the 100-mile suit is an attempt to build some of our simplest products – clothes – with only local resources. it was a 92% successful undertaking, with only the thread and soles of the shoes imported from elsewhere. it’s an impressively difficult task, if you think about it, and what is the point? well, the buylocal movement tells us that the current paradigm of internationally shipping low-cost products is unsustainable – that the real hidden costs borne by others would make it unprofitable if accounted for. but there’s something else, something intangible about being familiar with the designers, the manufacturers, even the animals from which our clothes are made. it implies familiarity and trust in both directions: the customer takes greater responsibility for responsibly buying, and the producers in exchange use the highest quality means and remain accountable for their product. my question is, if it’s almost impossible to make a suit within a hundred-mile radius, what is there that can be made locally, and how will things like consumer electronics ever be made sustainably?
