My new online friend Thaler Pekar turned me on to Re-Shirt, a site that sells used t-shirts and the stories that go with them. Here’s a fuller explanation from the site:
The Re-Shirt is different from its used compatriots in that it has a story to
tell. It all starts with a T-shirt that someone associates with a special memory: an important career step, an unforgettable football match, a demonstration in Guatemala, the feeling of an entire stage in their life. These shirts are collected, quality inspected, and put on display at Re-Shirt. When one of these shirts is purchased, it is given its very own orange Re-Shirt Label, a number is printed on it, and it begins a new registered life. Every future owner can now document the experiences they have with their Re-Shirt online and continue the story of this piece of clothing.
The site, based in Vienna, Austria, is also all about sustainability: “the longer your shirt is in use,” the site states, “the more it helps to keep existing cotton resources in circulation.” In addition, “10,000 liters of water are needed to produce a new cotton shirt. Re-Shirts save resources in a completely new way. Every Re-Shirt story makes a difference.”
The bottom line — and the convergence between story and sustainability is this question: “Do products last longer if you know their history?”
Apparently folks donate shirts to the site, which then affixes orange Re-Shirt Labels and a number and sells the shirts.
A few of the many stories attached to shirts offered on the site include a shirt given by an ex-boyfriend, a shirt obtained at a porn convention, a shirt that has traveled throughout the world, and one from a Hopi Indian reservation.