Are These Unethical Fashion Brands Hiding In Your Closet?

Treehugger.com: 02/06/10 - K. Mok

Sweatshops are a hidden reality in an increasingly globalized world. It's difficult to know under what conditions your shirt was made, especially when it comes from halfway around the world. Of course, it's important to point out that while many sweatshops are neither owned nor operated by the big companies, it shouldn't excuse them from turning a blind eye to labour or human rights violations or acting accordingly. As clients of such factories, these companies (and we consumers) have the greater power ultimately to pressure for safer and fairer working conditions: by putting your money where your mouth is. To help you make a more informed and ethical choice for a more equitable planet, here are seven fashion brands suspected of using sweatshops and unethical labor practices that need to work harder to clean up their act.


...According to this article: 7 Major brands are listed who do not meet ethical regulation standards.


1. H&M
2. Abercrombie and Fitch
3. The Gap

 With scores of stores worldwide, U.S.-based chain The Gap is a retailing heavyweight, with profits totaling $15.9 billion in 2007. In the same year, The Telegraph details how a raid on a New Delhi factory found children as young as eight sewing clothes destined for Gap stores.

4. Nike 
A Malaysian contractor was confiscating migrant workers' passports and forcing them to sign contracts to work off their immigration 'debt' -- in effect, as indentured slaves.


5. Limited Brands
Limited Brands, which produces well-known labels like Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, Express and The Limited, has over 3,750 stores across North America selling everything from lingerie to home accessories.


6. Calvin Klein
According to IRIN (a news service of the U.N.), Phillips-Van Heusen has been linked to sweatshops with spotty labour records: beatings, confiscated passports, lack of basic benefits and unsafe working conditions.


7. Wal-Mart