shop local, excepting this well-traveled t-shirt that says "shop local."

• Help me source the perfect grungy t-shirt that's made in USA (as close to VA as possible) so that when my company prints "shop local" on it, they're actually shopping local. My local company has differentiated itself from its competition by walking the talk. We put substantial resources into the local community - not just money but tons of time, expertise, leveraging other resources, etc. Sustainable change, one project/person/nonprofit at a time. We've been recognized nationally and locally for our efforts. So we're planning to print t-shirts with a variation of the "shop local" theme. Our staff will wear them, we'll give them away at events, etc. CEO has a very specific design he wants, and it's the sort of mottled/faded red seen http://www.anthemstore.co.uk/collections/t-shirts/products/champion-todd-snyder-1919-graphic-tee-faded-red. However, our regular vendor is sourcing shirts from Guatemala, Honduras, etc., and everyone is ok with them. I said WAIT, guys: this matters! let me source some U.S.-made shirts first!. I am the only one bothered by this but our target market is made up of people like me, who will look at the tag to see if we are walking the talk! And they're the ones who will be vocal about it. So there are plenty of USA-made shirts but I can only find blanks as your standard solid-color shirts, not the casual faded look CEO wants. Please hope me keep my company from making an expensive public mistake.

• Answer:

  I work for a screen printing company. The company you're working with is going to source from who your company tells them to source. Sounds like step one is to get your people on the same page about what you want, then communicate that to your vendor. They're sourcing foreign because it's like 99% of the market, it's a lot cheaper, and they're afraid of losing your business on price and/or selection. Ringing in a different company to quote domestic alternatives isn't particularly fair. You'll wind up with two different quotes (apples and oranges), a lot of time wasted, and then your own company will have to decide whether to spend more money to get domestic product (I guarantee it will cost more). Why not get your heads together and decide the foreign versus domestic question up front?