What drives me crazy is that it's nearly impossible to buy good quality clothes. More money normally just buys more pretentious logos on the same cheap clothes.
(Not very) Supreme. More-ripped Levis for twice the price. Designer labels on incredibly thin and delicate clothes not made for repeated wearing or washing or tumble drying or anything but static display. These are a few of my least favourite things. That and the mall dumpsters, plus obligatory destruction photos. Tell me again how capital is lifting all the boats. It's a tide of garbage, isn't it?
Seriously!! Like where do you even get a fitting breathable casual shirt these days. I scour second hand stores every few weeks because I've given up on big stores, and even there it's so difficult to find good fabric
Hard to find clothes even made of 100% natural materials anymore. Most of the time I go to second hand shores instead because I can find better quality there for 1/4 the price. Thankfully I have pretty common sizes so its not too difficult for me.
i find ralph lauren polo is pretty nice stuff in general. i won't say it's worth the retail price or anything, but they make some super comfy nice shirts
I'll be honest I do not think it will pass. Like at all. It's too good of a policy and I would not be surprised if there were lobbying efforts to retract or fuck up the bill.
@@faxmine expect the worst but hope for the best. we won't know until it happens and if the default answer to something that's truly good is apathy not constant pressure, then it all will be a self fulfilling prophecy
The joke about getting AI to generate your art for the shirt reminded me: AI models are actually also seriously bad for the environment, with the amount of water they consume for cooling their computers, which incidentally also consume a ton of electricity and take up very large amounts of space in the form of data centers! Would love to see a video on that from you guys.
I used to work at a printing company here in the U.S. - on the side of the process where we don't use slave labor. We were the ones that put the graphics on the shirts we shipped in from china. Within the three years I worked there, the entire customer service department was fired for fraud/sleeping with each other (their positions were left unfilled to save costs), a coworker was murdered at work by another coworker, and I can only start to explain the corrupt behavior of the owner and the racism toward our out-of-country contractors who were paid a fraction of our own low wages. All of the companies in the region that say they make shirts - those shirts were really made by us. All of those t-shirt companies were really just middle men. And this was the second printing company I worked for. The first one paid even less for even more work, and this was before they laid off most of the company when Trump put tariffs on chinese imports, because the business relied so heavily on junk that cost pennies to get. The whole industry is disgusting and they do a lot to obfuscate it. If you order a t-shirt with a custom graphic on it for yourself or a business, it goes through at least five middle men that has way more human cost than anyone should feel comfortable with.
We were literally required to remove any branding from all communications for our customers, so our customers could just forward our communications to their customers, to forward onto THEIR customers, and pass the communications off as their own. There were points at which I just contacted our customer's customer's customer directly to figure out what they wanted us to make. The amount of wasted money and time and effort is disgusting by itself, not even counting the other stuff.
@@nicksurfs1 I have not encountered a union or unionization effort at any of the printing companies I've worked for or any companies I worked with while in the industry.
I'm also not wearing any plastic. Most of my clothes are cotton, as are all that I'm currently wearing. Some of my summer clothes are linen or bamboo, but only rarely do I buy clothes made from non-plant materials such as wool or plastic.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the sports team championship merch waste. When a team wins the Superbowl (or some other important game) thousands of hats and t-shirts appear with the winner's logos on it while the confetti still rains down on the crowd. Which means they printed winning merch for BOTH TEAMS and the losing team's merch goes straight to the landfill. Thousands of units, with the sole purpose of becoming garbage. Unreal.
@@closethockeyfan5284 Meanwhile, all those impoverished people in Africa are impoverished because they lost their jobs making clothing because that "donated" crap is undercutting their prices.
@@julietardos5044 Are really that many people making clothes in underdeveloped countries. I get it with agriculture products as many people work on farms in poorer societies and our subsidised farm products absolutely wreck the local farmers but clothes?
A local festival event used to do screen printing on top of a shirt that you'd bring. They'd still pay the ppl for the design, and for the labour of doing the printing, and bring home some extra cash, and memorialize the event on a shirt of our own choosing. Win-win all around!
I wish events would do this more. Especially since I tend to cut up and customize my tshirts anyway. I would have way more of an attachment to a shirt if it was printed in front of my eyes!
I live in a wealthy area and routinely browse the selection at Goodwill, there are routinely brand new jeans, north-face jackets, suits all there for like $10
Love the detail of you standing next to the "Brown Building" where Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took place. While talking about terrible working conditions of merch manufacturing. Keep up the great work you're doing!
Unfortunately alot of the clothes made now are essentially designed to self destruct within that time. Either the fabric will develop holes and tear or they purposely pick a bad thread which wont hold up. You get more life out of them by not using a drier and a few other things but yeah. Meanwhile clothes from some years back can only now be falling apart but my grandmother has things from when I was born or older (as well as her old clothes and my moms that are mine now) that pretty much look the same as when they were bought and held up fantastically. Its another benifit from thrifting or buying second hand. Much of the older stuff you find is going to be of better quaulity then what you would buy new.
I feel like one of the best ways to make merch have a longer lifespan is having it not super explicitly branded. Like just a vaguely themed design that passes as just a cool tee shirt. That way even if the owner doesn’t watch the RUclipsr anymore it’s still a cool tee. And then if it ends up in a thrift store someone who doesn’t know it’s merch will just think it looks nice and wear it unknowingly
i used to run around in weird US-Merch. Look at poorer countries, noone actually cares about the branding, it just needs to do its job properly :D (which new clothing just does not)
@@MannIchFindKeinNameQuite the opposite, less developed countries are the ones making and wearing bootleg clothes because "status". Branding is everything sadly
This is something I always said to anybody making merch The most important feature is that it needs to be "universal" No inside jokes, heavy branding or obscure references. Think of it like this, if I'm wearing a shirt of a RUclipsr's face that says "Bazinga" the most interaction I'll have with the shirt is "that's not Sheldon" and I don't really care to spend hours upon hours of my life explaining to every single person that comments on it who Rollie is. Sure people don't really stop you to talk about your shirt as often as you think, but it is one of those things were it will convince you not to wear it over a different shirt. "Main Stream" merch works because even if I don't like Kiss, I'm aware of it enough to go "ahh I see" I have a merch shirt from a streamer my girlfriend really likes that says "Skill Issue Dayo" and I can wear that everywhere, and it's easier to explain "oh it's a japanese word that means something is super friendly" than it is with the one of a picture of a VTuber on it and go "Yeah so, do you know what Anime is? Well this is a VTuber, do you know what THAT is? Well this is a Twitch streamer, do you know what Twitch is?" The explanation for that is nested several layers deep in context that makes it frustrating to explain. Do you ever ACTUALLY have to explain it? Not really, but that potential does cause people to choose not to wear it and even decide to throw it away. Merch from anything that isn't super main stream needs to have secondary meaning that is _more_ universal, otherwise it's ending up in a landfill when the honeymoon period is over.
*A MESSAGE FROM A BESPOKE TAILOR* please buy second hand...!!! All my clients buy second hand, they buy vintage, they have garments made bespoke - and they have them altered to FIT, thats the key to looking good - GET YOUR CLOTHES ALTERED TO FIT Buy second hand, uses the money saved to have them altered to fit and KEEP THEM UNTILL THEY WEAR THROUGH
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 Oh OK - First of all, total credit for admitting you don't know and asking - that is a skill that will help you a lot in life...!! Bespoke means its made totally custom for you...! So If you came to me for a suit, I would take every measurement of your body, look at how you stand, how you walk, any unevenness in your body. Then we would discuss what you want, I actually make historical suits 1890 to 1940, but within that range, you can choose anything you want, we will choose the fabric and it will be made by hand, mostly hand-stitched, then there will be a fitting to make sure I have got it right and then I will finish it. It will be the only one in the world and it will be what you want down to the colour of the buttons. I will also tell yo what NOT to buy, things that will go out of fashion, fabrics that wont lost a long time, etc etc If you put on weight there is additional fabric hidden inside so you can have it altered to make it bigger up to about 4 inches 100mm It takes me about 150 to 250 hours and will cost you about €5,000 on the other hand it will last you 25 to 50 years of regular wear
Rollie’s suit looks like it’s been altered to fit very snuggly in all the right places. If I was watching this on anything bigger than my phone I’m pretty sure I’d be able to say whether he’s cut or uncut. Not complaining.
One of the worst things about clothes being garbage is that finding quality clothes is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive as they're increasingly rare and limited compared to the volume of junk. It's equally frustrating when quality clothes have plastics mixed into them so it's impossible to even find clothes made of pure wool, cotton, silk, etc. Of course I still try, and thrift stores are among the best for cheap and quality clothes made of natural fibers, but it's still really difficult to get good quality clothing.
