Jerseys from China

Later this month, some buddies and I will be riding in the Austin Livestrong Challenge, a bike ride sponsored by the Livestrong Foundation as a way to raise awareness and funds for their efforts against cancer.  (Super excited!!!!)

Gloriana and I got lucky in meeting a great group of people through one of the Saturday morning group rides from Mellow Johnnys (Lance Armstrong's bike shop in downtown Austin).  They are a fun bunch of people and we ended up joining their team, Los Duros (an explanation of the team name requires a trip to the team leader, Alex's, house and a tour of his backyard and his peach tree :).

Anyways, Alex and Chris from Los Duros did something really cool - they made a custom designed race jersey!!  This is exciting because, usually, only really big teams with sponsors have cool looking matching jerseys.  Let's just say, having a personalized jersey has never been on my radar - till now.  They were able to upload a jersey design and have them made from www.eclipsecycling.com.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, there was a mess up with the USPS delivery of our jerseys, which led me to tracking it down and digging into its past travels.  What struck me the most was being able to see the direct path our jerseys took from China to the post office in Austin,Texas and now to my living room.  We all know that a huge portion of what we buy is 'Made in China' but I think it has become commonplace to assume and take for granted that what's produced in China will just show up in the US, ready for our consumption.  Seeing the timeline below really made the origin of the jerseys come to life.  

Ever since visiting China last summer, I've been more conscious of and interested in the Chinese factories.  Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie Chang is an excellent insight into the life of the workers in the factory.  She also sheds light on the migration of Chinese people into the cities and factory towns.  Fun fact: China is experiencing what some call hyper-rapid urbanization, and by 2030, 1 Billion people are expected to be living in Chinese cities.

Dealing directly with the Chinese factory

It's actually kind of cool if you think about it.  When our package wasn't getting here on time, I was able to email the customer service address and get a reply within 24 hours.  Albeit was in broken English, I definitely could understand it enough to know that I had to contact the post office here to reschedule a package pickup.   It still blows my mind that it is cost effective to make something half way around the world and mail it here.  It's really cool how the infrastructure is in place for me to not only communicate what I want and get it here, but to be able to communicate with the manufacturers when there's a glitch in the chain.  

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the label.  Funny thing is, nowhere on the tag or jersey does it say 'Made in China'.

Major flashbacks to some memories visiting a Chinese restaurant in Guilin, China:

But, back to the main motivation for writing this post.  For me, and probably a lot of other people, it's a pretty big deal to fly to San Francisco,  let alone Shanghai, China.  To think that sooo much of our stuff comes from China, traveling by ship or plane -- that's a lot of work, energy, and gas that goes into getting the goods to the US.  

I've heard that a lot of people want to reduce their personal carbon footprint by reducing air travel.  Stand around a runway and you'll start to smell that jet fuel.  But, here's some food for thought.  Is it enough to limit our personal plane travel when so much of what we wear and use on a daily basis has made that trans-Pacific flight?  Just something to think about.  

On a lighter note :)
Cool place I visited that promotes local artists and handmade goods in Austin:  The Burlap Bag (full story of visit :)
Ahhh!!! I couldn't help but reminisce about traveling when I was looking for that Chinese menu picture. Some fun travel videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/hhill3615?feature=mhee 

Over 'n out!
Heather