Last post, I said that I believe t-shirts do matter.  At first, I felt like “t-shirts are t-shirts” (like one might say “rocks are rocks”), what makes them matter?  As I thought about it more, though, I realized that t-shirts do matter.  Their ubiquity and pervasiveness doesn’t make them less relevant, but paradoxically more relevant.  When everyone has them, there’s a struggle to be different, unique, and noteworthy.  So in a world of commodities, of similarity, and of continuity, what makes the ever-present t-shirt any different?  Well, here’s what makes our t-shirts different:

• AFRCN APPRL doesn’t use slave labor to create our shirts—we help support real people with real jobs that pay a real wage
• When you buy AFRCN APPRL, you support trade, not aid
• Our cotton is ring spun and not combed (a process that’s expensive and almost never found in Africa)
• In Africa, our shirts are priced so that Africans can actually buy them
• While “one for one” is catchy, Africans don’t need t-shirts, they need business development, so we’ve built our business to do that
• With the global cotton shortage, we’re paying more for our shirts than ever, but that means our African farmers are getting a better price for cotton and we like that
• AFRCN APPRL uses an US-African agreement (called AGOA) sorarely used that only the U.S. Trade Department knows how to use it
• South Africa is the farthest country from Denver, CO, making our shirts are more well traveled than any other apparel out there

Maybe I am biased, but I believe African t-shirts matter far more than most.  You get a chance to wear your heart on your short-sleeve everyday.  So, what’s on your heart?