Adidas resume selling "parts" of its Kanye West-branded footwear inventory

[beschizza]

Originally published at: Adidas resume selling "parts" of its Kanye West-branded footwear inventory | Boing Boing

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[vonbobo]

Capitalism!

[Medievalist]

@beschizza

Apparently the obvious “donate it to the needy” is no longer a thing–the world has a surplus and clothing donations are unnecessary.

Not just unnecessary - activists and governments in sub-Saharan Africa claim feel-good donations of clothing are wiping out indigenous textile and garment industries, causing increased poverty and dependency and exacerbating social unrest.
Which makes sense to me, but I confess I’d never thought about it until I heard an angry African man say donated western T-shirts had destroyed his entire extended family’s livelihood.

[anon85524460]

Sounds weird but makes sense when I think about it. Fast Fashion donations are basically donating garbage quality clothing and overwhelming the local markets which likely have higher quality gear. It’s doing it for far less, so it’s basically destroying the livelihood, sucking money out of a community, and replacing essentials with cheaply made garbage that will require continued replacement.

And now there’s no local textiles to replace it with, because the garbage fast fashion has obliterated that market.

[gtmac]

@Medievalist

and governments in sub-Saharan Africa claim feel-good donations of clothing are wiping out indigenous textile and garment industries, causing increased poverty and dependency and exacerbating social unrest.

US Sports Leagues regularly, through “charities”, both destroy local industry and culture, and provide them alternative, if irrelevant, facts.

https://good360.org/blog-posts/what-happens-to-those-championship-t-shirts-for-the-super-bowls-losing-team/#:~:text=But%20the%20attire%20isn’t,it%20on%20anyone%20in%20America.

[Mister44]

Shirts designed in Europe, made in Asia, shipped to America (and elsewhere), unsold and boxed up and either sold to a discount seller, and/or donated or thrown away, shipped half way around the world again. An international endeavor that goes literally around the world, crossing two oceans and traveling thousands of miles or road… It is such a waste.

@Medievalist

are wiping out indigenous textile and garment industries, causing increased poverty and dependency and exacerbating social unrest.

I’ve heard something similar about local farmers vs food donations. It is one reason why there are people advocating to donate money vs things.

I believe it was Killer Mike I saw talking about how there were a lot of black owned business that suffered after segregation was made illegal. Many of their smaller shops and services that served the black community either got bought up or undercut by the larger companies that now was open to everyone.

There are often unintended consequences when fixing messed up situations/systems.

ETA - with clothing, can they just be shredded and then recycled into new thread? I am guessing having it be a poly blend the answer would be no. Or that once the cotton fibers are wound into thread, you can’t really be made back into a fluff that can be turned back into a thread.

[VeronicaConnor]

So they’re selling the inventory to recoup their losses and woke-washing it. Great. Stay classy, Adidas.

[anon87143080]

Plenty of assholes out there still willing to buy it I guess.

At least they’ll be easy to spot with their fuck-ugly footwear.

[Medievalist]

All fabrics can be recycled, composted, or used as fuel, I think? But plasticky stuffs made from the leftover petroleum fractions from gasoline production aren’t going to be cost-effective to recycle under modern capitalist regimes. I’ve seen a machine that turns any shredded plastic back into oil, but it costs far more to run the process than to just buy new plastic or oil.