the district

Eco-fashion designer Rogan Gregory looking sexy/creepy for the camera
Now maybe I am just a sucker for a good marketing department, but I have always had inexplicably warmer feelings towards Target than most other big box stores that have replaced small town retailers. The stores’ well-managed implementation of organic fibers might serve to explain these positive feelings vis-a-vis Wal Mart. With their usual flair, Target teamed up with well known designer Rogan Gregory (of Rogan and Loomstate amongst others) to bring in an affordable line of apparel with a heavy dose of organic and other natural fibers included, which will debut on May 18. With the exception of a curmudgeons, the Target move has generally garnered a ridiculous amount of positive press. In contrast, Wal Mart’s entry into the organic apparel market was generally dogged by a mix of criticism and question marks, despite the fact that one purchasing decision instantly turned the retailer into the world’s biggest organic seller. Not only was their the question of the brand’s usual dodgy labor reputation, Wal Mart single-handedly disrupted the entire international organic cotton market, in effect sending a big “fuck you” to vendors that had been in the business for years.

While to many observers the end result may look a lot alike; more organic cotton on store shelves, the two retail giants difference in strategy lead to very different outcomes. In essence it appears as though when entering the green market retailers must first get the green elite’s stamp of legitimacy, or risk a storm of controversy and negative-to-mediocre press coverage. Wal Mart’s typical graceful-as-a-bulldozer tactic in the end won it few friends, while Target’s effort to co-opt a respected figure in eco-fashion has really paid off. Even if Wal Mart had the best of intentions, this example proves that a little nod-of-respect to insider knowledge can lead to great improvements in credibility with consumers. The green movement can be a fickle one, retailers should now by now that just a self-proclaimed improvement is not necessarily enough to win the respect and dollars of conscientious consumers.

ed. note: I wanted to wait on this one until it the article was publicly available online. You can see the complete version here in the WSJ.

“If you’re offended by sexual innuendo or masturbation or sexual coloring books — if you’re offended by any of these, then don’t work here,” Mr. Charney says, [apparently unaware that in this country employees are legally entitled to a workplace free from sexual harassment].

This gem of a quote from our friend, American Apparel founder and complete douche-bag (we finally decided), Dov Charney appeared in last weekends front page lambaste of the company in the Wall Street Journal.  Ok, lambaste might be a stronger word than might actually be accurate, but I take my journalistic cues from Matt Drudge.  The article details American Apparel’s many financial woes particularly in the arena of bookkeeping know-how and liability from the Dov factor.  Despite robust growth in 2007 to almost 400 million fucking dollars, AA stock is down more than 40% since its IPO intended to raise much needed cash to finance new store openings.  My question after reading these numbers is who the hell is buying this crap?  Even if you count every hipster in Brooklyn, $400m is a lot of gold lamay hot-pants.   Personal feelings about AA aside, I can’t possible imagine how the bottom isn’t going to drop out of this fad.  According to the WSJ AA now has more than 187 stores packed with some of the most ridiculous looking garments I have ever seen.  All of this really just leaves me baffled. Anyway, if you are looking for coherent analysis, read the article because you certainly aren’t going to find it here, and frankly I should probably be working now.

District Cotton today is unveiling its (our) latest T-shirt design competition; the District Shootout.  District sponsored 2 beta runs last summer, and is now presenting the format in a more permanent context.  The Shootout sets itself apart from existing design contests by including District Cotton’s signature measure of social responsibility.  In addition to the exclusive use of 100% organic cotton blanks, each contest will also donate 10% of proceeds to a select non-profit organization. For the first run of the Shootout, District is teaming up with NYC based bicycle advocacy group Time’s Up in an effort to create the best bike shirt ever.  In addition to money for green NGO’s, contest winners will also win $250 cash plus a $100 gift certificate, and and additional $250 with each reprint.  For details about submitting, visit the Shootout Rule’s page.  To view and critique submissions visit the contest homepage.  Submissions will be accepted until May 9, at which time the next contest theme will be announced.

I remember reading an article in Harper’s a few years ago by the guy who invented the concept of the flash-mob, where a bunch of jack-asses would all get together at some predetermined time and place just to undertake some nonsensical and random act, then quickly disperse. Anyway, as best I can remember the guy made the argument that the hipster generation decides that things are cool, despite their overwhelming lack of substance, basically just because. In other words, hipsters value trends more because they have momentum rather than because they actually originated from somewhere cool. This is a rather long introduction to ask the question, “What the fuck is the deal with Helvetica, and who really cares about a typeface?” I would like to go on record and say, that if you are not a graphic designer and own a Helvetica t-shirt, you should really sit down with yourself and think about how that happened and what it says about your identity.
Follow the jump to see some of these shirts, so you can show the world just how Meta you are. Also, a nod to Karl at Tcritic who has posted on this topic before.

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Alternative Apparel today earns a dubious achievement award in the Shameless Greenwashing category today for their new “Eco-fill-in-the-blank” line.  In general, despite being stupid-expensive, I am generally a moderately enthusiastic fan of Alternative because of their solid use of organic cotton, progressive styling, and the fact that they are not American Apparel. These latest additions to the “Alternative Earth” collection really strike me as more than a bit nefarious.  The contents of most of the Eco-Heathers are 38% cotton (6.25% organic cotton), 50% poly (6.25% recycled), 12% rayon.  Running those numbers through the bullshit calculator they look more like this: 13% genuinely environmentally progressive materials, 43.75% made from PETROLEUM, 31.25% conventional cotton (make your own judgement), and 12% heavily processed cellulose.  Granted this is only my highly subjective opinion, but to me those numbers do not equate to an eco-friendly garment.  Sure it’s commendable to use 13% less objectionable material, but it still seems to fall way short of the “part of the solution” threshold.

Nike, no newcomer to getting attention for their corporate responsibility (and sometimes awing lack of), has announced its first foray into “recycled” footwear with the Nike Trash Talk.  Now while the shoe isn’t technically recycled, its made from manufacturing waste, I believe this to be more of a semantics issue than anything else.  With manufacturers in all sectors now looking for innovative ways to utilize what was previously waste, the world could really do with a catchy word to cover these products.  Maybe reclaimed? I don’t care, I’m here to talk about shoes. The Trash Talk, which was released last month in limited quantities in NY and NoLa will be released on April 22 at select House of Hoops stores in the Phoenix Suns color schemes.  While in this reviewers opinion, the shoes are fugly with a capital F, thats really my opinion on most basketball shoes, so decide for yourself.  Discussing the new kicks Nike footwear designer Kasey Jarvis said: “ We were really looking for a ‘here and now’ solution to footwear waste, and creating a performance product using waste materials felt like a very innovative solution. Using Nike’s Considered design ethos we were able to create a shoe that stands up to the stringent on-court performance requirements but is also more environmentally friendly.” For $100 you can go get your own. Read more on the Nike website.

“T-shirts, T-shirts, and more T-shirts” has lately become my auto-response to just about any inquiry about the state of my life these days. It is for that reason that reason that Rumplo comes into the world as a mixed blessing, I mean sure its a great way to check out what’s what in the world of printed T’s, I just don’t know that my life needs another site dedicated to T-shirts in it. That being said, I should throw in a disclaimer that my doctor has restricted me from caffeine this week, so I’m not really too enthusiastic about anything but making my headache go away.