A Few of My Favorite Things
I've written previously about the surreal nature of Converse's Chuck Taylor All-Stars, the shoes I grew up in, now being owned by Nike and manufactured overseas.
The shoes I wore as a kid were emblazoned with "Made in the U.S.A." -- but then, many things were back then.
Tonight, as I was taking a picture of "some of my favorite things" for an upcoming online project, I realized that NONE of them are made in America.
My Chucks were made in China. My iconic America Levi 501's in Mexico and my Blackberry in...well, it actually isn't branded as coming from anywhere. But parent company Research In Motion is from Canada.
If I'd thought about it for five minutes I guess I would have laid money on all of these products being manufactured elsewhere - but having them all in a pile as things I can't do without and realizing they're all imports...it's a little creepy.
What are your favorite things...and are any of them American?
UPDATE: After reading this entry a co-worker relates the following story:
"I was in Wal-Mart looking for a pair of cargo pants. I picked up two pairs and looked at the labels. One was made in Bangladesh, one in Vietnam. So I'm standing there literally thinking: which one of these countries has worse child labor standards? Which of these pairs of pants makes me a worse person?"
