Blog post : The real reasons you need to buy American Made Clothing

The Real Reasons to Buy American:

With nearly everything we buy nowadays coming from places with cheap labor costs and poor living and working conditions, it’s only natural that the quality is not going to be that great. Large clothing brands participate by ordering garments by the hundred of thousands. These garments are then forced onto workers getting paid less than a dollar a day.

While the price in these garments made overseas might be considered “Cheap,” someone in another country is paying the high cost. When buying an American Made garment, you guarantee that the garment is being made by someone who is enjoying their craft and getting paid a living wage.

American workers making garments and clothing items that are made in the usa

BIG reasons you should buy American Made Clothing

Higher Quality:

Have you ever bought a shirt at the store and after a few uses it doesn't fit anymore? It's the absolute worst! Especially since you're wasting money. When buying an American garment you can guarantee that the item has been pre-shrunk so you don’t have to worry when you wash the item a few times. American Garments standards are also heavily regulated by the USA Federal Trade Commission which prohibits the usage of certain dyes and poor labor practices. When buying USA, you can guarantee that the Americans making these garments are choosing this as their profession. Unlike other countries with poor labor standards, these trained American workers are making more than a living wage. These workers are also working in a safe and professional environment guaranteed to help them make the best garments on the market.

Help the Environment:

When buying garments that are made overseas there is a lengthy process which involves shipping and packing the items. While it might not seem like much, this process burns significant fossil fuels and contributes largely to the greenhouse gases negatively affecting our planet. Over 80 Billion garments are made every single year. Instead of contributing to this problem in the environment, it’s important to be a part of the solution. Buy garments that you only need to buy once.

how to make the environment better is by making products in the usa because you save CO2 consumption

Reduce Fast Fashion:

Fast Fashion is a well know humanitarian issue and is actually right behind the oil industry when it comes to negative effects on the environment. With the fast fashion industry taking the world by storm, consumers are only buying more products to keep up with the latest fashion. Producing millions of items at a time almost always through exploitive, cheap labor and horrible environmental processes. When making garments in such vast quantities, a substantial amount of greenhouse gases rise into the atmosphere. Not only that but water sources are heavily contaminated and depleted. A staggering fact is that the fashion industry alone produces 10% of the world's global ( more than all international flight and maritime shipping combined ) carbon emissions and more than 20% of global wastewater.

Textile Dyeing & Water Contamination ( Part of Fast Fashion ) :

When often thinking about dyeing clothes, you often think about the vibrant and vivid colors or bleaching / softening being applied to the garment. However, textiles dyeing is the worst part of the fashion industry, and whatever dyes that weren’t used in the process are being dumped in lakes and rivers, damaging surrounding ecosystems and the environment. Right behind China, Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading garment exporter and ship their clothes throughout Europe and the United States. However, due to the fast fashion in the country, almost all of the waterways in Bangladesh are polluted and have been for many years. Local residents in Bangladesh state that the water is a “pitch-black color” and have “no more fish.”

The dyes don’t only effect the water, but the air quality as well. Another resident says that “if his kids visit they will get sick because of the chemicals.” The impact of these dyeing chemicals are terrible and destroy ecosystem biodiversity in many areas throughout the country. These dyeing chemicals are cause serious health impacts on humans and are often tied to many forms of cancer, skin problems, and gastrointestinal problems as well. When the water from these lakes and rivers are used to irrigate crops, these harsh chemicals get absorbed into the fruit and vegetables which can cause many problems to humans but the supply chain as well. In many of these countries, the workers often have no protection from these toxic dyes and are getting paid only pennies a day.

“People don’t have gloves or sandals, they’re barefoot, they don’t have masks, and they are working with dangerous chemicals or dyes in a congested area. They are like sweat factories,” Ridwanul Haque, chief executive of the Dhaka-based NGO Agroho, told CNN. While the public has pushed brands and governments to be better and clean up waterways, only some regions have some improvement in water quality. Water pollution still remains a devastating problem throughout the country.

3. Landfills & Waste ( Part of Fast Fashion ) : With consumer spending going up, fast fashion brands continue to spew out my trending clothing in much larger quantities but the quality is only getting worse. Often times, these garments rip and tear quite easily. Shortly after being made, these garments end up in a landfill or an incinerator. According to the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, a Garbage truck full of clothes is sent to a landfill or burned every second.

At Bamtech USA, we are leading the effort by pushing other brands to make their products locally which will reduce carbon emissions and help put an end to fast fashion. Investing in clothing you know is made with environmentally-friendly dyes using biodegradable materials is one step towards making the world a better place.