New Law puts Children's wear producers out of business

Please read this letter from Kathleen Fasanella. She writes and maintains fashionincubator.com and is very knowledgeable as well has generous with her time, talent and wisdom in respect to entrepreneurs in the fashion industry as well as with home sew-ers.

Dear Friends
There is a grave crisis in the industry and I haven't been here much lately because of it.

You know me. Yes I can rub people the wrong way but I'm not a kook, alarmist, extremist or conspiracy theorist. What I'm going to tell you is all too true. In a nutshell, as of 2/10/2009, National Bankruptcy Day it will be illegal to sell most products intended for children 12 and younger unless you undergo expensive product testing to certify your products as safe. There are no exemptions or exceptions. This includes wahm or grandmas making items for bazaars, craft shows, etsy, ebay, or just person to person sales. As of February 10, 2009 anything without a General Conformity Certificate is legally considered Banned Hazardous Material.

I have been at the forefront of this fight. I went to Washington DC week before last for a meeting with the biggest brands in the business and if they're scared, you should be too. Contrary to what many people may think, large brands are hurt worse. Small businesses do have some options that large ones don't but this is little consolation if you're small to start with.

Please read up on the topic (list of entries at close). Most of what you'll find on the web relates to toys but this affects clothes, bikes, games, jewelry, uniforms (even boy and girl scout patches!) materials used in science classes in schools, school supplies, books, video games, infant car seats, strollers etc. For example, one of the largest suppliers of science equipment to schools says he can no longer sell telescopes. It will cost $24,000 to test each one. This is not hyperbole or exaggeration. His statements to the CPSC and the estimate from the testing lab are right here.

What you can do:
First, I've opened a section of my private forum to the public. We are calling this the War Room for focused activism.

From this site, you can email all of your legislators by filling out one simple form.

Sign the petition.

Here you can find a lot of email addresses of legislators and CPSC folks to copy and paste into your email program.

The key problems are (for our purposes) clothing doesn't have lead in it but we have to test it for lead anyway. Previously we could use testing results from fabric suppliers to prove for example, flammability. This is not permitted for lead.

Second, excessive testing. Before you could test your components (fabric, zippers, elastics etc) separately since that's what goes into each item. Sure that is costly but it's worse because this is no longer permitted either. Now you have to have one of each completed unit (dress etc) tested. If you're only making one of a kind, you'll have to produce a completed sample garment for testing.

Third, there aren't enough labs. Assuming you had the money ($480-$980 per tested unit), you are only allowed to use a CPSC certified facility. Assuming there was (previously) equilibrium in the market btwn testing labs and the demand for services...well, with a multi-thousandfold increase in the demand for services, they aren't enough labs. Iow, even if you had the time and money, there aren't enough labs to do the testing.

This is the really sad part. Most of the small producers out there got into the business BECAUSE they were concerned about safety. They're using 100% organic materials, no chemicals and food grade finishes (on their toys). This law will put the very artisans who make the best products out of business. The people we want to stay in business and wish everyone made products like they do.

Entries from my site:
Safety Regulations that affect ALL children's manufacturers
National Bankruptcy Day
Unit vs Component Testing
What must be tested
Confusion run amok
Splintering serves no one
CPSIA and small manufacturers

Anyway, I appreciate your time in reading this message and I hope you will join us. If you're a consumer, I recommend buying your gifts for the year very soon. The big stores will be returning non compliant products by mid January in advance of the cut off date so be sure to do any purchasing by then.