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Watch the trailer to Planet Money makes a T-shirt. Then let's discuss your answer to the following question:

Do you think the world can function without globalisation today as it has once upon a time? Why?

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How We Did This

Why A T-Shirt?

We wanted to see the hidden world behind clothes sold in this country, so we decided to make a T-shirt. We wanted to make an ordinary shirt like the vast majority of the shirts sold in this country - not organic cotton, not hand-sewn in the United States.

To figure out how many shirts to make, and to raise money to pay for them, we turned to Kickstarter. Our goal was to sell 2,000 shirts. In the end, we sold 25,000.

(Thanks again to everyone who ordered a shirt. Really. Amazing. We couldn't have done it without you!)

Why A Squirrel?

The design on the shirt, a squirrel hoisting a martini glass, is a visual pun: a reference to the phrase "animal spirits" made famous by the economist John Maynard Keynes.

As Planet Money's David Kestenbaum put it recently: "Keynes' idea was that there's more to the markets than just numbers; there are people and emotions making decisions. And to the extent that we are finding the human element in the very dry subject of economics, it's actually perfect for us."

10 Reporters, 3 Continents, 1 Archipelago

We flew drones over Mississippi. We got mugged in Chittagong, Bangladesh. We met people whom we'll never forget - the actual people who make our clothing. At every location we had radio reporters and videographers.

More T-Shirt Stories!

Good news: We have more T-shirt stories than we could fit on this site.

For more, subscribe to the Planet Money podcast.

A Little Help From Our Friends

Adam Davidson, Planet Money co-founder, came up with the idea of doing this project in the first place more than three years ago.

We were inspired a lot by a book: The Travels Of A T-shirt In The Global Economy. In fact, we hired the author, Pietra Rivoli, to be an adviser on the project. She's a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Bawen, Indonesia: Jess Jiang faces the classic producer's dilemma: One machine tells a story. A thousand create a racket.

After several years of trying and failing to make a T-shirt from scratch, we finally found some help from Jockey Corp. Marion Smith, the director of global sourcing for Jockey, was patient with us on the phone. (T-shirts are knitted, not woven. They're made from something that looks like thread but is called yarn.) Eventually, Jockey agreed to sell us T-shirts - and, more important, to let us follow the creation of those shirts.

The Planet Money T-shirts are made of fabric that Jockey's textile experts developed. They're based on a design pattern Jockey uses for its own T-shirt line. Jockey introduced us to its suppliers in Bangladesh and Colombia, and those suppliers agreed to assemble our shirts. And Jockey designers helped us pick out the colors for our shirts.

Credits

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Alex Blumberg

PROJECT ADVISER: Pietra Rivoli/McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

MANAGING PRODUCERS: Kainaz Amaria, Brian Boyer and Joshua Davis

PLANET MONEY: Quoctrung Bui, Zoe Chace, Jacob Goldstein, Jess Jiang, Caitlin Kenney, David Kestenbaum, Marianne McCune and Robert Smith

VIDEO DIRECTOR: Joshua Davis

MULTIMEDIA PRODUCERS: Kainaz Amaria, Joshua Davis, and Claire O'Neill

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO: Kainaz Amaria, Nacho Corbella, Joshua Davis, David Gilkey, Eric Helton, James Jensen, Soren Jensen, Katie Hayes Luke and David Nevala

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT: Jeremy Bowers, Danny DeBelius, Alyson Hurt and Wes Lindamood ( Source code on GitHub)

WRITER: Jacob Goldstein

COPY EDITING: Janey Adams, Stephanie Federico, Avie Schneider and Susan Vavrick

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION: Phia Bennin, Anirvan Ghosh, Frank Hernandez, Seth Maxon, Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez, Molly Messick, Eileen Mignoni, Urmila Ramakrishnan, Tiffany Salone and Alejandra Vengoechea

MOTION GRAPHICS: Suzanne Batmanghelichi and Adam Cole

SOUND EDITING: Drew Kennedy

LEGAL: Ashley Messenger and Brian Rideout

T-SHIRT ILLUSTRATOR: Bob Bianchini

ARCHIVAL VIDEO: AP Archive, U.S. Department of Agriculture ( via archive.org)

MUSIC:
"The Journey," "Goldengrove v2," "Wallflower" (Keith Kenniff/Unseen Music)
"Fire Ignorance," "Anthem" (Tyler Strickland)
"Club Coolada" (Cream Dream/Crash Symbols)
"Shade of Music" (Elias Music Library/Getty Music Library)
"B&G's" (Bela R. Balogh and Gabe Leavitt/3 Leg Torso)
"Stay Golden" (Au Revoir Simone/Moshi Moshi Records)
"Mirrors" (Crocodiles/Fat Possum Records)

SPECIAL THANKS: Coburn Dukehart; Jeffrey Silberman/Fashion Institute of Technology
Published December 2, 2013
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The world behind a simple shirt, in five chapters.

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1. Click the + sign in the right-hand corner of the screen. Write your name on top and then answer the following questions. Feel free to add an image or GIF to your post!

2. List as many items you can think of that you have used in the last 24 hours.

3. Research where THREE of these items were grown, produced, manufactured or made.

4. Research the production process of these items. How were they made?

5. Did the information you learnt about your item surprise you? Why or why not?

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pen, clothing, hair straightner, laptop, coffee cup, dog leash, shower cap, hair tie

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This is my own post! It's much easier for us all to read

Although I can't type when people are watching, apparently

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Our leather makers start with only the absolute highest quality English Bridle leather. The type of leather hides chosen come from North American Cattle, these leather hides are then tanned within the USA. The leather used on our dog collars and leashes comes from one of only two vegetable tanneries left in the USA. The hides soak in a long bath of natural tannins, allowing the oils to fully soak into the leather for total absorption. Leading to a slightly firm leather that continues to soften more and more over time, as the oils work there ways to the outer layers of your leather gear.

A complex 6 week long tanning process takes place, with the end result being the most beautiful rich leather availableOnce the tanning process is completed, top grain super heavy leather graded as 1# is selected for use. The pattern for your leather dog collar or leash are first cut by hand, this means you will never have 2 leashes exactly the same as your individual item has been shaped to the perfect shape for dog leads or collars.

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We have been hand-making our superior dog gear in Australia since 2018. We are a small family business, 100% Australian Owned, with all our Dog Toy manufacturing within Australia. Experience real craftsmanship with our range of dog tug toys, handcrafted in Australia from premium materials such as tension-braided fleece, climbing grade USA made webbing, and an array of real Australian Furs.