University of Central Florida - Central Florida Future By Jennifer Pritchard - November 7, 2010
The next time you are about to buy a T-shirt, you may want to stop and consider the clothing label it was made by.
Alta Gracia, an American-owned college logo clothing company, is making it simple for students to support fair wages.
College students nationwide don't even have to leave campus to buy apparel that supports factory workers earning a "living wage."
A few weeks ago, University of Central Florida's on campus Barnes and Noble bookstore began selling the Alta Gracia clothing label in its stores.
Unlike any other clothing label, the company pays its factory workers more than three and a half times their country's minimum wage, according to the company's website.
This living wage that Alta Gracia employees receive is based on calculations of the average cost of living in the Dominican Republic.
Junior Aimee Brown, a sports and fitness major, said that the clothing label is a great idea. Especially since they are of the same quality and price of any other clothes in the bookstore, she said.
"Knowing where it's coming from is even more incentive to buy it," Brown said.
The brand consists of T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies with printed logos of more than 300 universities.
The company, owned by Knights Apparel, is the No. 1 one supplier of college-logo apparel at American universities, according to the Collegiate Licensing Company.
Alta Gracia is dedicated in giving their workers a wage that makes it possible to pay for living expenses and still afford to send their children to school. Many workers are now even able to attend school themselves, an opportunity many of them thought would never be possible.
Alta Gracia is also the only clothing brand approved by Worker's Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights group that allows the clothing label to carry their WRC tag. Read Full Story Here
