Comments on: Gap Unveils New 'For Kids By Kids' Clothing Line

Gap Unveils New 'For Kids By Kids' Clothing Line

445supermag — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:17:28 -0800

When life imitates Simpsons (i.e. skittlebrau), it's generally funny. With the Onion, not so much.

By: pupdog

pupdog — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:24:30 -0800

Oh dear, I see bad things coming.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:26:57 -0800

pupdog: "Oh dear, I see bad things coming." Eponysterical.

By: bashos_frog

bashos_frog — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:56:50 -0800

To be fair, the 5 bladed razor wasn't so bad. But the end of our national nightmare of peace and prosperity - that one still hurts.

By: jiiota

jiiota — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:00:23 -0800

If anyone is interested, there was an interesting episode of TAL that dealt with the frustrations of Cambodia in trying to win business from the Gap and other U.S. businesses while still following fair trade practices.

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:05:38 -0800

Wait, I really CAN buy Skittlebrau?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:16:39 -0800

Man, for some reason I read "Indian Children" as "Iraqi Children" at first.

By: furtive

furtive — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:56:56 -0800

At one point I worked for a software company that wrote supply chain management stuff for companies, and right about the time the Cathy Lee Gifford child labour scandal broke and it became common knowledge that Asian sweatshops were paying their employees $0.09/hour we were supposed to add a "compliance" module that would allow the retailers to set minimum standards for things such as wages, working conditions and whatnot which manufacturers would have to meet in order to qualify for the bidding process. Of course they didn't think to put an age field in it.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:16:25 -0800

Wait, I really CAN buy Skittlebrau? No, not really. People just put skittles in beer. I don't think I'd try it though.

By: litfit

litfit — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:05:07 -0800

Another case of mind the gap.

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:14:13 -0800

The international chain, with more than 3,000 shops, claims that only one range of clothing from the sweatshop in Delhi was made using child labour. This was an embroidered girl's smock blouse for Gap Kids. The children hand-stitching the beads were not paid, but the garment would have sold for about £20. thats about 30$ u.s....as someone who sews i can tell ya, ANYTIME you're buying a beaded, hand-embroidered garment for anywhere near that price, all you're buying is suffering.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:49:51 -0800

I am pretty sure the Onion article came after the common knowledge that Gap is sweatshop inc.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:13:57 -0800

This is why I've started to order my clothes from sites like No Sweat. Of course, that will probably turn out to be a sweatshop too.

By: rhymer

rhymer — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:08:18 -0800

Much of the blame for this lies with western consumers and their appetite for what is effectively disposable clothing. If all you buy on is price, then someone will pay the price. Nor is this in any way an elitist argument as shops like the gap are mass market. The difference is, 25 years ago, you'd have bought one top and worn it for a couple of years; now you buy five and wear them for four months. So any volume manufacturer finds itself in a race to the bottom. The solution of, course, is to buy the very best you can afford and use it till it wears out. Actually, come to think of it, this is probably the solution to about two thirds of our problems.

By: divabat

divabat — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:34:02 -0800

Malaysia isn't exactly known for its sweatshops.

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:25:48 -0800

445supermag posted "When life imitates Simpsons (i.e. skittlebrau), it's generally funny. With the Onion, not so much. " What about when, instead of life imitating the Onion, the Onion imitates life? You know, the entire point of the Onion satire?

By: nobeagle

nobeagle — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:53:31 -0800

Rhymer: I don't think that it's only price. Granted, I haven't been in a Gap since the early 90's, but I don't remember them being particularly cheap. It's probably a combination of price, advertising budget and corporate profits. While I don't know what the officers at Gap make, I know that they used to run a fuckload of ads. But then I started running mythtv. Do they still run a lot of ads?

By: betaray

betaray — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:46:47 -0800

Does it really matter if people are shopping based on price or anything else? The real issue is that people simply don't care if slaves, even child slaves are making their clothes. There's been no precipitous decline in The Gap stock price, and I doubt there will be. Kathie Lee's line, even though allegations were made in 1996 (and again in 1998), continued to sell at WalMart until 2003. It's not as if it would be impossible. Look at the "organic" movement, that's caught on in the last few years because people care about what they eat. Whole chains have grown from obscure stores founded in the mid-80s, because people were willing to spend the money and put in the effort to buy things they felt were healthier for them. The same can be said about the "green" movement taking place with vehicles. People are willing to pay thousands more for a compact car (and now SUVs) if it has that coveted hybrid badge. Somehow, though, slave labor is much less important to people.