Local designers say import duties and taxes on plain T-shirts too high
By Marlon Madden
Some local fashion designers are calling for a reduction in burdensome import duties and taxes on plain T-shirts.
The call was issued on Monday as Managing Partner with Azure Studios Jamar Odwin and Founder of Ministry of Style (Barbados) Rhaj Paul suggested that the quality and quantity of plain T-shirts being produced locally were simply not up to standard to compete with those on the international market.
Importers of the plain T-shirts pay about 150 per cent in duties and taxes, which Odwin said was a hindrance to those in the industry making any profit.
“It is no secret that T-shirts carry some of the highest duties in Barbados,” he said.
“Back when that was implemented, it was to try to increase sales and production of locally made T-shirts. That was great at the time, but we are not just competing [with local manufacturers], it is with the [international brands]. So there is a certain quality that we need to achieve now more and more the world is a click of a button away. So now persons are looking for higher quality products. So for us, that is one of the biggest issues that we still have to this day – fighting with the duties,” he explained.
Stating that “if high-quality T-shirts were produced in Barbados we would use those”, Odwin said it was not a case of designers wanting to kill the garment manufacturing sector here.
“T-shirts are very rarely made now in Barbados and the quality is not even the best. When you buy a T-shirt you don’t want to purchase a T-shirt that feels like you [are] wearing cardboard.
“So it is very unfortunate that you have a lot of young designers wanting to put their ideas out there, beyond canvas or a piece of paper, on something that someone can take [overseas] and wear but it is very difficult because you purchase a T-shirt online for, let’s say, US$15 (BDS$30) and then with duties on top of that, by the time you finish, that plain T-shirt costs BDS$60.
“So to put a design on that now, you are looking at $200-plus that person now has to sell that T-shirt to make money. It is very difficult to be competitive,” Odwin lamented.
He said the T-shirts imported by designers were not considered a final product since they were not being sold as is and, therefore, they should be considered “raw material”.
“A T-shirt is a raw material for us and I think we need to move away from the fact that we are trying to protect some industry making T-shirts in Barbados,” he asserted.
Sharing similar sentiments, Paul said while the high import duties and taxes were introduced at a time when the industry here needed protection, that was no longer necessary.
“What we are doing as designers is also a local industry. What we are doing is adding value to something that exists and making it a real Bajan product and marketing Barbados. Everything that can facilitate that process ought to occur,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is that most big brands are bought into at the T-shirt level. I never had a Ralph Lauren shirt until I had a Ralph Lauren T-shirt. After that, we can keep scaling but . . . the T-shirt . . . is the biggest entry point for all of these big brands. You can’t afford the top-tier but you could get a T-shirt and you could rep the brand and feel part of the brand family, so to speak. It is the same thing for us,” Paul explained.
The well-known designer said the situation was even more disheartening since the T-shirt business seemed to be the fastest-growing segment in the local industry.
“I have met more T-shirt designers in the past year than I have met designers over the 20 years. I know at least 15 T-shirt designers right now who are all putting out incredible designs and focusing on taking the levels up and improving the quality and so on. So these issues that existed before, these need to become null and void all now and going forward,” he said.
Paul and Odwin made the comments on Monday, during the official launching ceremony for this year’s Barbados Manufacturers’ Association (BMA) Trade and Innovation Expo (TIE), formerly BMEX, which will be held October 27 to 29 at the Wildey Gymnasium under the theme Our Global Village.
This year’s event will have a heavy focus on the fashion industry, with a fashion exposition taking place over two days – October 28 and 29, under the theme From the Canal to the Trident: A Fashion Extravaganza.
Paul said he was hoping that TIE would be “a change agent” for the local fashion industry.
“We are trying to make fashion that goes beyond Bim,” he said, “The emphasis is on top-tier, it is on quality.”
