Consume Carefully: Jeans, Part II

I'll bet you think I forgot to hunt for a new pair of jeans. Well, I've been taking time to do some research, and have been admittedly pretty busy. But first, my official response from the earlier note I sent Levi's about their jeans and sourcing:

Hi A.C.,

Lilia here from Levi's(R). Thanks for checking in with us.

Levi Strauss & Co. is an international company with offices and production facilities all over the world, including the USA. In order to remain competitive and ensure that consumers receive the best value, we do manufacture many of our products offshore. All of our manufacturing facilities worldwide comply with high quality production standards and sourcing guidelines.

For more information on our global sourcing guidelines, please check out our Social Responsibility and Sourcing Guidelines at our corporate website at www.LeviStrauss.com.

Thanks again,

Lilia
Levi Strauss & Co.
Consumer Relations

My hunch is that this is probably some kind of doublespeak. It's only natural that Levi's would want to make themselves look responsible by directing me to their guidelines--something the average consumer is unlikely to take the time to read. I'm quite suspicious of policies that are non-governmentally enforced, and Harper's Magazine gave me some good reason to back up that suspicion. Please read Ken Silverstein's excellent investigative piece.

I also got a friendly reminder from careful consumption sage Reverend Billy, who was quick to point out that by not shopping for used clothes, I'm entering an economy that's by nature less sustainable, responsible, humane, and possibly a rip-off in the long run. To be continued...

photo by photos8.com

Consume Carefully: A.C. buys a pair of jeans...maybe.

Though I regard this blog as a place to talk about religion, it's important to remember the reasons for religious beliefs and underlying practices which make us good humanists, Christians, Hindus, or otherwise. In that vein I submit the following:

Every once in a while I have to shop for clothes. It's a process I despise thoroughly because, more than my food-eating habits, it's something that I feel puts a lot of weight on my conscience. When you go to Wal-Mart or Target, it's pretty rare to pause to think about the hands that put together your $5/3 pair socks. But you should.

Long story short, sometime soon I want to buy some jeans. I want them to be kind of nice and don't mind paying a couple of extra bucks this time. That means (probably) buying new instead of going to a thrift store, which I do more often than buying new clothes. I seem to remember Levi's as a brand you could trust to be decent and non-exploitative of their workers, domestic or foreign. And what could be more American than a USA-made pair of jeans, produced by well compensated and satisfied factory workers? But I shop so rarely, I couldn't remember whether Levi's actually checked out.

So I sent their customer service department the following email:

I'd like to buy a pair of jeans in good conscience. Can you help me out by telling me who makes your jeans, domestic or imported, and what kind of labor standards Levis are made in accordance with? Do you subcontract with independent producers or do you directly supervise the production of your clothes? Where are they made?

I'm expecting a pretty standard response, assuring me that there are no sweatshops or other worker exploitation. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to do some checking of other kinds before taking Levi's word about. I'll post the company's response when I get it. And before I buy, I'll be telling you about what I'm reading on the company's history with sweatshops.

*P.S. If you're looking for some really good reading on this topic, I suggest you look to Naomi Klein's classic investigation of manufacturing and branding, No Logo.