<\/p>\n
The University of Michigan is a commercial empire, and like all empires, the University is built on invisible labor. But no industry ties the University more visibly to the global economy of exploitation than the one stitched into its own brand. The Block \u2018M\u2019 travels further than most corporate logos. You see it everywhere \u2014 on sidelines, on bumper stickers, on shelves in Tokyo, on the backs of students who have never set foot in Ann Arbor. Nike pays more than $173 million<\/a> to license that logo. The collegiate apparel market it feeds is projected to grow from $9.2 billion to $15.4 billion<\/a> by 2033.\u00a0<\/p>\n But behind every hoodie with that Block \u2018M\u2019 is a worker whose name the University does not know, in a factory it cannot locate, in conditions it has never asked about. The University moves millions<\/a> of dollars\u2019 worth of licensed apparel every year. It knows the revenue to the decimal, but the majority of factories where that apparel was made remain a mystery.\u00a0<\/p>\n The global garment industry<\/a> depends on distance and deniability. In these fragmented<\/a> supply chains, a single T-shirt might begin as cotton picked in Brazil, spun into yarn in Bangladesh, woven into fabric in China, dyed in Morocco and finally stitched together in Guatemala \u2014 all to save a few cents per garment. Brands like Nike employ a subcontracting model<\/a>, where each handoff diffuses responsibility. Each layer of subcontracting makes it harder to trace who made what, under what conditions and at what human and environmental cost. No single brand owns all the factories where the damage can occur, so no single brand is ever fully on the hook. When workers organize to demand better conditions, the brands simply move<\/a> production somewhere cheaper. Labor solidarity is not just undercut; it is priced out. <\/p>\n The tag on your hoodie is only<\/a> where the fabric was finally assembled. Every stage that came before \u2014 from the fiber production to the dyeing \u2014 is hidden. Industry research has consistently shown that severe abuses<\/a> occur at every stage of the supply chain, including the ones the tag was never required to name.<\/p>\n