Yes! Even $100+ “wool” coats that look promising will sometimes only contain 3% wool in them. I’m broke but I don’t want to buy crap clothing or furniture. It feels impossible, so I just started repairing what I currently own. My flannels get stitched up, and my leather jacket went into a leather repair shop for patches to repair the giant tear my cat made in it in favor of buying a new one. If I’m lucky I’ll get another decade out of it.
Uniqlo, Jack & Jones, Regatta, Marco Polo, Ben Sherman and Matinique have shirts that are 100% cotton and will last 10 years. The latter three are more expensive than the first three, but the quality is about the same. Try to avoid prints because they are plastic and will wear off quickly.
@@Kikkerv11 100% cotton tshirts are really easy to find. Getting pants and long sleeve shirts that are 100% natural fibers is becoming nearly impossible without it being extremely expensive. Especially when considering wool or silk fibers. Since those are arguably my favorites for how they deal with extremely cold or warm temps. Cotton just kinda sucks for dealing with both cold and hot weather. I've also never seen anything made out of pure hemp or linen, but then I haven't really seen that many clothes that contained any amount of those materials. Though recently I found a pretty dope pant manufacturer (named seedpants google it the link doesn't seem to be allowed) that's local to where I live. They use 55% hemp and 41% cotton to make their pants, but the remaining 4% is spandex. Otherwise they seem pretty cool and the sort of company this community would be interested in supporting... though at 243 dollars is very high for a pair of pants.
@@Kikkerv11 100% cotton tshirts are really easy to find. Getting pants and long sleeve shirts that are 100% natural fibers is becoming nearly impossible without it being extremely expensive. Especially when considering wool or silk fibers. Since those are arguably my favorites for how they deal with extremely cold or warm temps. Cotton just kinda sucks for dealing with both cold and hot weather. I've also never seen anything made out of pure hemp or linen, but then I haven't really seen that many clothes that contained any amount of those materials. Though recently I found a pretty dope pant manufacturer (named seedpants google it the link doesn't seem to be allowed) that's local to where I live. They use 55% hemp and 41% cotton to make their pants, but the remaining 4% is spandex. Otherwise they seem pretty cool and the sort of company this community would be interested in supporting... though 243 bucks is a lot for a pair of pants. Posting this comment like 3 times since it seems auto deleted every other time. I hate automated filters.
@@Kikkerv11100% cotton tshirts are really easy to find. Getting pants and long sleeve shirts that are 100% natural fibers is becoming nearly impossible without it being extremely costly. Especially when considering wool or silk fibers. Since those are arguably my favorites for how they deal with extremely cold or warm temps. Cotton just kinda sucks for dealing with both cold and hot weather. I've also never seen anything made out of pure hemp or linen, but then I haven't really seen that many clothes that contained any amount of those materials. Though recently I found a pretty awesome pant manufacturer (named seedpants google it the link doesn't seem to be allowed) that's local to where I live. They use 55% hemp and 41% cotton to make their pants, but the remaining 4% is spandex. Otherwise they seem pretty cool and the sort of company worth supporting... but 243 bucks is a lot for a pair of pants. Posting this comment like 4 times since it seems auto removed every other time. I hate automated filters.
Many years ago, a friend got married and requested the guests to donate their old band shirts, which she sewed into a massive train on her gown. Practical AND unique AND it saved a lot of shirts from the landfill.
Only worn 7 times? Any clothes I have that have only been worn 7 times would be considered my "good" going out clothes. I'm in my 40s and still have some threadbare t-shirts from high school.
@@caocaoholdingaplushie6022 Yup they're moved into the what I like to call 'painting pile' aka if I'm doing painting or anything like that I'll wear those clothes and after that they get moved to the 'rag' pile.
This is why I started Midnight Scout. I’m still broke and have a longgg way to go. But eventually I want to not only have factories in the U.S to produce the fabric, create the shirts AND print the designs. But I also want to promote unions under me. As of right now I’m one person with close friends helping me out for free. But I plan to grow to a massive scale
@@klisterklister2367@ klisterklister2367 It's an average, but most people actually would wear a shirt more times than that. Average is just the number in the middle, not necessarily the number of times most people would wear a shirt before discarding. It's the people throwing out their shirts after wearing it only a few times that are bringing down the average.
i think the cheap, awful company swag shirts probably pull the average down. i know im probably never again wearing the shirt of the company that laid me off despite saying i was doing good...
@@peggedyourdad9560 yeah, it makes sense that people throwing away fast, use a lot more of them, and thus bring the average down a lot, would be interesting to have the average number of times a tshirt is worn by person (so yes, it's an average per person, then average of the values over all the persons, probably a lot harder to collect the data).
My purportedly very environmentalist wife divorced me in no small part because I want to make my clothing last. She said I should update my wardrobe every year. 😐😐😐
Fast fashion will always remain a mystery to me. Even if it wasn't so detrimental for the environment and the people forced into modern slavery, why would I willingly want to go shopping every few weeks just to buy things I don't even want to wear? Just screams brainless consumerism. To clarify, my problem is less with the cheap price of clothing but rather the disposability some people treat them with. Even the cheapest T-Shirt should last you at least a year or two before it's worn out, letalone things like jeans or jackets.
and another reason is fomo. If your social status is connected to how much you can keep up with the latest trends, then you feel like you have to buy those things to not go down the ladder. There is always an understandable reason for it.
@@eleonarcrimson858 but I have the feeling it's always a 2nd rate social status... the real elite doesn't bother with that nonsense, sure they will sometimes (or often) wear expensive clothes, but they don't care if it's 7 seasons old because they focus on timeless classic styles much more. This goes so far that when I see somebody in expensive brand clothing I now automatically assume they are low class people
Fast? As far as i'm concerned, the fashion has not changed one bit in 30 years! 😆 I'm iiiinnnn.... (my tshirts tend to become unwearable after a few years though, at least i let go of my habit of aliexpress designs, they are cool, but many don't last long at all…)
Every time I learn about overproduction, I am reminded that when economists say capitalism is “efficient,” they define “efficiency” as “producing the most profit,” not, like, actual absence of waste.
It's actually amazing how mind-numbingly wasteful the most profitable practises are for some god-forsaken reason. Well of course I know the reason is capitalism, but still, way too many people actually believe that idealistic crap they put out or think "eh, doesn't hurt me"... Food industry has loads of examples too. One of them is the laws about weight ranges (if you're selling a package that says 100g the contents need to be in a specific range close to that weight to be legal), in principle they're preventing the producers from cheating the customers with their labelling. In practise they do accomplish that but the producers will also very often just throw away any packages that failed to make the weight range because it's cheaper than selling them as another kind of product, packaging them again in the right weight, or it's impossible to repackage. I also know of a particular brand salted licorice candy crush which is made by crushing said candy and then sieving out the undesired sizes. Not surprising, until you find out that the company has decided that the right size of crush is only 30% of the total and the rest goes straight to garbage.
i remember when i went back to Chennai (capital of Tamilnadu) and there's a nearby village where they make most of the t-shirts in the world and there are stores in Chennai that sell "defective" designer tshirts from the sweatshop for like ₹1000 (which is like $20), when they retail for $800, usually in like the basement of silk sari stores lol
Suggestion for climate friendly merch from a diy musician: me and my friends often design our own blockprints/screen prints and then print on clothes donated or from the goodwill bins. Takes a bit of work but the material cost is next to nothing and ppl who like ur music have the opportunity to get a totally unique piece of merch that they are more likely to wear because it isnt just a stock t shirt. Obviously this wont work for everyone and is hard to scale but i wish i saw more ppl doing it. Ive also seen musicians selling cigarettes with the band name printed on them, jewelry and accessories that they designed and made themselves, pins, collages. Lots of climate friendly pptions
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 in an alternative living project in my city we have screen printing events like 2 times a year, there are always some small bands or projects making their own merch, and you can get your hands on the equipment also outside of those times :D
There are definitely some solid built clothing though the specific combination of good ethics, environmental responsibility, sturdy construction, and quality control is very tough to find in one neat package.
My stepdad works for waste management. He collects trash for commercial stores and he constantly picks up perfectly good products from stores. He once had to take over 100 brand new wheelbarrows from home depot straight to the landfill, its happened with video games, flower bulbs, anything you can think of. He loves his job but hes told me it makes him really angry sometimes. And legally hes not allowed to take anything even tho its going to the landfill
I am always amazed to see so many people in my city wearing completely new styles of clothing every few months. The amount of resources we waste on fast fashion must be insane.
@@scoobydoobers23 Oh, I am. :D A few years ago I decided that I just want to wear what makes me feel comfortable and cosy, since then I always walk around in hiking pants/shorts and hoodies/tshirts, because that combination is comfortable and incredibly durable.
Holy shit, i just got an ad for Nordstrom rack imnediately after you mentioned how you can get a 100 dollar shirt from someone who makes less than a living wage lol
Got one for my daughter and myself! She used your videos for her middle school research project (she was blown away by how many liters of water go into a pair of jeans). Love the podcast, love the videos!
