Comments on: The Queen of Cool & the Sandman: The people who make our blue jeans

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:33:00 +0000

@ Clark

I don’t know right off hand how many jeans the factory produced per day. Probably in my notes somewhere. Workers in Cambodia earn around $50 per month and they don’t exactly have health, dental, vision insurance or a 401K. Really, they are lucky if the don’t have to pay a bribe to get the job in the first place.

@ Melissa

Yep, I don’t know this woman’s name and for good reason. When you are getting a tour of a garment factory it’s best not to show too much interest in the workers, but more interest in the garments. If I would have stopped this woman to ask her her name, I have no doubt that my tour would have come to an abrupt end, and I never would have had the opportunity to see the Sandman in action. While in the factory I asked questions about blue jeans and observed the workers. I did all of my interacting with the workers away from the factories. There I spent quite a bit of time with Nari, Ai, Phoan, Chendu, and the list of names goes on. Not to mention, interacting with the workers in or around the factory may have gotten the workers in trouble.

I hope you’ll forgive me for not knowing her name, but, trust me, she has one.

By: melissa

melissa — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:13:00 +0000

I love how Kelsey writes about the woman who frays pockets on jeans and is all “She is not a machine. She has a name” but doesn’t even mention her name. Must not have been that important, huh?

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:09:00 +0000

Kelsey, do you have any idea how many jeans a factory like the one you describe produces per day? What does the average worker make? Do they have any benefits outside of a regular paycheck?

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:20:00 +0000

@ Sam

Darn, you just outed my next two books: 1. “Where are my batteries from” 2. “Calisthenics: overrated or underutilized in today’s workforce.”

I was a child laborer myself in a factory building wood trusses. It was the family business and apparently parents can work their own kids as much as they want.

I come from a small town in Ohio. It used to have a lot of factory jobs, but not anymore. How about the small town you came from?

@ Kate

I’m glad. It’s been great working with the Mental_Floss folks.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:59:00 +0000

I’m really enjoying these-thanks for posting!!

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:57:00 +0000

Man, we never got club music to go with our calisthenics when I worked at a battery factory as a summer job. In fact, we didn’t even have calisthenics, they could probably care less if we all developed carpal tunnel and crooked backs.

The small town I’m from has a large number of factories, so during the summers a lot of the area students take jobs to earn a little extra money. It’s something I hope to never have to do again. You get completely filthy within 5 minutes of walking through the door, spend your day tired and sore, doing the exact same thing all day long, and get a grand total of 20 minutes for breaks, lunch included – and this was considered one of the better factories to work for!