Most items of clothing have complicated international journeys

Related: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;series&#x2F;248799434&#x2F;planet-moneys-t-shirt-project" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;series&#x2F;248799434&#x2F;planet-moneys-t-shirt-pr...</a><p>NPR&#x27;s Planet Money podcast created a T-shirt and attempted to follow it every step of it&#x27;s economic journey. An interesting look into the gears and cogs of global manufacturing of an everyday object.<p>Also related: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;money&#x2F;2016&#x2F;08&#x2F;26&#x2F;491342091&#x2F;planet-money-buys-oil" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.npr.org&#x2F;sections&#x2F;money&#x2F;2016&#x2F;08&#x2F;26&#x2F;491342091&#x2F;plane...</a><p>Planet Money buys a barrel of crude oil and follows its journey through the various actors and entities in between pumping it out of the ground and selling it as a final product.

I remember reading The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy (1) for an undergrad class about globalization - a light, quick read but one that stuck with me through college and post-graduation. Highly recommended.<p>The narrative follows the lifecycle of a t-shirt, from the farming of cotton in the southern US, to China where the shirts are created, back to the US for sale, and ultimately to Africa after donation.<p>1) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Travels-T-Shirt-Global-Economy-Economist&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0471648493" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Travels-T-Shirt-Global-Economy-Econom...</a>

The song &quot;Are My Hands Clean?&quot; from the 1980s, by Sweet Honey in the Rock, covers this exact subject. It traces the path of the materials used to make a cheap blouse you can buy at Sears from fields to the store. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=2Vv60O2mk10" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=2Vv60O2mk10</a>

For a moment, I was really wondering how clothing can complicate international travel (border guards taking offense at your clothing?!). Then I realized the ambiguous grammar...

Start a small market site for local (for some value of &quot;local&quot;) clothing production that maintains provenance and estimates footprint for all the articles.

All that shipping around must completely offset the gains of the sustainable alternative to cotton.. though i guess it would do the same journey even with cotton.