I have shirts I just threw away this year that I bought in 2004. What finally made me do it is looking at myself in the mirror and realizing I could see my nipple hair. Yikes. Probably should have ditched them a couple years earlier. Sorry, everyone.
I actually used to be a merch guy for a touring band. The one thing about a small band with a dedicated following is that those fans do wear those shirts....till they're falling apart. So they would come back to buy a replacement shirt on a future tour. I only buy shirts when I see a live show or visit a national park. And they do get worn. Still have a few from the early 00s as well, though they're getting a tad ragged.
I remember buying clothes from charity shops in my late teens, one piece in particular, a men's navy pinstripe blazer, cost me around £0.50. The days of those prices have gone for good.
Rollie, I just absolutely love you and what you stand for. I knew you from Rollie Williams the pool channel, but my thoughts on climate issues also totally align. Keep doing what you do!
In college at 19, I read a book in a class Intro to Political Economy called “Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” by Pietra Rivoli and it led to a personal revelation. Now at 27, I have bought/swapped all my clothes 2nd hand ever since. So glad y’all got the merch without compromising any morals, Congrats! 🎉
My mom is just now having damage to a sofa we bought when I was in high school and I was horrified to realize the couch is now 24 years old. But surprised it lasted so long with so much use. Then I realized the sofa we were replacing back then is one I still have…and has no damage yet! The furniture I’ve bought in the last 15 years has already fallen apart.
@@Emiliapocalypse Whenever I think some piece of furniture lasted quite long, I remember that my grandparents have some furniture that's well over 150 years old and still in good shape. 🥲
@@juulian1306 yep! My mom has real antiques also. It’s incredible how beautiful and resilient the old pieces of furniture can be. The craftsmanship of days gone by really is a work of art
Free merch from 30 years ago was better than expensive stuff today. I have gotten free t shirts at events in 1998 that I still wear today that are perfectly fine. I bought premium shirts from Threadless in the 2005 range and they have a few small flaw today and are still worn. Anything I have bought in the last decade has completely fallen apart on me within a year. Often not surviving a couple of months despite costing way more.
That's a reasonable approximation, but my experimental set of 72 event-branded T-shirts all worn at least 100 times is of highly variable quality, and it's not very well age-correlated. I have a few T-shirts from the early 90's that were clearly pretty crappy, and some from the last decade that seem quite good (I can be more accurate about the newer ones in another decade :-)
I've had brand new Hanes t shirts shred in the washing machine the first time they were ever washed. Hanes 10 years ago made the comfort soft line and I've worn all of those shirts hundreds of times now and they still hold up even when they get super thin from being washed dozens of times.
I think one of the biggest problems we have now is that wages have fallen so far relative to the cost of living that many people really cant afford to pay a fair price for things anymore
Very true, though I also think we are currently unnaturally used to getting a ton of very cheap stuff, which was only cheap because of this borderline slave labor, and with inflation that is less and less the case because other domestic products, education, and housing are becoming way more expensive even though the cost of a t shirt is still low.
What else did you expect globalization to do? Poor people on the other side of the globe who can live off of 3 cents a day are just as capable of basic manual labor as we are.
@@far2ez considering I wasn't even born when globalization started, I didn't really think it would do anything, I've only ever lived with it's consequences
@far2ez I figured globalization would cause the American worker to be paid less because poor people would be getting paid more, but it turns out 99% of all people are just getting paid less, and 1% benefit. That’s not what I thought would happen and it sucks for most everyone.
Two years ago I saved up for 6 months in order to buy one sweater. It was 100% wool and every step of production was done in Ireland. From the sheep herding to sowing on the tags and shipping it over. The quality is superb, it cost a lot of money so it took some effort to be able to afford it. But it is still my favorite sweater! The whole story of this sweater makes it meaningful to me. And luckily it still looks like it's brand new, because I take good care of it. My main regret is that it is very hard to find clothes like that... but you are right, it is worth the effort to invest in the companies that are doing things right or are solidly heading in the right direction.
It was your video on fast fashion that made me want to stop buying fast fashion. Since then, I've prioritized responsible manufacturers and used clothing. I've had to replace a lot of my clothes because of weight loss and my clothes just being old and not representative of me anymore, and the new stuff I have is mainly from the local thrift store, with my new pairs of shorts from Poshmark, and a few shirts from a company in Toronto. I'm also a musician, not in a position to make merch at the moment, but I had also decided that I didn't want to make merch because I didn't want to contribute to the problem. Should the day ever come where there's a demand, I now have an option to consider thanks to this video. Thanks for everything you do!
As someone who lives in and has grown up in NC, i feel proud of the company you mentioned! I had never heard of them Before but im glad to know about them now!
Subtitles for Deaf/HoH climate fans would be nice ! Love your work, as a small artist and sewing enthusiast I have a pile of branded new shirts that I got dumpster diving (I find so much clothes) and I think I will sew patterned fabric on top of the branding.
It's not just clothing, unfortunately. I am a reseller and spend large amounts of time at thrift stores, including the "last chance, last stop before the landfill" variety of thrift stores. The sheer amount of unused products, stuff still in packaging, with tags, is truly astounding. Even worse is the huge quantity of made-to-be-garbage stuff, usually seasonal or trendy home decor items and crappy toys. It is depressing.
Some are borderline a scam. I got a pair of shirts some months ago, and I swear I only wore each like 4 times, and one got some holes on the neck from rubbing, and the other started making those annoying yarn ball things from washing. They were cheap, but that is unacceptable. If you can't do them any better at that price, just don't make them.
Several years ago I worked at a thrift store, I will never forget the day someone came through with an entire minivan full of the cheapest, shittiest, thinnest plastic "toys" I've ever seen. They were relatively large dollhouses and similar toys, but the plastic was seemingly under a millimeter thick and they would shatter into pieces if you looked at them wrong. Manufactured to be thrown away.
About 10 years ago I decided I would only buy used clothes from now on. But when I needed new shoes and new underwear, I was like okay I’ll only buy them if they are from an ethical company. I don’t want forced labour or child labour or sweat shops. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to find ways to know how a company operate so I was like ok I’ll only buy stuff made in the US or Canada. Imagine my surprise when I learned that even if something is stamped with a “Made in USA” mark, it still can be slave labour! I didn’t know about prison labour at all. I ended up buying Patagonia boots :( I’m trying to knit my own clothes but it’s going really slowly. So far I have one tank top, one cardigan and a few pairs of socks.
For shirts and underwear Bombas. They are not the best at sustainability but they are definitely higher quality and longer lasting. Plus they donate the equivalent item you buy from them to homeless shelters where they're desperately needed. I don't know much about shoes but I know Vapor95 has them and they're made to order which is the antithesis to fast fashion. I can also attest Vapor95 is 100% ethical and pays their workers a fair wage. Good luck on your search. I am seriously considering starting a men's sustainable fashion company.
Same here, but don't feel too bad about not getting it right all the time -- it can be difficult to research, especially as even the slave drivers have pages shouting about their amazing ethics. But at least you're trying! And that "Good On You" website/app that is linked to in the description is just superb.
Absolutely incredible work as always. I've been hearing complaints from creators about how difficult it is to find even semi ethical suppliers for merch. Thanks again for this excellent video 👏👏👏👏
Tried what? Speed running how to destroy itself? I'm convinced the great cosmological filter is just intelligent civilisations making their planet inhabitable before they develop interstellar capabilities. Heck the dark forest, we are plenty capable of destroying ourselves, thank you. But yes, please let's do our best. We still have a chance
Clothing became a problem basically as soon as it stopped being a very local cottage industry. The triangle shirtwaist fire happened when clothing was made domestically.
I'm currently wearing a 10+ year old shirt that's outlasted every single one of the print on demand merch shirts I've been gifted or purchased over the past 5 years.
I have t-shirts that are worn regularly and are over 25 years old. Bands that no one remembers. And when a shirt gets too roadworn, it becomes a cleaning rag.
Thank you for offering a white colored shirt option. Been doing more yardwork lately and I admire white fabric when I'm gardening and in the sun. The price is steep but I really have admired your channel over the years and I love it's made in America. Brilliant work.
I'm watching this while cutting up old tees to sew into a t-shirt rug. I read the stat about clothes only being worn an average of seven times and it made a huge impact on me, so now when I'm shopping (usually second hand), I always ask myself if I'd really wear something more than seven times. If no, it goes back on the rack. I would not wear a Climate Town shirt that often, so I'm passing on the merch, but I really appreciate the work you and these companies put into ethics!
It's wild to me that you even have to ask that question. I bought like 6 plain black T-shirts like 6 years ago or so and that's practically all I have worn since. I will replace them when they are no longer presentable and I will likely do so with another order of plain black T-shirts which will hopefully last another decade before I need to do so again. I can't imagine even considering a purchase that I expected to wear less than 50 times. I purchase everything I own with the optimism that it will last me my entire life, but the pragmatism that it may let me down and need to be replaced. I would absolutely not purchase something that I knew upfront I would not want for my entire life.
