HOW DO YOU FEEL?

The German sportswear giant Adidas has reportedly written to the IAAF, the embattled athletics governing body, it is terminating its multi-million sponsorship deal three years early.

Is there another scandal, reputational issue much closer to home for all major sportswear brands? The ‘awful truth’ about how their clothes are made?

What would happen if the labels on sportswear had to tell the truth about pay, conditions and the daily lives of the predominantly young female textile workers?

How would ‘brand ambassador’ athletes feel if their sport shirt label said something like this?

“100% polyester. Made in Cambodia by Joya, who left school at the age of twelve. She gets up at 5:00 am every morning to make her way to the garment factory where she works. It will be dark when she arrives and dark when she leaves. She dresses lightly because the temperature in the room she works reaches 30 degrees. The dust in the room fills her nose and mouth. She will make less than a dollar, for a day spent slowly suffocating. A mask would cost the company ten cents.

The label doesn’t tell the whole story.”

As the labels note, the long hours and poverty wages are rarely the sum of a garment worker’s problems. Their environments are often riddled with fire, chemical, and structural hazards that threaten life and limb on a daily basis.

How do you feel about buying and wearing sport shirts like this?

Ref: Ecouterre
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