Planned obsolescence—designed to break and eventually fail—has been fueling our consumer culture for at least 60 years, if not longer. Being beholden to throwaway products will eventually bring everything down at some point.
This morning, I grabbed a t-shirt in the dark as I was dressing to head out the door for my twice-weekly swim at the Y. The fabric felt worn and lived in. When I got into the light, I saw it was my Uncle Tupelo shirt I bought at Bowdoin College in 1994, when the band came through town on their Anodyne Tour. I don’t have any other similar shirts that have lasted 21 years. The shirt is a Fruit of the Loom, 100 percent cotton, pre-shrunk tee, which was also made in the USA. My shirt actually outlasted the band, which splintered when the band’s creative duo of Jeff Tweedy left to form Wilco and Jay Farrar went on to form Son Volt.
I wonder when Fruit of the Loom offshored its manufacturing? Probably soon after.
Well-worn Uncle Tupelo rock tee.