I have a shirt made in my country (Armenia), sewing company called Melante. It is one of the best shirts I have had, wore it 14 years and still looks like new
My Mom made my Dad some shirts when they got married, because most of his closet was T-shirts, and he was working a government job. She made him retire the last one of those as a rag 3 years ago. 40 years isn't bad for a shirt.
RUclips just showed me a Shein advert on this video. Just think how many views of that advert were utterly wasted on people watching this video. Superb work.
Business idea: Make a channel that only has videos about brands - like in "repeat the brand name in generic sentences". Invite everyone who hates that brand and fast fashion and so on stuff to let the video run in the background. Laugh about all the ad money that those companies are losing.
I took off my shirt mid-video to investigate its backstory. Tag-less, 100% cotton shirt; though it was made in Honduras (which is not where I live, though closer than 90% of countries and even closer than some parts of my own country). I have also worn it well over seven times just since the beginning of this year and have owned it for about three years.
I try to buy ALL (minus socks & underwear) my clothes second hand. Oh and Temupoo was my advertisement. Thanks google. And thank you climate town for keeping it f**king real.
Just love how much effort you put into finding a sustainable t-shirt without giving up! I'm struggling each time I have to buy new, almost always buy seccond hand instead. But you really want to aid the ones that actually try to produce in a slow fashion way. Too bad I'm located in Sweden, would otherwise buy a shirt!
Its cool to see companies like tsdesigns try and do clothing sustainably. Here in the UK there's a similar company Rapanui, thats doing a similar thing with circular clothing made from 100% cotton. Granted not quite as sustainable as cotton doesn't really grow here. But its the next best thing at least, that I've been able to find locally.
Love this topic. I hate cheap merch/swag. Stop making trash. A quote I heard long time ago: The original meaning of materialism means a love of things, meaning people treasure the things they own they try to maintain it, repair it, keep it as long as possible. Now, the meaning of materialism means consume consume consume.
what i find amazing is that you have never done a video on the ecological impact of war, which given the current state of world affairs is more than timely. i hope you will consider doing such. thanks for listening. and great work.
I'm always surprised by how much clothing people buy. I easily buy less than 5 articles of clothing per year, many years none at all, and I still feel I already have too many clothes.
When I saw you posted a new video I instinctively said out loud "Oh god, I love this motherf****er, nice" and immediately clicked it 😂 Fantastic video so far, just like every video you make! 😊 👍
Thank you so so much for making these videos. I'm usually aware of many of the issues that you cover, but I am so grateful that you cover these topics in depth and always follow-up with what we can do about it. It's hard to bring up these issues in my friend groups or at work because people don't like knowing how bad the world really is, sadly. I hope your amazingly funny videos reach a lot of people. Such good quality in research and flow in the comedic delivery. THANK YOU.
I've been enjoying your stuff ever since you were just starting out with your old pool channel, Rollie. Really brilliant work on growing this channel to what it is now, I really admire what you're doing.
For a moment I thought there was a Rollie pool cleaner arc or something with videos on how much chlorine to put in your pool but then I realized you meant like billiards pool
I literally had a Bazinga shirt and then I fell out of love with Big Bang Theory and stopped wearing it and then donated it. This video is a personal attack on me lol.
What drives me crazy is that it's nearly impossible to buy good quality clothes. More money normally just buys more pretentious logos on the same cheap clothes.
(Not very) Supreme. More-ripped Levis for twice the price. Designer labels on incredibly thin and delicate clothes not made for repeated wearing or washing or tumble drying or anything but static display. These are a few of my least favourite things. That and the mall dumpsters, plus obligatory destruction photos. Tell me again how capital is lifting all the boats. It's a tide of garbage, isn't it?
Seriously!! Like where do you even get a fitting breathable casual shirt these days. I scour second hand stores every few weeks because I've given up on big stores, and even there it's so difficult to find good fabric
I find that shirts made in Nicaragua are like the best quality to comfort ratio
Hard to find clothes even made of 100% natural materials anymore. Most of the time I go to second hand shores instead because I can find better quality there for 1/4 the price. Thankfully I have pretty common sizes so its not too difficult for me.
i find ralph lauren polo is pretty nice stuff in general. i won't say it's worth the retail price or anything, but they make some super comfy nice shirts
I hope that if the Fashion Act passes they create a dedicated enforcement agency for it and call it the Fashion Police.
The Fashion Police of Gotham City with Police Chief Gim Jordon and anti-hero Wruce Bayne
They would still be bastards.
😂
I'll be honest I do not think it will pass. Like at all. It's too good of a policy and I would not be surprised if there were lobbying efforts to retract or fuck up the bill.
@@faxmine expect the worst but hope for the best. we won't know until it happens and if the default answer to something that's truly good is apathy not constant pressure, then it all will be a self fulfilling prophecy
"i dont normally like puns". Dude, if they asked me to draw someone who i would expect to like puns, it would be a caricature of you
No puns in climate town.
@@ClimateTown Sure man
The joke about getting AI to generate your art for the shirt reminded me: AI models are actually also seriously bad for the environment, with the amount of water they consume for cooling their computers, which incidentally also consume a ton of electricity and take up very large amounts of space in the form of data centers! Would love to see a video on that from you guys.
Thank You!
I used to work at a printing company here in the U.S. - on the side of the process where we don't use slave labor. We were the ones that put the graphics on the shirts we shipped in from china. Within the three years I worked there, the entire customer service department was fired for fraud/sleeping with each other (their positions were left unfilled to save costs), a coworker was murdered at work by another coworker, and I can only start to explain the corrupt behavior of the owner and the racism toward our out-of-country contractors who were paid a fraction of our own low wages. All of the companies in the region that say they make shirts - those shirts were really made by us. All of those t-shirt companies were really just middle men.
And this was the second printing company I worked for. The first one paid even less for even more work, and this was before they laid off most of the company when Trump put tariffs on chinese imports, because the business relied so heavily on junk that cost pennies to get.
The whole industry is disgusting and they do a lot to obfuscate it. If you order a t-shirt with a custom graphic on it for yourself or a business, it goes through at least five middle men that has way more human cost than anyone should feel comfortable with.
We were literally required to remove any branding from all communications for our customers, so our customers could just forward our communications to their customers, to forward onto THEIR customers, and pass the communications off as their own. There were points at which I just contacted our customer's customer's customer directly to figure out what they wanted us to make. The amount of wasted money and time and effort is disgusting by itself, not even counting the other stuff.
You're both describing unbridled Capitalism. It's what everyone thinks is the best part about America. It's only going to get much worse.
I know the printing industry is unionized. Does this help at all or simply shift human cost elsewhere?
@@nicksurfs1 I have not encountered a union or unionization effort at any of the printing companies I've worked for or any companies I worked with while in the industry.
Fun reading about your experience with Trump tariffs here in December 2024. I'm sure it'll be f--
Jokes on you. I'm not wearing any plastic. I always watch these videos completely naked.
Are you the real Chris Pontius?
and its not entirely because of the planet...
Unfortunately we're past the point that humans wear plastic; now the plastic wears you.
I'm also not wearing any plastic. Most of my clothes are cotton, as are all that I'm currently wearing. Some of my summer clothes are linen or bamboo, but only rarely do I buy clothes made from non-plant materials such as wool or plastic.
Sadly there is microplastics in our balls. So we are all fucked
I'm surprised you didn't mention the sports team championship merch waste. When a team wins the Superbowl (or some other important game) thousands of hats and t-shirts appear with the winner's logos on it while the confetti still rains down on the crowd. Which means they printed winning merch for BOTH TEAMS and the losing team's merch goes straight to the landfill. Thousands of units, with the sole purpose of becoming garbage. Unreal.
They've been 'donated' to impoverished people in Africa--negligibly better!
@@closethockeyfan5284 Meanwhile, all those impoverished people in Africa are impoverished because they lost their jobs making clothing because that "donated" crap is undercutting their prices.
There is an alternate land in Africa where folks proudly wear the shirts of 4 time super bowl champs: The Buffalo Bills.
Maybe they'll use it next time when the team wins 🤔
@@julietardos5044 Are really that many people making clothes in underdeveloped countries. I get it with agriculture products as many people work on farms in poorer societies and our subsidised farm products absolutely wreck the local farmers but clothes?
A local festival event used to do screen printing on top of a shirt that you'd bring. They'd still pay the ppl for the design, and for the labour of doing the printing, and bring home some extra cash, and memorialize the event on a shirt of our own choosing. Win-win all around!
I love this idea!
I wish events would do this more. Especially since I tend to cut up and customize my tshirts anyway. I would have way more of an attachment to a shirt if it was printed in front of my eyes!
I love that so much
That’s so dope!!
I'd love that. I wear medium tall and no merch is ever in my size.
