Rivoli Chapter 13 Summary
In Chapters 13 and 14, Rivoli follows the T-shirt to its “final” stage of life. Surprisingly, it is at this final stage that it is the most real and globalized market. Huge multinational corporations do not dominate this part of the T-shirt’s life, but it is the personal relationships that come with small family businesses, which thrive in the industry of transporting America’s unwanted clothing to the poorer countries of the world. Rivoli talks about the snowflake effect, which emerges as each item of disposed clothing is different and thus must be perfectly matched with its buyer. For the last 30 years, America has been a successful exporter of recycled clothing, because it is often the case, American just “don’t like” their clothes any more