What is the REAL "True Cost" of your Clothing

             What goes on behind the scenes to your clothes? Do you think a machine does all the work for you? Do think humans do all the work for you? Do you think it's both humans and machines? Or humans, machines, and the enviroment? The answer is humans, machines, and the enviroment. A lot of history is in your clothing. On Tuesday, July 21, 2015, Profit for Progress watched a movie called "True Cost." This movie could change the way you think of your clothes, what you buy, and how you think of fashion forever.

           Now you're probably wondering really what goes on behind the scenes of your clothes? Depending on where your clothes are made, donated clothes are then shiped to (example) China. Then they rip off all the buttons or zippers. They spin the cloth into thread with a machine then made into clothes from there. The cloth making is made by humans though. Under paid garment workers. Threatened and beaten up.

          Not too long ago, the Rana Plaza fell down. An eight story building killing hundrends of people. A factory where are clothes are made in Bangladesh. The day before the accident, a pilar cracked in the building. The workers complaind and the manager just threatened them that if they didn't keep working the next day, he wouldn't pay them for their hard work. So, they kept working. And, over 1000 people died the next day. Families crying to see if there loved ones had survived the tradgedy.

       There were riots of garment workers of a pay raise. But the police wouldn't budge. They need to be paid too. Unfortunetly, a man was beaten to death and suffured at night. Something needs to be done about this. But nothing is. Also, most of are clothing waste is going to waste. Like scraps. And the pollution in the air and the waste from the factories that flow in the water. People have no choice but to drink the water. They get cancer, could lead to birth defects, and more. This is harm to the enviroment and humans.

         What are the wadges of these people? It varies from $0.01 a day- $172 a day. Can they support their family? Can they afford food and shelter? Do you think they should be paid fairly? No matter what your answer is, at least  you are consious of this world problem. But still, think about it.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                           by Allena

Yesterday on 7/27/15 we made fake pitches about companies to our class. Each group of 3 or 4 people got companies to pitch to the class. The classmates graded the students presenting on a sheet of paper. This was a cool experience because we got to learn about different companies and we got to learn about how it feels to pitch a product or company. The first time we pitched, our group pitched about a product called Piña. Piña is a product the used pineapple, leaf fibers to use for clothing. We did a good job, but we did not win the prize. Our second pitch our group got assigned 4 companies The Peace Treaty, TS Designs, Outerknown and Space Between. I got assigned Outerknown, Outerknown is a cool company that was founded just a few weeks ago by Kelly Slater. Though the company just launched, it took them 28 months to make all of their designs the way they wanted to. This company is very sustainable, all of their shirts were made from 100% organic Pima cotton. All of their boardshorts reused fish nets and plastic bottles. I enjoyed talking about this company because I could relate to it. The process of finding out about this company was easy, their site was simple and was very detailed. It was easy to answer the questions on the paper becuase the company because I could relate to it. Here's what we had to answer to help us formulate our pitches:

Vision:

1) What is the mission statement of this company?

2) Is this company focused on any of the important issues within the fashion industry that you have studied? Is it a social enterprise? Explain.

Tangible Results:

1) Do you like the products the company is selling? Why or why not?

2) Do you think the products themselves reflect the company’s stated values? Why or why not?

3) What is the Price Range? Do you think these are fair prices? Why or why not?

4) Can you tell what are the current scope and scale of the company and its impact? i.e. How many people and products are involved?

Strategy:

1) What is the role of the customer?

2) Describe the company’s business model?

Impression:

1) How do you feel after exploring the company’s website? Do you trust this company?

2) Is the website informative? Explain

3) Write at least 5 Key Words or phrases you feel this company uses to identify itself.

4) Google the company - do you find any reports contradicting the company’s mission? Read at least one non-company provided report or review. Does this report support your findings about the company?

5) What questions do you have for this company?

6) Is there anything you think the company could improve on?

We watched a few clips of Shark Tank and Unreasonable Institute and we have a few positive and negative thoughts about each of the shows. First of all, our positive thoughts about Shark Tank are it's entertaining and it shows the good and bad examples of good social entreprenership. The entertaining part about shark tank is the pitches and the comments that the sharks give the pitchers. Our negative thoughts about Shark Tank are that the sharks only care about the money, instead of the enviroment/community. For example, in one episode a guy told the sharks that he wanted money to give to charity, but the sharks never even asked about the charity. Sometimes, either the sharks and/or the pitchers can be rude or mean. For example, a pitcher told a shark that the shark doesn't know anything about the t-shirt business because the shark always wears suits. Our positive thoughts about Unreasonable Institute are that they show great examples of helping people and the enviroment. In particular, there was a woman who saw polluted air in China, so she created a solar stove and it helped the people in China. Our negative thoughts about Unreasonable Institute is that it isn't very entertaining because even though the talks are very important, it's harder to pay attention compared to Shark Tank. So you see, there are positives and negatives for these shows, but the one that is probably better is Unreasonable Institute, while it may not be as entertaining, it is more educational.