How A T-Shirt Is Made: The Epic, Astounding Story

For many of us, the most you think about a plain T-shirt is how you can dress it up. But, leave it to the folks at Planet Money to completely broaden our horizons. The team commissioned a small-batch order of regular T-shirts to be made and then followed the entire process from soup to nuts cotton farm to Kickstarter consumer.



"We wanted to tell the story of our clothes the way the vast majority of our clothes are actually made. Because, behind all of our clothes — behind this shirt — there is an entire world. Once you see that world, you realize there's nothing ordinary about a simple T-shirt," Planet Money notes in the video. And, the series covers all the bases, looking at the politics of cotton production in the United States, the incredibly complicated technologies that go into spinning thread, the lives of factory textile workers abroad, and the giant economic success that is global shipping. Additionally — and this is the part you probably know best — you get a look at the individuals who incorporate the shirt into their own wardrobes. So, educate yourself, and take some time to learn the story of a regular T-shirt. (Planet Money)