Engaged Consumer | Kelsey Timmerman

Let’s email Apple encouraging them to do better

By Kelsey

Mike Daisey’s visit to the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China where iPhones and Macs are made has sparked a national debate.

Are our precious Mac toys and tools made by child labor, by unhappy people who are paid poorly and treated even worse? Should you, should I toss iTunes to the wind and shout at the computer Gods, “I’ll never buy another Mac again.”?

My next phone will be…

As much as I’d like to take a stand, my next phone will be an iPhone and my next computer will be a Mac. What are the alternatives? All of our electronics are made under these conditions.

That said, what are the conditions? No one knows. Short of going to China and talking with workers, which Mike Daisey did and which I did, we only know what China wants us to know.

Unannounced 3rd party inspectors with teeth and companies and customers that actually care are the only way any of this will change.

There was a great piece in Washington Monthly by T.A. Frank titled, “Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector.” Frank a former factor inspector writes:

Now, anyone in the business knows that when inspections uncover safety violations or wage underpayment more than once or twice—let alone five times—it’s a sign that bigger problems are lurking beneath. Companies rarely get bamboozled about this sort of thing unless they want to.

Sometimes consumers prefer to be bamboozled too.

To really see what’s up with your iPhone check out its GoodGuide ranking. Scored on its environmental and social impact, the iPhone4 is ranked 69 of 498 phones. It scored a 5.2 of 10 in social impact. The highest ranked phone a Palm Pixl scored a 7 of 10 in social impact and that score was mostly earned by Palm’s avoidance of using conflict minerals in the phone. When it came to workers, Palm scored no higher than the iPhone.

I’m glad the debate is happening, but will it change anything.

What you can do today

Join me in emailing Apple at supplierresponsibility@apple.com. You can even copy and past my note below:

I’m a loyal Apple customer. I have an iPhone and a MacBook. I’ve been very disturbed by the recent reports of poor working conditions at the Foxconn factory in China where Apple products. As a forward thinking company, that always seems to know what its customers want before they know they want it, I encourage you to lead the way in ensuring that the workers who make your products are treated and paid fairly. This is something I want even more than a MacBook Air.

Thanks,

Kelsey

Engaged Consumer

Deckers responds

By Kelsey

If you’ve read my book, you know I had a less than magnificent experience working with Deckers (company that owns Teva, Simple, Uggs) in China. In the Spring of 2011 I stopped by their office near Santa Barbara, California, and dropped off a copy of Where Am I Wearing?

That started a dialog and I eventually asked them if they would like to make a statement to include in the new edition. I wasn’t able to include the entire statement, so I’m placing the it here:

Deckers Statement for Kelsey Timmerman’s book

We apologize for any difficulties that you encountered while researching your book. As you said, having a customer travel to a factory to see where their shoes are made is an unusual request that we hadn’t gotten before and didn’t respond as well as we could have.

Our Corporate Responsibility (CR) Program has come a long way since the first edition of Where Am I Wearing. Since 2007, we have created a CR department and hired a director to help manage our efforts towards minimizing our social and environmental impact. We’ve also increased our transparency by making our list of factories public, and creating a CR website where you can find information about various Deckers programs.

As for the focus of our program, we have organized our CR efforts into three main areas: fair and safe factories, environmental sustainability, and community engagement.

Fair and Safe Factories: We recognize our responsibility to ensure that working conditions in the factories are fair and safe for workers. In 2008, we launched our Ethical Supply Chain (ESC) program. This includes the Deckers Supplier Code of Conduct, which communicates our expectations for working conditions in the factories we partner with and also involves monitoring all of our key suppliers and factories at least once per year. The results of these audits are tracked through our supplier scorecard, and we use a corrective action plan with suppliers to address any issues that demand attention.

Environmental Sustainability: We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our operations and products, so we have launched a project to measure our environmental footprint in our offices, retail stores, distribution centers, transportation and logistics. We are also collaborating with the Outdoor Industry Association and have joined its Eco Working Group. This is a group of companies working together to develop a common tool for suppliers to address social and environmental issues around product design and manufacture.