I live in a wealthy area and routinely browse the selection at Goodwill, there are routinely brand new jeans, north-face jackets, suits all there for like $10
Here in south Africa that is unheard of
@@BloodBoughtMinistries crazy. Good will is slept on out here.
@@LizzieMagz In LA. Go to the beach towns they have super nice stuff there
I heard bad things about Goodwill.
@@Phoenix.Sparkles idk I’ve only had good experiences there, except when they close off their donations area lol
Love the detail of you standing next to the "Brown Building" where Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took place. While talking about terrible working conditions of merch manufacturing. Keep up the great work you're doing!
wearing a shirt 7 times and throwing it away is WILD
I have shirts that are 7 years old
Unfortunately alot of the clothes made now are essentially designed to self destruct within that time. Either the fabric will develop holes and tear or they purposely pick a bad thread which wont hold up. You get more life out of them by not using a drier and a few other things but yeah. Meanwhile clothes from some years back can only now be falling apart but my grandmother has things from when I was born or older (as well as her old clothes and my moms that are mine now) that pretty much look the same as when they were bought and held up fantastically. Its another benifit from thrifting or buying second hand. Much of the older stuff you find is going to be of better quaulity then what you would buy new.
If I can get a t-shirt to last through more than 7 washings it’s an outlier.
@xcvx16 where are you buying your clothes and why do you keep giving them monies?
@@xcvx16 Maybe try air drying your t-shirts? Maybe the dryer is what's ruining them so by avoiding that they could last longer
Microplastics are stored in the balls
They did surgery on a grape. To remove the microplastics from it's balls.
Thought this was simply a reworked meme… but then I heard
That's what I've heard
which is bad, because that's where the pee is supposed to be stored!
And breastmilk.
How did you miss the opportunity to use the term "trashion"?
Should we place bets on him saying "trashion" in the video?
Yes
@@peanutbutter7721 I’d like to get a million dollars against please
We didn't get trashion, but we did get brandfill and boy I hate it.
@@ClimateTownI'm in, too. #insiderinfo
I feel like one of the best ways to make merch have a longer lifespan is having it not super explicitly branded. Like just a vaguely themed design that passes as just a cool tee shirt. That way even if the owner doesn’t watch the RUclipsr anymore it’s still a cool tee. And then if it ends up in a thrift store someone who doesn’t know it’s merch will just think it looks nice and wear it unknowingly
i used to run around in weird US-Merch. Look at poorer countries, noone actually cares about the branding, it just needs to do its job properly :D (which new clothing just does not)
@@MannIchFindKeinName yeah that’s a good point! I guess quality is the most important part
@@MannIchFindKeinNameQuite the opposite, less developed countries are the ones making and wearing bootleg clothes because "status". Branding is everything sadly
Yes, whenever I even remotely consider buying merch, it's just a cool design that I'd want anyways. If it's only your ugly logo or name, pass.
This is something I always said to anybody making merch
The most important feature is that it needs to be "universal"
No inside jokes, heavy branding or obscure references.
Think of it like this, if I'm wearing a shirt of a RUclipsr's face that says "Bazinga" the most interaction I'll have with the shirt is "that's not Sheldon" and I don't really care to spend hours upon hours of my life explaining to every single person that comments on it who Rollie is. Sure people don't really stop you to talk about your shirt as often as you think, but it is one of those things were it will convince you not to wear it over a different shirt. "Main Stream" merch works because even if I don't like Kiss, I'm aware of it enough to go "ahh I see"
I have a merch shirt from a streamer my girlfriend really likes that says "Skill Issue Dayo" and I can wear that everywhere, and it's easier to explain "oh it's a japanese word that means something is super friendly" than it is with the one of a picture of a VTuber on it and go "Yeah so, do you know what Anime is? Well this is a VTuber, do you know what THAT is? Well this is a Twitch streamer, do you know what Twitch is?" The explanation for that is nested several layers deep in context that makes it frustrating to explain. Do you ever ACTUALLY have to explain it? Not really, but that potential does cause people to choose not to wear it and even decide to throw it away.
Merch from anything that isn't super main stream needs to have secondary meaning that is _more_ universal, otherwise it's ending up in a landfill when the honeymoon period is over.
This is a cleverly disguised 26 minute Ad. Well played, sir, well played.
Taking the classic move of saying "here's what our company does for sustainability 🙂🙂🌼🌞" and turning it into something with substance!
Climate town is the only organization that actually makes watching a 25 min ad for their product enjoyable.
25mins is pretty long, but I'd like to say that Erik from Internet Comment Etiquette also does incredible ads.
*A MESSAGE FROM A BESPOKE TAILOR* please buy second hand...!!!
All my clients buy second hand, they buy vintage, they have garments made bespoke - and they have them altered to FIT, thats the key to looking good - GET YOUR CLOTHES ALTERED TO FIT
Buy second hand, uses the money saved to have them altered to fit and KEEP THEM UNTILL THEY WEAR THROUGH
That is great advice. Thank you!
idk what bespoke means i see people use it all the time
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 Oh OK - First of all, total credit for admitting you don't know and asking - that is a skill that will help you a lot in life...!!
Bespoke means its made totally custom for you...! So If you came to me for a suit, I would take every measurement of your body, look at how you stand, how you walk, any unevenness in your body. Then we would discuss what you want, I actually make historical suits 1890 to 1940, but within that range, you can choose anything you want, we will choose the fabric and it will be made by hand, mostly hand-stitched, then there will be a fitting to make sure I have got it right and then I will finish it.
It will be the only one in the world and it will be what you want down to the colour of the buttons.
I will also tell yo what NOT to buy, things that will go out of fashion, fabrics that wont lost a long time, etc etc If you put on weight there is additional fabric hidden inside so you can have it altered to make it bigger up to about 4 inches 100mm
It takes me about 150 to 250 hours and will cost you about €5,000 on the other hand it will last you 25 to 50 years of regular wear
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 I replied but it seems to have been deleted - it means totally custom just for you.
Rollie’s suit looks like it’s been altered to fit very snuggly in all the right places. If I was watching this on anything bigger than my phone I’m pretty sure I’d be able to say whether he’s cut or uncut. Not complaining.
One of the worst things about clothes being garbage is that finding quality clothes is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive as they're increasingly rare and limited compared to the volume of junk. It's equally frustrating when quality clothes have plastics mixed into them so it's impossible to even find clothes made of pure wool, cotton, silk, etc. Of course I still try, and thrift stores are among the best for cheap and quality clothes made of natural fibers, but it's still really difficult to get good quality clothing.
Yes! Even $100+ “wool” coats that look promising will sometimes only contain 3% wool in them. I’m broke but I don’t want to buy crap clothing or furniture. It feels impossible, so I just started repairing what I currently own. My flannels get stitched up, and my leather jacket went into a leather repair shop for patches to repair the giant tear my cat made in it in favor of buying a new one. If I’m lucky I’ll get another decade out of it.
Uniqlo, Jack & Jones, Regatta, Marco Polo, Ben Sherman and Matinique have shirts that are 100% cotton and will last 10 years. The latter three are more expensive than the first three, but the quality is about the same. Try to avoid prints because they are plastic and will wear off quickly.
@@Kikkerv11 100% cotton tshirts are really easy to find. Getting pants and long sleeve shirts that are 100% natural fibers is becoming nearly impossible without it being extremely expensive. Especially when considering wool or silk fibers. Since those are arguably my favorites for how they deal with extremely cold or warm temps. Cotton just kinda sucks for dealing with both cold and hot weather.
I've also never seen anything made out of pure hemp or linen, but then I haven't really seen that many clothes that contained any amount of those materials. Though recently I found a pretty dope pant manufacturer (named seedpants google it the link doesn't seem to be allowed) that's local to where I live. They use 55% hemp and 41% cotton to make their pants, but the remaining 4% is spandex. Otherwise they seem pretty cool and the sort of company this community would be interested in supporting... though at 243 dollars is very high for a pair of pants.
@@Kikkerv11 100% cotton tshirts are really easy to find. Getting pants and long sleeve shirts that are 100% natural fibers is becoming nearly impossible without it being extremely expensive.
Especially when considering wool or silk fibers. Since those are arguably my favorites for how they deal with extremely cold or warm temps. Cotton just kinda sucks for dealing with both cold and hot weather.
I've also never seen anything made out of pure hemp or linen, but then I haven't really seen that many clothes that contained any amount of those materials.
Though recently I found a pretty dope pant manufacturer (named seedpants google it the link doesn't seem to be allowed) that's local to where I live. They use 55% hemp and 41% cotton to make their pants, but the remaining 4% is spandex. Otherwise they seem pretty cool and the sort of company this community would be interested in supporting... though 243 bucks is a lot for a pair of pants.
Posting this comment like 3 times since it seems auto deleted every other time. I hate automated filters.
@@Kikkerv11100% cotton tshirts are really easy to find. Getting pants and long sleeve shirts that are 100% natural fibers is becoming nearly impossible without it being extremely costly.
