Inspired by NPR’s Planet Money’s T-shirt Project, which followed the economics of a simple T-shirt from start to finish, cotton farm to garment factory to store, Associate Dean and Professor of Management R.T. Good, Ed.D., created an inspirational, economic and entrepreneurial lesson for his Introduction to Business class.
The producers behind Planet Money were themselves inspired by the book, The Travels Of A T-shirt In The Global Economy, by Pietra Rivoli. Through the process the producers “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.” With the help of Jockey Corporation, 10 reporters, and visits to three continents and one archipelago, Planet Money revealed the path and economic problems of the U.S. garment industry. Planning to sell only 2,000 T-shirts, they eventually sold 25,000 shirts using Kickstarter–a creative crowdfunding site.
While it wasn’t possible to retrace the entire path that Planet Money took to develop a T-shirt, it was possible to enlist the help of a local business, Signet Screen Printing and Embroidery, to develop a shirt locally. Dr. Good designed a cheeky slogan, “Proud owner of a Byrd brain,” that was printed by Signet. Then a representative from Signet visited Good’s class to talk about the screen printing process and how to succeed as a locally owned business. For the lecture, each student received a locally finished “Proud owner of a Byrd brain” T-shirt to wear to class.
Through this lesson, students were exposed to the global economic ramifications of the garment industry, and through a creative twist, also learned of local entrepreneurship.