Used Hockey Jerseys Are Huge In Liberia

You don’t typically think of poverty-stricken nations as a place to find fashion trends, so this next story from the National Post is truly bizarre. In Liberia, a place where hockey has absolutely zero significance, second-hand NHL jerseys are becoming a premium status symbol being purchased at the “high price tag” of $4 CDN.↵↵⇥“It is tough, tough material,” street vendor Evelyn Togbah raves. “If you buy it, you can wear it for 20 years.”↵⇥↵⇥The bright NHL sweaters outshine the dirty, ripped and torn T-shirts hanging off many struggling Liberians who are forced to repeatedly wear one or two shirts. More than half of Liberians live on less than $1 a day.↵⇥

↵↵↵How do these clothes make it to Liberia?↵

↵↵⇥Generally, churches and charities in North America load donated second-hand clothing into sea containers that embark for Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.↵⇥↵⇥In Kenya, the clothes are called “Mitumba,” which is Swahili for “bales” and appropriately describes the plastic-wrapped bundles that spill off the boat.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥The bales of clothes are crammed into trucks or wheelbarrows, and eventually trickle down to the tiniest, most remote villages hidden deep in the rainforest (where children can barely imagine ice, let alone hockey).↵⇥

↵↵The second-hand clothing tradition goes all the way back to after World War I, according to the report.↵↵Another bizarre nugget is the fact that there is a “widespread belief” that these clothes have been stripped off the bodies of dead people. The rationale is that no one would give up such high quality clothing without being dead. In the view of such an impoverished nation, doing anything else would be wasteful. (Think about that next time you’re refreshing your wardrobe.)↵

↵↵If the story sounds too strange to be true, check out the accompanying photo gallery of people in Liberia rocking all various shades of hockey sweaters.↵

↵↵(H/T to Uni Watch)↵

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