Community Engagement: Our company is committed to supporting our communities, and we encourage our employees to do the same, which is why we created two company initiatives, Deckers Goods and Deckers Gives. Through Deckers Goods, we encourage our employees to volunteer in the community and donate to local charities through incentive and matching programs. And through Deckers Gives, we have donated over $2.4 million and over 220,000 pairs of shoes to charitable organizations since 2006.

Learn more about Deckers social responsibility & sustainability progams

Engaged Consumer

Where was your iPhone made? Probably here…

By Kelsey

60% of the world’s population has a mobile phone. All of the best phones — iPhones, Blackberries, probably the one you have — are made in at the Foxconn factory in China. Storyteller Mike Daisey visited Foxconn and talked with the workers. He shares his experience in the amazing essay above that was featured on This American Life.

Foxconn is the largest private employer in all of China. The company employs more than one million people. Half of them work at the Shenzhen factory. Foxconn and Apple received a lot of negative press after a rash of worker suicides – 17 total – in 2010 at the Shenzhen plant. Suicides became such a problem that the company put up nets to catch workers who were so depressed they’d rather jump to their death than go back to work.

The Chinese newspaper Southern Weekend sent reporter Liu Zhiyi undercover for 28 days into the factory in 2010. He wrote, “[The workers] actually envied those who could take a leave due to work injury.”

Engaged Consumer

The Kardashians accused of supporting sweatshops, I come to their defense

By Kelsey

kardashian-sweat-shop-post Star magazine reports (if that’s what you want to call what they do) that the clothing lines of Kourtney, Khloe, Kris, and Kim Kardashian are made in sweatshops in China!

Gasp! Oh, the horror!

And they seem like such fine well-grounded young women who would think less of themselves and more about issues such as global labor rights, don’t they?

Last month I watched my first and only episode of Kourtney & Kim Take New York — the latest version of their reality show. It was awful and of course I watched the entire thing – every petty fight, every naked yoga session, every marriage disintegrating in less than one NBA off-season. It was the mental equivalent of eating donuts for an hour, in that it was light, fluffy, and it took an hour off my lifespan.

So, I’m not one to jump to the defense of the Kardashians. But when you really look at these reports, the Karashian’s aren’t the one’s being challenged, manufacturing in China is.

In bed with bad people

Charles Kerneghan, the guy who made Kathie Lee cry on TV after revealing that her products were made by children, had this to say about the allegations:

“The Kardashians are in bed with some pretty bad people. Not only are celebrities like the Kardashians taking advantage of these workers, they are holding hands with a government that spits on democracy and women’s rights.”

Kerneghan told TMZ that he had never been to the factory that makes the Kardashian line, but that he had been investigating factories in China for years and he’s comfortable assuming the conditions are sweatshop-ish. He also said that STAR ran its story before he could fully investigate.

To recap: Kerneghan knows nothing at all specifically about the Kardashian line and the factory in which it is produced. But he does know China. Star sold a lot of magazine and made headlines on TV shows and in newspapers across the country with a report that says nothing more than that, in general, workers in China aren’t treated the best.

The China Price

The allegations include: workers earning less than $1 per day, having to ask permission to use the bathroom, factories ignoring government set labor laws. (note: nowhere does it say anything about child labor, yet that’s what’s in all of the headlines. Child labor is the sexiest of all the sweatshop allegations.) These are all things that are no surprise to me or anyone else that has any experience with Chinese manufacturing. Factories aren’t inspected by third parties. Workers aren’t educated about their rights. Unions are usually run by the government or the factory. When I was in China I met workers who worked more than 100 hours per week, workers who clocked out and then went back to work, workers who earned way less than $1 per hour.

If the ideal of communism is to create a workers’ paradise, China missed the mark a bit and created a factory owners’ paradise.

Before you get all up and arms about the Kardashians exploiting workers, look where your shoes were made or the computer or phone you are reading this on were made. China, right? Charles Kerneghan would make the same educated assumption about your shoes or computer as he did about the Kardashian line.

The Kardashians claim to know nothing about poor working conditions in the factories that make their clothes. I 100% believe them. It’s tough to know anything about factories in China.

Li Qiang the director of China Labor Watch said that the reality stars are turning a blind eye toward human rights abuses.

