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| David Bergen Levi Strauss Image Credit: veritydenim.wordpress.com |
Sandblasting does not ring a standard-issue idea of exploitative labor practices, but it reportedly does its dark work. The process is quite singular and disproportionate to its frivolous purpose: making jeans look more bespoke as they age. Global brands like Levi Strauss, H&M, New Look, and Marks & Spencer have condemned the practice, even banning it from their production. These stakeholders have since decried other jeans’ producers’ failure to follow suit.
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| David Bergen Levi Strauss Image Credit: tumblr.com |
Sandblasting exposes workers to silica dust derived from sand, causing severe respiratory ailments. Jeans prepped with this method have been thereafter known as “killer jeans.”
David Bergen was part of Levi Strauss & Co. at a time it had established its lead in the industry. In 2010, the pioneering jeans company issued a strong, unequivocal message on sandblasting: No.
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| David Bergen Levi Strauss Image Credit: greencupboards.com |
Initially, as sandblasting was gaining an insidious global reputation as a health hazard to jeans workers, the plan was merely to intensify safety practices and health programs. However, Levi Strauss Chief Supply Chain Officer David Love pronounced the practice wholly untenable, and the company most averse to the smallest risks that sandblasting may inflict upon its employees.
Go to this David Bergen Facebook page for an insider’s look at the business of making jeans.
