"We're not going to have a Harvard student sitting over in every factory in the Third World seeing what's happening," says Ascherman Professor of Economics Richard B. Freeman.

At this point, that seems to be almost what it would take. An attempt to find the source of just three of the thousands of items for sale stamped with the Harvard logo demonstrates how hard it is to trace their origins when companies don't specify their factory locations.

Shirt Stuff

Piles of a Harvard t-shirt made by Champion, Harvard's largest apparel producer, sit folded near the back of the Coop clothing shop. A tag says the shirt is made in Mexico.

But Paul W. Griffith, the Champion sales representative who works with The Coop, says he does not know where the t-shirt is from. He says he only knows about sales, and contacts the company's base in Winston-Salem, N.C. to place orders.

Still, Griffith says he is confident that Champion products are made under fair conditions. He recently saw a video of the company's new plant in Chihuahua, Mexico, and thought the facility looked "highly sterile."

"From my perspective, I feel very secure that my company is not one of the companies [that is using sweatshop labor]," he says. "Until somebody shows or proves it differently."