finding more sustainable and ethical clothing:

• SUAY (Los Angeles based, 100% vertical sewing and production shop): https://suayla.com/

• Solid State Clothing (direct to consumer from the TS Designs team): https://solidstate.clothing/

• Good on You (an app that tells you about clothing companies): https://goodonyou.eco/

Sources & Citations

Citations reference first appearance, without repeating for subsequent usage:

• CNN: Shein promised to tackle overwork. A new report claims 75-hour weeks are still common (2024)

• Vox: Your stuff is actually worse now (2023)

• The Wall Street Journal: The High Price of Fast Fashion (2019)

• EcoWatch: Landfill of Unused Fast Fashion Clothes Has Grown Large Enough to Be Seen From Space (2023)

• Space.com: High fashion! Mountain of discarded clothes in Chilean desert is visible from space (2023)

• The Saturday Evening Post: Ready-to-Waste: America’s Clothing Crisis (2018)

• Employee Benefits News: Time to rethink company swag: 40% of corporate gifts end up in landfills (2023)

• S&S Activewear: What's "Brand Fill" and How It Affects You and Your Client's Bottom Line (2021)

• The Guardian: I’m with the brand! How merch saved the music industry (2022)

• Music Gateway: How Much Does Spotify Pay Per Stream? (2023)

• Human Rights Watch: “Work Faster or Get Out”: Labor Rights Abuses in Cambodia’s Garment Industry (2015)

• Voice of America: Mass-Produced Clothing Causes Serious Air, Water Pollution Worldwide (2023)

• Reuters: Society Watch: Activists call for more transparency as fashion continues to fail on human rights (2023)

• The New York Times: Fashion Retailers Face Inquiry Over Suspected Ties to Forced Labor in China (2021)

• Reuters: Failure to lift 'exploitative' wages tests fashion firms’ commitment to human rights (2023)

• The New York Times: A Grim Anniversary for Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster (2023)

• CNBC: Clothing brands failing to eradicate forced labor risk in supply chains, research finds (2024)

• BBC: Shein suppliers' workers doing 75-hour week, finds probe (2021)

• World Economic Forum: This is how the fashion industry can reduce its carbon emissions (2020)

• European Parliament: The impact of textile production and waste on the environment (2020)

• United Nations: Act Now: Facts and Figures, Fashion (Accessed 2024)

• World Economic Forum: Our love of cheap clothing has a hidden cost – it’s time for a fashion revolution (2016)

• Financial Times: Fashion fails to factor in supply chain carbon (2021)

• Fast Company: Your T-shirt traveled 39,000 miles to get to you—and it’s killing the planet (2022)

• Associated Press: How Chinese retailers can offer Americans steep bargains on clothes and why that could change (2024)

• The New York Times: Where Textile Mills Thrived, Remnants Battle for Survival (2024)

• The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party: Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide: Interim Findings (2023)

• CNBC: How drought cost America’s cotton industry billions (2022)

• International Center for Agricultural Competitiveness: Global Cotton Outlook 2022/23 - 2031/32 (2022)

• Changing Markets Foundation: Synthetics Anonymous: Fashion Brands’ addiction to fossil fuels (2021)

• Changing Markets Foundation: Fossil Fashion: The hidden reliance of fast fashion on fossil fuels (2021)

• The Council of Fashion Designers of America: Fiber Guide: Polyester (Accessed 2024)

• Center for International Environmental Law: Fossil Fuels & Plastic (Accessed 2024)

• European Environment Agency: Microplastics from textiles: towards a circular economy for textiles in Europe (2022)

• Fast Company: Microplastics are full of toxic chemicals that are leaching into your skin (2024)

• Vox: Fashion has a misinformation problem. That’s bad for the environment. (2020)

• The Guardian: ‘It’s the industry’s dirty secret’: why fashion’s oversupply problem is an environmental disaster (2024)

• Grist: Burn After Wearing (2024)

• Follow the Money: Sustainable clothing brand Patagonia manufactures in the same factories as fast-fashion; textile workers are being exploited (2022)

• Patagonia: Living Wage (Accessed 2024)

• The Guardian: ‘We’ve lost the right to be pessimistic’: Patagonia treads fine line tackling climate crisis as for-profit company (2023)

• Bloomberg: Patagonia Is Cracking the Code on Endlessly Recyclable Wetsuits (2024)

• Yale Insights: What Can Other Companies Learn from Patagonia’s Model? (2023)

• Los Angeles Times: Behind a $13 shirt, a $6-an-hour worker (2017)

• Business Insider: Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and other brands were buying clothes from a 'sweatshop' that paid just $1.58 an hour — in California (2023)

• National Law Review: New York State Fashion Act Would Put Fashion Industry Under the Spotlight (2023)

• Fact Sheet: The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (Accessed 2024)

Episode Credits

Host, Head Writer, Editor: Rollie Williams

Executive Producers: Rollie Williams & Ben Boult & Matt Nelsen & Nicole Conlan

Writer: Matt Nelsen

Director: Matt Nelsen

Cinematographer: Ben Boult

Assistant Editor: Laura Conte

Production Assistants: Elias Benitez-Gadda, Juliana Toloza Serna

Map Animator: Torey Strahl

Intro Animator: Ian MK Cessna (https://ianhasawebsite.com/) 

Theme music by: Gratis (https://www.youtube.com/@gratis3241)

Special thanks: Andrew Dessler, Zeke Hausfather, & Amy Westervelt

Special thanks to the Civil Liberties Defense Center (https://cldc.org/) for their continued support.