10 Custom Printed Consumatron.com Value T-Shirts from Cafepress

Item Purchased: 10 Custom Printed Consumatron.com Value T-Shirts from Cafepress
Location Purchased: Cafepress.com
Price: $89.90 + shipping ($8.99 ea.)

Review: The Good: Cafepress.com is probably the fastest online custom clothing/sticker/coffee mug/clock/bag/etc printer out there. Whether you are ordering one t-shirt with your picture on it or 100, the turnaround time for their services is usually less than a week. I wanted some T-shirts to give to the performers at the party next Sunday as well as some to offer up for raffle to benefit 826 Chicago. I ordered 10 shirts of varying sizes with the Consumatron fist and site address on them and what I received look fantastic and are comfortable to boot.

The Bad: As is typical of our modern society, I made a purchase without thinking of the global repercussions it carried with it. The majority of Cafepress.com's T-shirts are Hanes brand shirts. I bought these shirts because they were inexpensive and I am familiar with the great work Cafepress churns out. I also, however, know of the sweatshop labor in Haiti that is the spine of Hanes' business plan. When I realized these shirts were Hanes, I got an itchy dark feeling in my stomach. Cafepress does offer a few sweatshop-free American Apparel shirts for all of your custom printing needs. The prices of those shirts is substantially higher than the Hanes products (especially this "value" shirt). I acted upon price and deadline alone. I wanted shirts. I wanted them quick. I didn't want to pay too much for them.

The Moral Dilemma: Call me a bastard if you must. I may deserve it. After you get that out of your system, though, ask yourself how many of the things you buy on a daily basis are made in a sweatshop or by child labor somewhere across the globe. The coffee cup you drink your morning pick-me-up out of. The plastic wrap used to hold your locally grown organic muffin from the bakery down the street. The photocopied pamphlet that the local anarchist made on a copy machine that was made in a factory somewhere in China. I'm not justifying my actions. I'm not making excuses. I'm simply thinking about the horrible things that our everyday purchases help fund. Sweatshops are such an ingraned part of our society that even the most socially conscious of us don't think about it. I go to thrift shops and recycle posessions when I can, but I also think about these things. And I wonder how much boycotting Hanes would do to decrease sweatshop labor and improve the standard of living for the factory workers in Haiti. It is so easy to forget that our consumer habits sustain disgusting processes already fully in progress.

So I will speak out about these attrocities and admit when I have made a mistake, or even when I fall into the lazy modernity which will make me buy shirts like this again. I don't have the answers and, most of the time, even the most vocal activist doesn't either. But if the dialogue continues and works its way up to the top, maybe something will be done about these things. If we keep trying, and modify our actions little by little, maybe eventually, we will arrive at the world we want. We've got a long way to go and several collective cultural insecurities to get over before we can succeed. That much I know. And the more we dig, the more of these types of global activities will be uncovered... That I am sure of... Unfortunately.

Conflicted and regretfully yours,
Kevin

Rating: 2.5 / 5

(I've added American Apparel shirts to the Consumatron Cafepress store.)