Especially when considering wool or silk fibers. Since those are arguably my favorites for how they deal with extremely cold or warm temps. Cotton just kinda sucks for dealing with both cold and hot weather.
I've also never seen anything made out of pure hemp or linen, but then I haven't really seen that many clothes that contained any amount of those materials.
Though recently I found a pretty awesome pant manufacturer (named seedpants google it the link doesn't seem to be allowed) that's local to where I live. They use 55% hemp and 41% cotton to make their pants, but the remaining 4% is spandex. Otherwise they seem pretty cool and the sort of company worth supporting... but 243 bucks is a lot for a pair of pants.
Posting this comment like 4 times since it seems auto removed every other time. I hate automated filters.
Many years ago, a friend got married and requested the guests to donate their old band shirts, which she sewed into a massive train on her gown. Practical AND unique AND it saved a lot of shirts from the landfill.
So the train is still in regular use?
The sound editing at 12:46 was *chefs kiss
Honestly, thank you so much. When that came together I genuinely thought to myself, "man, I HOPE someone notices this." Thank you for clocking it.
Only worn 7 times? Any clothes I have that have only been worn 7 times would be considered my "good" going out clothes. I'm in my 40s and still have some threadbare t-shirts from high school.
Same here. Last week I had to throw one T-Shirt and realized I still had one from school times.
I can't imagine that. I wear everything till it has holes before I get anything new.
@@popdogfool and those with holes can be used as rags
@@caocaoholdingaplushie6022 they tend to be bad rags, don't soak up water as well.
Great for cleaning up oil if you do diy bike maintenance though.
@@caocaoholdingaplushie6022 Yup they're moved into the what I like to call 'painting pile' aka if I'm doing painting or anything like that I'll wear those clothes and after that they get moved to the 'rag' pile.
Talking about poor working conditions, standing in front of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Subtle...
It’s as subtle as the clothing filled landfill
This is why I started Midnight Scout. I’m still broke and have a longgg way to go. But eventually I want to not only have factories in the U.S to produce the fabric, create the shirts AND print the designs.
But I also want to promote unions under me.
As of right now I’m one person with close friends helping me out for free. But I plan to grow to a massive scale
Keep us posted champion
He mentioned the tragedy in his previous video “Fast Fashion is Hot Garbage”.
@@ashelfishisttortleif this is real, good luck bro rooting for you 🤙
"Shirts are designed to be worn 7 times"
> Me in my t-shirt I bought in 2011 at Target for $9: "okay... really?!"
Are we the statistical outliers or are the people who use a shirt only once the outliers
@@klisterklister2367@ klisterklister2367 It's an average, but most people actually would wear a shirt more times than that. Average is just the number in the middle, not necessarily the number of times most people would wear a shirt before discarding. It's the people throwing out their shirts after wearing it only a few times that are bringing down the average.
i think the cheap, awful company swag shirts probably pull the average down.
i know im probably never again wearing the shirt of the company that laid me off despite saying i was doing good...
@@peggedyourdad9560 yeah, it makes sense that people throwing away fast, use a lot more of them, and thus bring the average down a lot, would be interesting to have the average number of times a tshirt is worn by person (so yes, it's an average per person, then average of the values over all the persons, probably a lot harder to collect the data).
My purportedly very environmentalist wife divorced me in no small part because I want to make my clothing last. She said I should update my wardrobe every year. 😐😐😐
The "divest vs invest" paradigm was the biggest underrated gem of this video.
The section of "DO YOUR JOBS, PLEASE" over congress made me keel over. Amazing editing as always!
Fast fashion will always remain a mystery to me. Even if it wasn't so detrimental for the environment and the people forced into modern slavery, why would I willingly want to go shopping every few weeks just to buy things I don't even want to wear? Just screams brainless consumerism.
To clarify, my problem is less with the cheap price of clothing but rather the disposability some people treat them with. Even the cheapest T-Shirt should last you at least a year or two before it's worn out, letalone things like jeans or jackets.
For some, buying clothes is an act of compulsion, like smoking a cigarette. Something you do mindlessly because it makes you feel better.
and another reason is fomo. If your social status is connected to how much you can keep up with the latest trends, then you feel like you have to buy those things to not go down the ladder. There is always an understandable reason for it.
I think there is an element of planned obsolescence baked into the fashion industry.
@@eleonarcrimson858 but I have the feeling it's always a 2nd rate social status... the real elite doesn't bother with that nonsense, sure they will sometimes (or often) wear expensive clothes, but they don't care if it's 7 seasons old because they focus on timeless classic styles much more.
This goes so far that when I see somebody in expensive brand clothing I now automatically assume they are low class people
Fast? As far as i'm concerned, the fashion has not changed one bit in 30 years! 😆 I'm iiiinnnn.... (my tshirts tend to become unwearable after a few years though, at least i let go of my habit of aliexpress designs, they are cool, but many don't last long at all…)
Every time I learn about overproduction, I am reminded that when economists say capitalism is “efficient,” they define “efficiency” as “producing the most profit,” not, like, actual absence of waste.
See: Superfest
It's actually amazing how mind-numbingly wasteful the most profitable practises are for some god-forsaken reason. Well of course I know the reason is capitalism, but still, way too many people actually believe that idealistic crap they put out or think "eh, doesn't hurt me"...
Food industry has loads of examples too. One of them is the laws about weight ranges (if you're selling a package that says 100g the contents need to be in a specific range close to that weight to be legal), in principle they're preventing the producers from cheating the customers with their labelling. In practise they do accomplish that but the producers will also very often just throw away any packages that failed to make the weight range because it's cheaper than selling them as another kind of product, packaging them again in the right weight, or it's impossible to repackage.
I also know of a particular brand salted licorice candy crush which is made by crushing said candy and then sieving out the undesired sizes. Not surprising, until you find out that the company has decided that the right size of crush is only 30% of the total and the rest goes straight to garbage.
This is the longest merch ad I've ever seen
You haven’t seen any of the Marvel movies?
And probably the most honest one! 😆
Still sh t
i remember when i went back to Chennai (capital of Tamilnadu) and there's a nearby village where they make most of the t-shirts in the world and there are stores in Chennai that sell "defective" designer tshirts from the sweatshop for like ₹1000 (which is like $20), when they retail for $800, usually in like the basement of silk sari stores lol
I hope this channel blows up more, it feels like I'm a kid watching a fun PBS show.
You should combine "Climate Town" to one word on your t-shirts. I would say "CliT" is a good way to go.
Thanks for your Videos!
Wasn't that a eco-t-word group that released some monkeys and then blamed Jay and Bob? Jay even said how much he loves CliT
He could even advertise himself as the CliT Commander
No guy will bother to find them 😂
Then no one would be able to find them!
Suggestion for climate friendly merch from a diy musician: me and my friends often design our own blockprints/screen prints and then print on clothes donated or from the goodwill bins. Takes a bit of work but the material cost is next to nothing and ppl who like ur music have the opportunity to get a totally unique piece of merch that they are more likely to wear because it isnt just a stock t shirt. Obviously this wont work for everyone and is hard to scale but i wish i saw more ppl doing it. Ive also seen musicians selling cigarettes with the band name printed on them, jewelry and accessories that they designed and made themselves, pins, collages. Lots of climate friendly pptions
What printing equipment/programs do you use?
us too :)
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 lino or woodblock and ink. you could use a potato. takes some skill but no need for fancy equipment
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 you could also make your own screens
@@stereo-soulsoundsystem5070 in an alternative living project in my city we have screen printing events like 2 times a year, there are always some small bands or projects making their own merch, and you can get your hands on the equipment also outside of those times :D
The worst part of it all is, even if it isn't fast fashion, you still are going to get something that falls apart quickly.
Hmmm, If it’s not fast fashion doesn’t that mean it well made?
There are definitely some solid built clothing though the specific combination of good ethics, environmental responsibility, sturdy construction, and quality control is very tough to find in one neat package.
That's why you should buy secondhand. Clothes used to be made to last.
@@volternoomi just make sure your secondhand clothing is actually from that long ago, and not a bunch of shein and zara garbage from recent times :[
@@volternoomi It has to be pretty old to be reliably 'made to last'. The 'cheap clothes' trend is a good solid 30 years old.
This video was one of the most authentic commercial for a couple t-shirts.
Then I went and bought Solid State Clothing shirts. Wow.
My stepdad works for waste management. He collects trash for commercial stores and he constantly picks up perfectly good products from stores. He once had to take over 100 brand new wheelbarrows from home depot straight to the landfill, its happened with video games, flower bulbs, anything you can think of. He loves his job but hes told me it makes him really angry sometimes. And legally hes not allowed to take anything even tho its going to the landfill
I am always amazed to see so many people in my city wearing completely new styles of clothing every few months. The amount of resources we waste on fast fashion must be insane.
It depends 20 kg co2 for a shirt or shoes. Challenge should be under 4000kg all included as society
People like me still judge them for wearing cheap clothes, so who are they even trying to impress?
