T-shirts and Tanks

One of the mainstays of the Olympics is the myriad examples of branded merchandise that are sold to support the games, not to mention burnish the images of official sponsors. The supporters of an effort to help lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens of Russia, where the Winter Games are to be held in February, are adapting that marketing tactic with a line of protest merchandise to be sold by American Apparel and promoted by athletes.

NPR's "Planet Money" show has recently published a series of shows on the life cycle of a T-shirt. The first episode covers the source of the cotton, the second covers the manufacturing of the men's shirt in Bangladesh, and the third covers the manufacturing of the women's shirt in Columbia.

The growing wealth gap between the richest and poorest Americans is increasingly creating a shopping chasm between those who are trading up and those who are trading down, experts say. What's missing is the middle.

"There is a two Americas kind of thing going on," said Chris Christopher, director of U.S. and global consumer markets for IHS Global Insight.

The result is a retail marketplace in which even basic goods like socks and razors are becoming either incredibly cheap or extremely expensive, experts say

The U.S. National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have threatened legal action to block the sale of T-shirts that ridicule these two powerful government agencies. But the T-shirt designer says NSA and DHS are the ones breaking the law by assaulting free speech, a pillar of democratic society.

A judge may decide who is right.

One T-shirt calls the NSA the "only part of the government that actually listens," a joke that plays on the NSA's controversial, and critics say overzealous, monitoring of communications worldwide. Americans tend to laugh out loud when they see the message. 

As the temperature fell and winds blew through the parking lot, hundreds of people lined up Tuesday afternoon to apply for jobs at Gildan.

The company held a "Job Fair" Tuesday, looking to fill roughly 170 positions over the next six months at its yarn-spinning plant off Heilig Road.

"It would mean everything to me," Patience Joaquim said, explaining that she had two children to support. "I need a job."

Joaquim has been out of work since June 1, 2012. What's it like trying to land a full-time job in this region?

Angela Ahrendts isn't coming to Apple to expand and oversee the company's retail stores. "That's a giant head fake," says Scott Gallway, founder of L2, a global "think tank for digital innovation." Instead, the former Burberry CEO will be tasked to "bring the company's minimalist aesthetic to the world of luxury apparel and accessories," according to Forbes.

Gallway notes that Ahrendts, who joins Apple next spring as a senior vice president, wasn't hired to simply spruce up the company's retail operations. Instead, she'll help Apple expand into product categories such as apparel, handbags, jewelry, sunglasses, watches, and luggage.

Two Cincinnati-area businesses are helping drive a resurgence of interest in screen-printing as an art form.  While commercial printing becomes increasingly automated, the artist-entrepreneurs at DIY Printing in Walnut Hills and Powerhouse Factories in Newport collaborate with arts organizations to teach people how to use manual screen-printing presses to create posters, art prints, and T-shirts.

"There's a human intelligence in the way the inks are mixed, and there's a human touch to the press of the squeegee," said Aaron Kent, founder of DIY Printing.

Why would someone choose one T-shirt over the other? Think about what would make you spend $25 on a shirt, and use that knowledge to help customers create unique and impactful apparel.

To help ignite a new attitude and inject a new life into the promotional products industry for 2014, PromoKitchen and SanMar's District brand of apparel have partnered to create REVIFIFY—a T-shirt design competition.

The same people who stirred a bit of morality into your morning cup of joe want to get into your overstuffed closet, too. Fair Trade USA, a nonprofit organization that certifies that goods made in developing countries meet certain standards related to wages and environmental impact, is several years into an effort to bring its standards to the clothing industry. The effort began quietly, but has recently started to gain momentum. Just a few weeks ago, Patagonia pledged to launch a Fair Trade certified line of yoga apparel.