The Biggest Reasons to Choose Local Textiles
April 23, 2018 10:12 pm Leave your thoughtsWith just about any industry you can think of, it’s important to support local businesses and product developers. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest benefits associated with supporting local textile makers and producers of cotton mill components in Lubbock, TX:
- Support local employment: By purchasing local textiles, you support local workers as well, keeping jobs in your area. Over the years, many industries (including the textile industry) have seen jobs outsourced to countries all over the world. By making it a point to support American-based companies, particularly those near where you live, you can help keep companies thriving right here in your area.
- Benefits to other companies: When you purchase local textiles, you’re not just supporting that single textile company. There are other companies that benefit from that purchase decision as well. For example, the company that supplies all the textile machinery and maintains and repairs those machines also gets a lot of benefits, in addition to the textile mill used by the textile sellers. In large numbers, these dollars from supporting local textile companies go a long way and affect multiple companies.
- Job creation: Not only does purchasing local textiles directly support the employees already working for those textile companies, but it can also help create jobs at companies throughout the industry.
- Decreased shipping pollution: Right now, approximately 60 percent of the textiles created throughout the world are produced in developing countries. Asia produces about a third of the entire global supply of garments. As local production and labor costs rise, more companies are shipping their manufacturing jobs overseas and then importing the products back. While this helps companies save a little bit of money in the form of reduced manufacturing costs, there are also some serious implications for the environment. The more companies that bring in their textiles from overseas, the more pollution is created during transportation. Consider this: a single ship used to transport goods can produce as much pollution as 50 million cars. By supporting local textile companies, you cut down on the amount of pollution being created in these shipping processes.
- Support local artistry: As the textile industry becomes more and more globalized, there is less opportunity for local artistry to shine through in clothing. The mass producers of textiles and garments essentially make the same things over and over again, because it is cheap to do so and because the sellers know that’s the best way for them to turn a profit. However, this globalization has led to a lack of indigenous, local artistry in textile work. You can support creativity by buying local.
- Support good labor practices: Many developing countries have significant problems with forced, slave or dramatically underpaid labor in their textile factories. They are able to get away with this because of fewer regulations, high demand for jobs and the fact that western nations continue to ship their work overseas to those countries despite the ethical implications. You can support good labor practices by giving your money to local businesses instead.
For more reasons to shop local for cotton mill components in Lubbock, TX, contact us today at M.B. McKee Company, Inc.
Categorised in: Cotton Mill Components
This post was written by Writer