The following blog post was written on the evening of the 14th July. Due to technological restrictions it was posted at a later date. Pictures will be posted even later...sorry!
This morning we visited Formosa Textile, one of the large factories in Lesotho. Although I was interested in visiting one of the factories, it turned out be even more fascinating than I thought it would be. We were also
The factory we visited makes denim, which they sell to textile manufacturing companies that make jeans for Levis, Old Navy, Wal-Mart, and Gloria Vanderbilt. Every month they make 1.5 million yard of fabric, of which between 30-50% goes to the United States.
We had the chance to see the entire process of the denim being created starting with the large bales of cotton in the warehouse, then the spinning of the cotton into thread, next the weaving of the thread into fabric, and finally the dying of the fabric to the dark denim color. After the fabric is created it goes to quality control to be checked for inconsistencies.
One aspect of the process that stood out from the others is the dying process. This is because we were not allowed to take pictures of this part of the production. We were told that it was because of copying protection, since the company specially made the equipment. However, our group believes environmental concerns were the real reason they did not want pictures of the dying process taken. Specifically, considering the deep blue river that is located near the factory.
2 comments:
You remark on the reason for not being able to take pictures in the dyeing room is totally incorrect and to some extend irresponsible because the blue river that you are mentioning did not come from the Formosa Mill. You had not visited the multi million US Dollar treatment plant that Formosa had at the back, there you would see that the dyed water has been treated to a clear water before it is being discharged.
From Johnny Lin
Wow, I've never really thought about the whole process of making a pair of jeans!
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