Project Repat

I wrote once before about the little-known fact that America's stockpiles of used t-shirts mostly ends up in the third world as cheap second-hand clothing for the global poor. Now along comes the notion of Project Repat that wants to exploit hipster demand for the double-irony of used t-shirts from Africa by buying these shirts at developing world markets, shipping them back to the United States, and using the profits to finance charitable activities:

The Project Repat Kickstarter Video from Project Repat on Vimeo.

I don't really know what to make of this slightly mind-boggling concept. But any day is a good day for a reminder that we currently have in this country a hideously regressive system of sales taxes on imported clothing that hurt poor Americans while also making it harder for poor foreign countries to get on the first rung of the industrialization ladder.