After a nearly three year struggle, a Penn group is yet again trying to get the University to approve a line of sweatshop-alternative clothing.
Exports and Manufacturing by Penn Advocates of Workers' Rights submitted the line which includes machine-embroidered Penn logos to Penn's Center for Technology Transfer this past week to try and get it approved for sale by Christmas season.
EMPAWR is a non-profit corporation that stemmed from the Penn Students Against Sweatshops group and was started three years ago by Bryan Hirsch, a 2003 College graduate.
Hirsch started the group following a massive on-campus sit-in during February 2000, which demanded that the University more effectively monitor labor conditions during the manufacturing of Penn-logo apparel.
According to Hirsch, the protest was not enough.
"A big student critique [of the Students Against Sweatshops] was that they still didn't have an alternative to offer," Hirsch said.
After meeting with local artisans in Ecuador and after five years of research and protests, Hirsch materialized a line of handmade clothing with the aid of Ecuadorian artisans and dedicated Penn students.
This is the third time that EMPAWR has submitted samples with Penn logos to the CTT. The first time, their request was rejected because their handmade emblems did not accurately reproduce the Penn logo. The second time, their samples were approved, but they ran into problems after not being able to afford the $1 million product liability insurance necessary for the sale of the items.
This time, however, EMPAWR thinks they've got it just right.
"We have every reason to believe this will get approved" Hirsch said.
EMPAWR student researcher and Wharton and College junior Alastair Green agreed, saying that "the quality of these items is really high."
Although they have not yet been able to sell the items engraved with the Penn logo, EMPAWR has had quite a few sales of sample items that have been produced by the artisans.
This past week on Locust Walk, they marketed their 100 percent wool products and will be promoting their cause again this week. The past few holiday seasons, the Penn Bookstore has also opened up their lobby to EMPAWR to sell their goods.
Hirsch said the bookstore staff and management has been "really supportive," and he claims that they "are very interested in getting non-sweatshop clothing."
The sample sales "have been wildly successful when it's here, and we all wear it," said bookstore spokeswoman Chris Hibbard, although she didn't know about any future collaborations with EMPAWR.
EMPAWR is expecting to hear the verdict on their product line from CTT within a month, when they will then hopefully pursue advertising their products and expand their cause to other college campuses.
Green said that he suspects that CTT's ultimate decision largely "depends on the University's general stance on the issue."
In the past, there have been rocky relations between PSAS and Penn administrators, after the sit-in held in University President Judith Rodin's office in early 2000, which protested the University's involvement in what Hirsch refers to as the "corrupt" Fair Labor Association.
However, Hirsch said that he hopes "that President Rodin and the administration will back us up and be proud that students at Penn have gone the extra step."
To garner the administration's approval, this past week at their booth on Locust Walk, EMPAWR helped students fill out postcards to Rodin requesting the right to authentic, handmade Penn gear.
EMPAWR products range from $10 pillow cases to $40 tapestries. Some particularly unique items are messenger bags hand-woven in geometrical patterns and cargo pants, as well as two different sizes of area rugs.
All sales so far have been successful, which leads EMPAWR members to believe that their products will be a hit in the future.
Jeff Klein, a Wharton and Engineering sophomore, said that he thinks Penn students would be interested in the opportunity to purchase clothing free of sweat-shop labor.
Penn students "would probably buy it as long as it didn't cost substantially more."
