Haiti's Second-Hand Clothing Market

When it comes to second-hand clothes and Haiti, I'm a bit of a hypocrite. If it were in my power to stop all shipments of second-hand clothes to Haiti today, I'd do it (that much power in my hands would be scary!). At the same time, when teams go to Haiti from the Central Jersey Chapter of HOPE worldwide, my family sends clothing.

The trouble with sending second-hand clothing to Haiti in large quantities is simply that it floods the market with low-cost product that eliminates most local competition. With cheap clothing available from overseas, why buy from local vendors? The only exceptions that comes to mind for the average person are school and work uniforms, and that market is hardly sufficient to sustain many tailors. If second-hand clothing, called "pepe" in Haiti, were removed from the market, local clothing manufacturing could flourish.

Of course I realize that it's likely a big help to Haitian parents to be able to buy inexpensive clothing for their children, but who's to say that with adequate competition, locally-made apparel couldn't be reasonably-priced? Further, with people actually able to make money off of their product, more money would be circulating in the economy. There could be more jobs in the industry, from the factory to the retail locations.

As I mentioned above, my family does send clothing donations to Haiti. I don't feel too bad about it, though, because it's a small quantity that gets distributed freely in a singly geographic location. What's given certainly helps someone out, and I'd consider it more of a personal gift than anything else.

Current produced the following short video that gives a little on-the-ground perspective on "pepe."