Ice Cream Maker Turns to Apparel With New L.A. Venture
City officials, garment workers and a few Ben & Jerry’s ice cream devotees recently turned out for the opening of Los Angeles’ newest garment manufacturer, SweatX.
The company was designed as a garment workers’ cooperative that promotes garment manufacturing in a sweatshop-free apparel venture.
“Hopefully, it will set some moral standard in the industry by making a profit while treating workers with dignity and including them in the company’s ownership,” explained Christopher Mackin, president of Ownership Associates Inc., who serves as the company’s consultant.
SweatX is the brainchild of Pierre Ferrari, who serves as the company’s board chairman and chief executive officer; Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade ice cream; and Duane Peterson, whose title at Ben & Jerry’s is “chief of stuff.” Cohen’s Hot Fudge Social Venture Fund is backing the new company.
Cohen and his partners plan to raise consumer awareness of working conditions in garment shops—while turning out T-shirts and turning a profit.
“I’m like so many of the people concerned about sweatshops, and our group is using the power of business to address social problems,” explained Cohen.
The T-shirts and sweatshirts will be manufactured using computerized cutting equipment purchased with the help of $1.5 million from the Hot Fudge fund. All apparel will be assembled in-house and then sent out for printing and embroidery. The company may also sell T-shirt and sweatshirt blanks. SweatX’s 20 employees will be paid $8.50 per hour, but Ferrari said the increased labor costs will only add about $1 to the finished retail cost of the garments.
Cohen said there’s a market willing to pay extra for apparel manufactured by workers earning a living wage. He likened the new company’s concept to organic foods, which have found a customer base willing to pay more for the products.
“People resisted organic products for a long time, but there is a market for it,” he said. —Claudia Figueroa