Just be like me and be completely unaware of fashion
@@scoobydoobers23 Oh, I am. :D A few years ago I decided that I just want to wear what makes me feel comfortable and cosy, since then I always walk around in hiking pants/shorts and hoodies/tshirts, because that combination is comfortable and incredibly durable.
Same, I didn't even recognize most of the brands listed in this video.
Holy shit, i just got an ad for Nordstrom rack imnediately after you mentioned how you can get a 100 dollar shirt from someone who makes less than a living wage lol
And the same quality as the cheap stuff! Amazing, eh?
I got a UNIGLO ad then, Rollie was standing in front of a store
"Back to you Rollie" ....................... "Thanks Rollie"
"Thanks Steve"
it's top tier Scott Cramer style youtubing
Yep, it's... it's a joke that's existed about as long as newscasters have... glad you liked it bud
@@subparnaturedocumentary that name rings a bell, but all I know is, that joke is an oldie but a goodie
@@BeefIngot Now that's a crossover episode
Love the fact that you took the time to tell us exactly how the merch is made !!
Got one for my daughter and myself! She used your videos for her middle school research project (she was blown away by how many liters of water go into a pair of jeans). Love the podcast, love the videos!
I wear my clothes til they break apart pretty much.
Also, Solution: Make your own clothing!
It's time to start wearing cloaks and tunics again people!
Aaaaand lederhosen... Oh wait!🤔
Or normalize nudism 🤷♂️
I have shirts I just threw away this year that I bought in 2004. What finally made me do it is looking at myself in the mirror and realizing I could see my nipple hair. Yikes. Probably should have ditched them a couple years earlier. Sorry, everyone.
another thing you can do, is recycle the textiles. I have a bunch of torn up clothes that i cant donate, that im going to try and recycle!
I'm here for the return of cloaks.
I actually used to be a merch guy for a touring band. The one thing about a small band with a dedicated following is that those fans do wear those shirts....till they're falling apart. So they would come back to buy a replacement shirt on a future tour.
I only buy shirts when I see a live show or visit a national park. And they do get worn. Still have a few from the early 00s as well, though they're getting a tad ragged.
"The Price is 'Wrong'" soundbites will forever get a chuckle
I remember buying clothes from charity shops in my late teens, one piece in particular, a men's navy pinstripe blazer, cost me around £0.50. The days of those prices have gone for good.
Rollie, I just absolutely love you and what you stand for. I knew you from Rollie Williams the pool channel, but my thoughts on climate issues also totally align. Keep doing what you do!
In college at 19, I read a book in a class Intro to Political Economy called “Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” by Pietra Rivoli and it led to a personal revelation. Now at 27, I have bought/swapped all my clothes 2nd hand ever since.
So glad y’all got the merch without compromising any morals, Congrats! 🎉
What school did you go to that still teaches "Political Economy"?
@@Tetragrammaton22 only the key most bastion of political thought in the western hemisphere: WWU
@@madisonjones3410 What is that? I'm not an American and I have no idea what all the post-secondary acronyms are.
Would love to see a video on fast decor - furniture doesn’t last any more
It's like some companies figured out how to get rid of their trash pressed and laminated, disguised as furniture, eh?
@@Sekir80 Modern furniture is recycled? Based!
My mom is just now having damage to a sofa we bought when I was in high school and I was horrified to realize the couch is now 24 years old. But surprised it lasted so long with so much use. Then I realized the sofa we were replacing back then is one I still have…and has no damage yet! The furniture I’ve bought in the last 15 years has already fallen apart.
@@Emiliapocalypse Whenever I think some piece of furniture lasted quite long, I remember that my grandparents have some furniture that's well over 150 years old and still in good shape. 🥲
@@juulian1306 yep! My mom has real antiques also. It’s incredible how beautiful and resilient the old pieces of furniture can be. The craftsmanship of days gone by really is a work of art
"Not you! Too tall." Made me giggle.
That comment was about trying to buy sustainable clothing from the links in the description
You’re one of my absolute favorite RUclipsrs. Keep up the awesome work good sir!!!
Perfect timing! I’ve been struggling to find a non-shit merch supplier and was about to give up. Thank you for spotlighting TS Designs.
Free merch from 30 years ago was better than expensive stuff today.
I have gotten free t shirts at events in 1998 that I still wear today that are perfectly fine. I bought premium shirts from Threadless in the 2005 range and they have a few small flaw today and are still worn. Anything I have bought in the last decade has completely fallen apart on me within a year. Often not surviving a couple of months despite costing way more.
Quality still exists, but other than never being the cheapest stuff it has no correlation to price.
That's a reasonable approximation, but my experimental set of 72 event-branded T-shirts all worn at least 100 times is of highly variable quality, and it's not very well age-correlated. I have a few T-shirts from the early 90's that were clearly pretty crappy, and some from the last decade that seem quite good (I can be more accurate about the newer ones in another decade :-)
I have hoodies and tees that have outlasted friendships. Maybe it’s the punk aesthetic, but I’ve been happy with the same fit for decades haha
I've had brand new Hanes t shirts shred in the washing machine the first time they were ever washed. Hanes 10 years ago made the comfort soft line and I've worn all of those shirts hundreds of times now and they still hold up even when they get super thin from being washed dozens of times.
P.u.
I think one of the biggest problems we have now is that wages have fallen so far relative to the cost of living that many people really cant afford to pay a fair price for things anymore
Very true, though I also think we are currently unnaturally used to getting a ton of very cheap stuff, which was only cheap because of this borderline slave labor, and with inflation that is less and less the case because other domestic products, education, and housing are becoming way more expensive even though the cost of a t shirt is still low.
What else did you expect globalization to do? Poor people on the other side of the globe who can live off of 3 cents a day are just as capable of basic manual labor as we are.
@@far2ez considering I wasn't even born when globalization started, I didn't really think it would do anything, I've only ever lived with it's consequences
@far2ez
I figured globalization would cause the American worker to be paid less because poor people would be getting paid more, but it turns out 99% of all people are just getting paid less, and 1% benefit. That’s not what I thought would happen and it sucks for most everyone.
no everything is literally so cheap look at some charts, the only thing that got way way more expensive is housing
Two years ago I saved up for 6 months in order to buy one sweater. It was 100% wool and every step of production was done in Ireland. From the sheep herding to sowing on the tags and shipping it over. The quality is superb, it cost a lot of money so it took some effort to be able to afford it. But it is still my favorite sweater! The whole story of this sweater makes it meaningful to me. And luckily it still looks like it's brand new, because I take good care of it.
My main regret is that it is very hard to find clothes like that... but you are right, it is worth the effort to invest in the companies that are doing things right or are solidly heading in the right direction.
Wow, what company is that? I've been looking for a nice, ethical irish sweater 😊
It was your video on fast fashion that made me want to stop buying fast fashion. Since then, I've prioritized responsible manufacturers and used clothing. I've had to replace a lot of my clothes because of weight loss and my clothes just being old and not representative of me anymore, and the new stuff I have is mainly from the local thrift store, with my new pairs of shorts from Poshmark, and a few shirts from a company in Toronto.
I'm also a musician, not in a position to make merch at the moment, but I had also decided that I didn't want to make merch because I didn't want to contribute to the problem. Should the day ever come where there's a demand, I now have an option to consider thanks to this video.
Thanks for everything you do!
As someone who lives in and has grown up in NC, i feel proud of the company you mentioned! I had never heard of them
Before but im glad to know about them now!
Subtitles for Deaf/HoH climate fans would be nice ! Love your work, as a small artist and sewing enthusiast I have a pile of branded new shirts that I got dumpster diving (I find so much clothes) and I think I will sew patterned fabric on top of the branding.
It's not just clothing, unfortunately. I am a reseller and spend large amounts of time at thrift stores, including the "last chance, last stop before the landfill" variety of thrift stores. The sheer amount of unused products, stuff still in packaging, with tags, is truly astounding. Even worse is the huge quantity of made-to-be-garbage stuff, usually seasonal or trendy home decor items and crappy toys. It is depressing.
Some are borderline a scam. I got a pair of shirts some months ago, and I swear I only wore each like 4 times, and one got some holes on the neck from rubbing, and the other started making those annoying yarn ball things from washing.
They were cheap, but that is unacceptable. If you can't do them any better at that price, just don't make them.
@@DrBernon At the end of the day, if people will buy them they will make them, and people do buy them.
@@Ithirahad Totally. I just hope people stop buying such crap. I, for one, will never buy anything of that brand ever again.
Resellers are scum
Several years ago I worked at a thrift store, I will never forget the day someone came through with an entire minivan full of the cheapest, shittiest, thinnest plastic "toys" I've ever seen. They were relatively large dollhouses and similar toys, but the plastic was seemingly under a millimeter thick and they would shatter into pieces if you looked at them wrong. Manufactured to be thrown away.
