JC Penney’s “American Made” T-Shirts Struggle with Geography
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 by RichI was reading the BTW section in BusinessWeek about the fact that JC Penney’s “American Made” t-shirts are actually made in Mexico, and this is causing a bit of a stir.
I think we all know that the American flags, cups and t-shirts we’re buying at Wal-Mart and the corner store are often being made in China and elsewhere, so on one level, should we be surprised?
I was however, taken aback by a couple of things the JC Penny spokesperson had to say:
1) “[The line is] intended to evoke our American lifestyle and pride in being American.”
But apparently not in our pride in American workmanship.
2) “‘American Made’ refers to “the actual person wearing the shirt, not to the manufacturing of the merchandise.”
No word on whether JC Penny would seek legal action if they found any Mexicans wearing the shirt, or God forbid, Canadians.
