Welcome to the newest regular, irregular feature here at the Adventures of an Engaged Consumer. Each Wednesday I’m going to select an item of clothing that I’m wearing and see what I can learn about the brand and country that produce it with a few clicks of the mouse.

The point here is that anyone can take 5 minutes to learn about their clothes or other items they purchase. 

I’m sure the posts will evolve over time, but, for now, here’s the methodology.

1) Link to the brands corporate code of conduct, if they have one, and list what’s good about it and what’s not-so good about it.

2) Google “(brand’s name) + sweatshop” and see if any red flags popup.

3) Google “garment industry + (country of origin)” to see what the latest news is in the industry.

4) Give basic country facts: per capita income, unemployment rate, etc.

Feel free to suggest changes or additions to the methodology.

So, without further ado, let’s give it a go.

Today I’m wearing a pair of North Face cargo shorts Made in Bangladesh.

There aren't many in Central Indiana wearing shorts today; it's a dreary 18-degrees.  But coming off of a long winter, bearing my legs cheers me up.  I'm trying to fool myself that summer is here.

North Face is owned by the VF Corporation, the world's largest apparel company. It took several clicks to find this out and several more to locate their code of conduct and compliance materials. VF also owns North Face, Reef, Lee, Rustler, Nautica, and many brands.  Overall, this stuff wasn't burried on their site which was nice to see.

1) Corporate responsibility

The good –

The VF Corporation has the standard code of compliance.

Provide info on their auditing procedures (13 pages, PDF) and global compliance report (40 pages, PDF).  Although ther comliance report is from 2005. Weird.

Audit Procedure – “Nothing can be done even a sample until a factory inspection has taken place. Will be done by an accredited auditing company. Conduct an annual review.”

“Due to political, environmental, and human rights issues there are certain countries
that are deemed unacceptable for the manufacture of VF products. This is a
continually changing situation, so the VF compliance office maintains an updated
listing.”

Works with Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production

Hires Verite to train factories on compliance.

The not-so good–

Don’t reveal factory locations.

Only two of their brands – Lee and JanSport – who work with the FLA reveal their factory locations. They do because they sell to colleges. This shows the strength of the Sweatfree movement on college campuses.

Brags that average score of their owned/operated factories is 96% compliant, but the factories are graded on their own grading scale.

2) Negative press –

Humanitynews.net complains about the purchase of North Face uniforms for their police force : “Some police uniforms come from Horace Small and North Face, affiliates of the largest apparel corporation on the globe, VF Corporation. They don’t list factory locations, but Horace Small participates in W.R.A.P., a non-profit monitoring contractor. (Other affiliates of VF Corp., such as Nautica, are known to have sweatshops in Myanmar, which is a military dictatorship.)”

3) Made in Bangladesh in the news

From the Daily Star 3/25/09

"BGMEA leaders yesterday sought assistance from the government to check labour unrest that they fear will flare up in the coming months.

Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) leaders fear many garment factories would be shut in the near future and factory owners would not be able to pay wages to workers on time due to decreasing exports caused by the global financial meltdown."

4) Bangladesh Facts

Per capita income – $1,400. Considering that the workers I met in Bangladesh earned between $30-$70 a month, this # shows that per capita income isn’t that useful when looking at how much garment workers actually get paid in a particular country.

Unemployment – 2.5%. This seems pretty good until you consider…

Population below poverty – 45%

That's where I am wearing today, how about you?