About 10 years ago I decided I would only buy used clothes from now on. But when I needed new shoes and new underwear, I was like okay I’ll only buy them if they are from an ethical company. I don’t want forced labour or child labour or sweat shops. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to find ways to know how a company operate so I was like ok I’ll only buy stuff made in the US or Canada. Imagine my surprise when I learned that even if something is stamped with a “Made in USA” mark, it still can be slave labour! I didn’t know about prison labour at all. I ended up buying Patagonia boots :(
I’m trying to knit my own clothes but it’s going really slowly. So far I have one tank top, one cardigan and a few pairs of socks.
For shirts and underwear Bombas. They are not the best at sustainability but they are definitely higher quality and longer lasting. Plus they donate the equivalent item you buy from them to homeless shelters where they're desperately needed. I don't know much about shoes but I know Vapor95 has them and they're made to order which is the antithesis to fast fashion. I can also attest Vapor95 is 100% ethical and pays their workers a fair wage.
Good luck on your search. I am seriously considering starting a men's sustainable fashion company.
Same here, but don't feel too bad about not getting it right all the time -- it can be difficult to research, especially as even the slave drivers have pages shouting about their amazing ethics. But at least you're trying! And that "Good On You" website/app that is linked to in the description is just superb.
@@joloco72 Oh thanks, I'll check that out!
But then you have to worry about sourcing materials
there are apps that show you sustainable clothing brands like Beaker & GoodOnYou
Absolutely incredible work as always. I've been hearing complaints from creators about how difficult it is to find even semi ethical suppliers for merch. Thanks again for this excellent video 👏👏👏👏
My viewing of this video was interrupted by an ad for a company that produces this kind of merchandise.
future aliens standing on our scorched planet: “this one tried”
+2
triedn't
@@ahmedyusuf1000untriedn't
"that last one fell kind of funny"
Tried what? Speed running how to destroy itself?
I'm convinced the great cosmological filter is just intelligent civilisations making their planet inhabitable before they develop interstellar capabilities. Heck the dark forest, we are plenty capable of destroying ourselves, thank you.
But yes, please let's do our best. We still have a chance
Clothing became a problem basically as soon as it stopped being a very local cottage industry. The triangle shirtwaist fire happened when clothing was made domestically.
I'm currently wearing a 10+ year old shirt that's outlasted every single one of the print on demand merch shirts I've been gifted or purchased over the past 5 years.
Must be still half asleep this morning but the turning the wrong way to the camera jump had me rolling. So simple and dumb but you got me.
Great video! As a fanboy of many bands and a sustainable fashion enthusiast, this really answered some questions. Thanks a lot!
I have t-shirts that are worn regularly and are over 25 years old. Bands that no one remembers. And when a shirt gets too roadworn, it becomes a cleaning rag.
Climate Town DOESN'T MISS
GOATED COMMENT!
GOATED REPLY!
Thank you for offering a white colored shirt option. Been doing more yardwork lately and I admire white fabric when I'm gardening and in the sun.
The price is steep but I really have admired your channel over the years and I love it's made in America. Brilliant work.
Thanks!
This is literally one of my top 10 favorite channels on RUclips!
I'm watching this while cutting up old tees to sew into a t-shirt rug. I read the stat about clothes only being worn an average of seven times and it made a huge impact on me, so now when I'm shopping (usually second hand), I always ask myself if I'd really wear something more than seven times. If no, it goes back on the rack. I would not wear a Climate Town shirt that often, so I'm passing on the merch, but I really appreciate the work you and these companies put into ethics!
It's wild to me that you even have to ask that question. I bought like 6 plain black T-shirts like 6 years ago or so and that's practically all I have worn since. I will replace them when they are no longer presentable and I will likely do so with another order of plain black T-shirts which will hopefully last another decade before I need to do so again.
I can't imagine even considering a purchase that I expected to wear less than 50 times. I purchase everything I own with the optimism that it will last me my entire life, but the pragmatism that it may let me down and need to be replaced. I would absolutely not purchase something that I knew upfront I would not want for my entire life.
@@far2ez try being female and not having the luxury of being able to wear basically the same thing daily without people noticing
It’s crazy that a $5 shirt costs $50 when you pay people right. I bought it! If you drop more I’ll buy!
I have a shirt made in my country (Armenia), sewing company called Melante. It is one of the best shirts I have had, wore it 14 years and still looks like new
Good luck finding fabric that can hold up like that, let alone the construction of the garment.
My Mom made my Dad some shirts when they got married, because most of his closet was T-shirts, and he was working a government job. She made him retire the last one of those as a rag 3 years ago. 40 years isn't bad for a shirt.
Such an important topic to talk about!! Awesome video. Thank you ❤️🌹
I've been very sad when I finished binging all your videos a few months ago so was ecstatic when I saw this new one in my feed, great video!
RUclips just showed me a Shein advert on this video. Just think how many views of that advert were utterly wasted on people watching this video. Superb work.
Why do you still watch ads on RUclips? Combo of Adblock, Adblock plus, and Ghostery and you never will.
Business idea: Make a channel that only has videos about brands - like in "repeat the brand name in generic sentences". Invite everyone who hates that brand and fast fashion and so on stuff to let the video run in the background.
Laugh about all the ad money that those companies are losing.
I am proud to say I have never purchased a t-shirt, but I sure have gotten a lot from bike races and marathons.
10/10 humble brag
100% brag 🥰@@SaminHam
I'm routinely wearing 10 year old triathlon shirts. That's basically all I wear.
forget about memorializing that mustache - those beautiful brows are a national treasure
Low key...best commercial ever. Excellent work Rollie and team ✊
Ive been trying to get into merch for my channel! Thanks for sharing
I'm obsessed by Rollie's bouncy walk at the beginning of this video.
I took off my shirt mid-video to investigate its backstory. Tag-less, 100% cotton shirt; though it was made in Honduras (which is not where I live, though closer than 90% of countries and even closer than some parts of my own country). I have also worn it well over seven times just since the beginning of this year and have owned it for about three years.
I try to buy ALL (minus socks & underwear) my clothes second hand. Oh and Temupoo was my advertisement. Thanks google. And thank you climate town for keeping it f**king real.
Just love how much effort you put into finding a sustainable t-shirt without giving up!
I'm struggling each time I have to buy new, almost always buy seccond hand instead. But you really want to aid the ones that actually try to produce in a slow fashion way.
Too bad I'm located in Sweden, would otherwise buy a shirt!
Thank you so much for doing the leg work to find a company like TS Designs!
Its cool to see companies like tsdesigns try and do clothing sustainably. Here in the UK there's a similar company Rapanui, thats doing a similar thing with circular clothing made from 100% cotton. Granted not quite as sustainable as cotton doesn't really grow here. But its the next best thing at least, that I've been able to find locally.
Love this topic. I hate cheap merch/swag. Stop making trash. A quote I heard long time ago: The original meaning of materialism means a love of things, meaning people treasure the things they own they try to maintain it, repair it, keep it as long as possible. Now, the meaning of materialism means consume consume consume.
Did he just compare the explosion of crappy t-shirts to toxic algae bloom? Clever, put it on a shirt
As consumers, shifting our support to companies that prioritize ethics and sustainability can drive meaningful change in the industry. 👕
what i find amazing is that you have never done a video on the ecological impact of war, which given the current state of world affairs is more than timely. i hope you will consider doing such. thanks for listening. and great work.
I'm always surprised by how much clothing people buy. I easily buy less than 5 articles of clothing per year, many years none at all, and I still feel I already have too many clothes.
The editing meta for this channel has gotten so rich
When I saw you posted a new video I instinctively said out loud "Oh god, I love this motherf****er, nice" and immediately clicked it 😂
Fantastic video so far, just like every video you make! 😊 👍
Just found this, and the podcast, and Nicole's channel. Thanks for your efforts - will share!
Thank you so so much for making these videos. I'm usually aware of many of the issues that you cover, but I am so grateful that you cover these topics in depth and always follow-up with what we can do about it. It's hard to bring up these issues in my friend groups or at work because people don't like knowing how bad the world really is, sadly. I hope your amazingly funny videos reach a lot of people. Such good quality in research and flow in the comedic delivery. THANK YOU.
We call this haute pinstriped suit "Moire-chic".
I've been enjoying your stuff ever since you were just starting out with your old pool channel, Rollie. Really brilliant work on growing this channel to what it is now, I really admire what you're doing.
For a moment I thought there was a Rollie pool cleaner arc or something with videos on how much chlorine to put in your pool but then I realized you meant like billiards pool
@@technotion_ 😂I remember his billiards vids too, they were great.
I recently got into billiards and was dumbfounded when I saw him
Came here for the algorithm, stayed for the community ❤
That ending of "I have not tried Marijuana" is a staple of Climate Town videos and I love it.
I literally had a Bazinga shirt and then I fell out of love with Big Bang Theory and stopped wearing it and then donated it.
This video is a personal attack on me lol.