How Did This Get Here: Your Wardrobe

1A

NPR

News

4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A sleeve, a collar, soles, or laces — these elements of your wardrobe vary and define your style. But it takes many steps to get them from a factory into your closet.

How does something like a t-shirt become a finished product?

About 97 percent of clothing and footwear in the U.S. is imported, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. Those imports are mostly from Asian countries including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.

We unpack it in this installment of our series, "How Did This Get Here," where we follow the supply chains and costs associated with some of your favorite products.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Am I a propagandist?
0:01.7	A truth teller.
0:02.9	An influencer?
0:04.2	There's probably no more contested profession in the world today than mine, journalism.
0:09.3	I'm Brian Reed, and on my show, Question Everything,
0:12.1	we dive head first into the conflicts we're all facing over truth and who gets to tell it.
0:17.4	Listen now to Question Everything, part of the NPR Podcast Network.
0:29.5	Thank you. tell it. Listen now to question everything, part of the NPR podcast network. A sleeve, a collar, soles, or laces, all elements of your wardrobe that define your
0:35.0	style. But it takes many steps for those elements to turn into
0:38.8	the items in your closet. How does something like that t-shirt you wear regularly become a finished
0:43.8	product? We explain how our clothes get to us and how new tariffs could change their prices
0:48.6	in the last installment of our series. How did this get here? That's where we follow the supply chains
0:53.9	and costs associated
0:55.0	with some of your favorite products. Not only buy local, except a force for clothing and produce,
1:00.7	medication, water, seasoning meat. About 97% of clothing and footwear in the U.S. is imported.
1:08.1	That's according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association. Most of that
1:11.7	apparel is imported from Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.
1:16.6	And even clothing that says made in America on the label usually uses something from overseas.
1:22.6	How easy is it for these items to become things you can buy local? We try to answer that question after
1:28.2	this short break. I'm Jen Moyt. You're listening to the 1A podcast. Stay with us. We've got a lot to get to.
1:37.9	This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things and other currencies. With Wise, you can
1:43.5	send, spend, or receive money
	...

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