The T-Shirt is western in its conception and design, and its production utilizes machinery developed according to the blueprints of western science and engineering, but it has become a staple in the wardrobes of men and women in every country in the world. But its relationship to global consumption cannot be fully comprehended without understanding the phenomenon of outsourcing, which is among most consequential economic dimensions of globalisation. Outsourcing entails a relocation of labour to Second and Third World countries by Western ‘manufacturers’ – an appellation which seems redundant because the goods they sell are in fact ‘manufactured’ thousands of miles away - in order to drive down the costs they incur in getting finished products to their consumer public. The production of garments was the among the first industrial sectors to undergo this eastward migration. The raw materials required to make T-shirts are shipped from the United States to countries like China and Bangladesh - where trade unions are suppressed, hours are long and factory wages low – from here cotton is processed into T-shirts which are shipped all over the world. There is clearly an extensive global network of exchange underpinning the manufacture and distribution of the T-shirt, but this network is not calculated to benefit each of its constituent parts in equal measure. The value chain associated with the T-shirt sees its most significant leaps in value in the countries where T-shirts are consumed rather than in countries like China and Bangladesh where they are made. A report by O’Rourke Group partners in 2011 found that an average polo-shirt costs a Canadian consumer $14, but costs less than half that price to actually make. Furthermore, the Bangladeshi workers who create it only receive 12 cents from its sale. The lion’s share goes to retailers, often headquartered in the First World. Inequality should decline as countries enter the global market, according to some theories surrounding globalisation which have it that the globalisation is a good thing because it increases the GDP of Third World countries. Whilst this is true, the journey of a T-shirt illustrates that globalisation has not yet become a synonym for ‘equalisation’, that the effects of globalisation are by no means homogenous, and that many of its functions are still construed to benefit certain parts of the globe over others.
Sources:
https://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/what-does-that-14-shirt-really-cost/