SALENA ZITO ON ETHICAL SOURCING:
Both Savannah retail stores were bustling last week — the massive outlet attached to the production factory and the flagship store on the iconic cobblestone River Street. There is no shortage of consumers looking for apparel outside of brands like Nike, which often positions itself as a social justice apparel company.
Mr. Merritt said he decided early on — even when Nine Line was a garage operation — that the design and production of his apparel, as well as any other item they carry, would be done in America and that his hiring priority would go to military families.
He was also adamant that none of the fabric used in making Nine Line’s apparel would be unethically sourced: “Especially when it comes from any suppliers who were part of the slave trade in the Xinjiang region of China.”
Much of the world’s cotton comes from the Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China, a land long populated by the largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic group. The Chinese government has filled the region with forced-labor and “reeducation” camps meant to neutralize this historic minority. Many Western companies that tout their human rights and social justice street cred look the other way to out-bid competitors who don’t use cotton from this region.
Last June, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act went into effect, requiring companies to prove that imported goods originating from the Xinjiang were not made using forced labor.
Mr. Merritt said there’s a flaw in the law, which relies on companies to be truthful about their products’ origin: “They are making companies sign this piece of paper that says you did not bring in any Xinjiang cotton. You sign it, and that counts.”
One month ago, Mr. Merritt discovered through isotopic testing — sort of like doing a DNA test on fabric to detect the unique fingerprint of the country of origin — that one of his fabric suppliers had been using cotton from Xinjiang.
To say he was livid would be an understatement. Mr. Merritt walked over to the scores of pallets he has lined up with the tainted shirts, most of which had already been threaded with the Nine Line logo and a variety of designs — meaning huge amounts of sunk costs in time and work and money.
He climbed up on top one of the boxes and spread his arms wide at the stock on which he’ll never see a full return: “These are all going back.”
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