The Anderson Student Center’s Tommie Shop is struggling to popularize fair trade apparel on campus, despite collaborating with Students for Justice and Peace, according to store manager Colleen Utecht.

Sarah Beyer, a justice and peace studies major who helps the Tommie Shop provide fair trade apparel, said a fair trade vendor provides its workers in developing countries with a living wage. It doesn’t rely on child labor to create its product, adheres to labor laws and follows legal minimum wages.

“I think a lot of students aren’t aware of what a fair trade vendor is,” Utecht said. “Also, we haven’t utilized social media or posters, which is something we have thought about looking into.”

Before 2010, the Bookstore located in the Murray-Herrick Campus Center did not sell apparel from any fair trade vendors, Beyer said. While working on a class project, justice and peace studies majors Yan Yan Teague, Melissa Seymour and Elizabeth Phyle proposed the idea of partnering with Alta Gracia, a company in the Dominican Republic that prides itself in being a fair trade vendor.

“I helped make my high school back in Seattle become fair trade, and I thought it was a great project idea for St. Thomas,” Teague said. “We found out that Alta Gracia … had a fair trade business specifically targeting college bookstores. We also found out through this research that we were one of the only ACTC schools that didn’t offer Alta Gracia. ”

According to its website, Alta Gracia pays its workers more than three times the minimum wage for apparel workers in the Dominican Republic. Additionally, its workers have the right to form unions and are provided with a safe and healthy workplace.

“This is an important issue for many reasons (supporting fair trade companies) … often times workers who aren’t on a livable wage are unable to support their families,” Teague said. “This means that their children are neglected educationally and nutritionally.”

While Utecht said the Tommie Shop is supportive of Alta Gracia’s cause and the efforts of Students for Justice and Peace, the store employees’ main concern is selling apparel that meets the requests of students.

“There is a high demand for Nike, Under Armour and Champion versus Alta Gracia,” Utecht said. “Our top priority is providing students with the apparel they are interested in wearing.”

Senior Cristina Leifson said the popular demand of top brands should not discourage Tommie Shop employees from selling more fair trade apparel.

“By not providing bigger brands like Nike or Under Armour, it’s not like the Tommie Shop will get shut down,” Leifson said. “Students can get those items anywhere.”

Instead Leifson believes the Tommie Shop should focus on the values St. Thomas teaches its students.

“Because we are a Catholic institution, the mission of Alta Gracia demonstrates the values of business ethics that St. Thomas really strives to push upon its students,” Leifson said. “Therefore, business ethics should come before popular demand.”

Beyer said she opposes the idea that students are solely interested in popular brands that allegedly abuse labor laws, and fail to meet minimum wage standards.

“In the Bookstore, there were signs by the Alta Gracia racks that stated they were fair trade apparel and the clothing sold out very quickly,” Beyer said. “The style and quality of the Alta Gracia clothing is no different from the non fair trade apparel, other than the fact that the company respects minimum wage laws.”

Leifson was among the students who made an Alta Gracia purchase.

“I would have to say I like their products a lot better (than top apparel brands),” Leifson said. “Not only did I find their product to be durable, but you are not implicitly taking part in a system that is corrupting human rights.”

Some Tommie Shop employees said they continue to wonder the reasoning behind student purchases in fair trade apparel.

“We are curious to know if students are buying (fair trade) apparel because they are attracted to it, feel obligated to make the purchase or just really support the cause of the fair trade company,” Utecht said. “This is something we continue to wonder.”

Leifson said she doesn’t feel pressure to make purchases but simply a social responsibility.

The Tommie Shop has dedicated two sections of a clothing rack to Alta Gracia apparel.

“Alta Gracia does not have a local sales representative, therefore, to order something it takes a lot of email correspondence,” Utecht said. “Also, with other companies I receive the order immediately, whereas with Alta Gracia it takes about five weeks for a purchase to arrive.”

Additionally, Utecht said Alta Gracia does not offer enough variety of apparel for her to fill the whole store with. Given these challenges, she continues to order from non-fair trade companies.

“As much as we want to support the fair trade cause, it is highly unlikely that we can get everything in our store to come from a fair trade company,” Utecht said.

Although Beyer said it may be unrealistic to have all Tommie Shop items be fair trade approved, getting the Tommie Shop to sell more fair trade clothing lies in the hands of students.

“The challenge is up to us, we must do that educational aspect and get students to understand that you can have fair trade clothing for the same price as everything else,” Beyer said. “It’s important we buy our clothes from a company we trust, one that is transparent about not disrespecting human rights.”

Beyer said making sure the Tommie Shop continues to sell fair trade apparel may seem like a small step, but it is working toward a greater goal.

“It’s all about helping these workers, upholding their dignity, and making sure they are treated fairly,” Beyer said. “If we can support that with one cause, then we are already moving in the direction of making human rights a global concern.”

Eden Checkol can be reached at chec7168@stthomas.edu.