Show me a company producing in China or show me a consumer using made in China products and I’ll show you a whole lot of blind eyes.

In the world of blind eyes, we are all bedazzled by the China price.

Engaged Consumer

Patagonia on Cyber Monday: Don’t buy it!

By Kelsey

Are you up to your web cam in free shipping and buy-one-get-three offers this Cyber Monday?

Patagonia, one of the nation’s largest and most well-respected outdoor retailers, is asking us to pledge to “Think before we buy.” Gasp!

Cyber Monday, and the culture of consumption it reflects, puts the economy of natural systems that support all life firmly in the red. We’re now using the resources of one-and-a-half planets on our one and only planet.
Because Patagonia wants to be in business for a good long time – and leave a world inhabitable for our kids – we want to do the opposite of every other business today. We ask you to buy less and to reflect before you spend a dime on this jacket or anything else.

Don’t buy what you don’t need. Think twice before you buy anything.

Patagonia products are expensive. It’s often referred to as Patagucci, but there’s a reason for that. In a world of fast fashion that is worn today and worn out tomorrow, Patagonia doesn’t sacrifice quality. And if one of their products does wear out, they’ll replace it! I worked at a store that sold Patagonia’s products and they would repair or replace nearly anything.

Bear Attack damage your long underwear? No problem. Patagonia will take care of the damage, although the psychological damage may be irreparable.

In the long run, quality is cheaper. This is something that every Engaged Consumer should know.

I can’t think of a company that is more transparent than Patagonia when it comes to talking about the environmental and social impact that their products have on the world. I’ve never EVER heard of a company other than Patagonia admit anything like that it takes 135 liters of water – enough to meet the daily needs of 45 people – to make a single jacket.

I took the pledge and I hope you’ll do so too. Be sure to check out the Footprint Chronicles why you’re over there.

TAKE THE PLEDGE

Engaged Consumer

2 strangers, 6 years, and 1 moment

By Kelsey

Six years ago I met a worker outside of the Delta factory in Villanueva, Honduras, that changed my life. It wasn’t so much what he said or what happened when I met him, but all of the unanswered questions I had about his life and the life of other such workers around the world.

I met him shortly after I posed for the above photo in front of the factory he worked at in 2005. I’ve been in Honduras now for a week and the questions many of you who’ve read “Where Am I Wearing?” and/or heard me speak about Amilcar and all the other workers I met is, “Have you found Amilcar?”

Sort of.

What I can tell you right now is that I know that he didn’t remember me at first. It took some convincing. He doesn’tremember my name or much about me at all, but he does remember some crazy gringo showing up and giving him the shirt said crazy gringo was wearing.

I’ve always been ashamed that I gave him the shirt I was wearing and posed shirtless beside him. It’s something that I thought if I could go back I wouldn’t do. It aptly reflected the shallowness of my false start. But if it weren’t for the complete silliness of me giving him my T-shirt, he likely wouldn’t have remembered me at all and I wouldn’t have an amazing, AMAZING story to share with you in the near future.

What I find particularly interesting is that a moment that changed me was

barely even remembered by the person who I shared it with.

Have you ever had an experience that changed the course of your
life, but it left no impact on the lives of those whom you shared it with?

Here’s me six years later at the same factory.

Note in the 2nd photo that the Delta sign has been removed from the factory. I wonder if I had something to do with that?

Engaged Consumer, Travel

Japanese underwear helps you burn calories

By Kelsey

Sometimes I wish I lived in Japan. This is one of those times? When Will our underwear technology catch theirs? When will I be able to burn calories simply by wearing underwear that restrict my movement to such an extent that walking to get a Twinkie burns calories?

Behold, CalorieShaper underwear!

Engaged Consumer

A longer, harder, more spine-tingling….consumer conscience

By Kelsey

When Nick Gerlich and Kris Drumheller of West Texas A&M told me they wanted to do a research project on how Where Am I Wearing? influences readers, I must admit that I was a bit nervous. What if reading the book made no impact?

Well, the first round of numbers are in and Nick concludes, “at the end of the day, we are extremely satisfied with our findings, as should Mr. Timmerman. I think he accomplished what he set out to do.”

(Insert sigh of relief here.)

Nick goes in-depth on the details of the study on his blog. Here are the nuts and bolts:

939 people responded to their survey which measured consumer ethnocentrism. The lower the score on the CETSCALE the less ethnocentric the consumer.
Their theory was that reading the book would make consumers less ethnocentric.
Nick and Kris expected that political persuasion, race, and gender would perhaps overshadow any influence the book would have, but it turns out that having read the book majorly influenced CETSCALE scores.

Whether or not the person had read the book “was a significant predictor at all indicates that the book has the potential to raise awareness among readers. Furthermore, it demonstrates the value of a common reader program, and that it can effect awareness and change as well.”

There you have it folks. My book works. At least science says it does.

Win a Kindle Touch, take the survey

Nick and Kris would like for more people to take the survey. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read my book or not. You can take it here and when you do you’ll be entered to win a Kindle Touch!!!!

Engaged Consumer

Big News: The Adventure Continues

By Kelsey

I’m on a flight to Dallas and I hope to God know one asks me about the book I’m reading. Why? Because of all the millions of books I could be reading, I’m reading the only one I wrote. Of course, maybe if I cover up the author photo, laugh really loud now and again, and pepper in a few hmmm’s of interest, it would be good marketing.

“You’ve just gotta read this book! This dude named Kelsey goes to all of the places his clothes were made….”

But this isn’t why I’m reading my own book.

My publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has asked me to do an update and revision. When Richard my editor called me with the idea he asked, “Do you think you could do a revision? Have any ideas for new chapters?” Boy, did I.

Between you and me, I’ve always felt like “Where Am I Wearing?” was incomplete. I went to Honduras because my T-shirt was made there, met a worker named Amilcar, didn’t ask him the questions I wanted to, went home and it bugged me that I knew so little about Amilcar’s life and, for that matter, all of the lives of the people who make our clothes, so then I went to Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China. What about Honduras?

What about Amilcar?

Next week I’m heading to Honduras armed with an 8X10 photo of Amilcar taken nearly five years ago and the location of the factory he worked at. This time I intend to ask Amilcar the questions I wasn’t prepared and deep down really didn’t want to know. Does he have a family now? Does he remember me? Does he still work at the factory? Has the job made life better for him and his family? Does he still have the Tattoo T-shirt that I gave him? I have so many questions for him.

I also want to share with him how he changed my life – the way I see the world, the way I shop, the way I give, the way I volunteer, what I do for a living. I’ll tell him everything.

I’m anxious to find him, worried that I might fail, and excited to bring my “Where Am I Wearing?” journey full circle.

What’s new?

In addition to the new chapter which will cover my search for Amilcar, I’ll …

… share my experiences visiting the soleRebels factory in Ethiopia

… include end of section updates on Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China. I will try to get updates on the lives of the workers I met, but it hasn’t been easy keeping track of them. In some cases I might have to write a general update about how life for garment workers has changed in each country. The financial crisis and increase in food prices have made things even more difficult for workers around the world.

… a discussion / activity guide for classes and book clubs.

If you’ve read Where Am I Wearing? what would you change? What updates would you want me to include?

Living the journey

I can’t believe I’m still living the Where Am I Wearing journey and that I’ve been able to share the stories of the workers I’ve met on the level that I’ve been able to.

It has been and it is an absolute honor. Thank you all for being a part of it.

Engaged Consumer, This Writer’s Life, Travel

Win a Kindle Touch, join the WAIW Project survey

By Kelsey

Nick Gerlich and Kris Drumheller of West Texas A&M University are conducting a study to see how consumers view made-in-America and made-in-sweatshop products and whether or not reading Where Am I Wearing? impacts that view.

TAKE THE SURVEY NOW

The survey takes 10 minutes. If you haven’t read Where Am I Wearing?, you can still take it. A drawing will be held on November 30, 2011, and one person will win an Amazon Kindle Touch.

I’m eager to see the results.

TAKE IT NOW or I will curse you with a Kindle-Touchless life and an eternity of itchy underwear tags.

You can check out Nick and Kris’s other research projects at their site Media Buffs.

Engaged Consumer