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After a long battle with cancer, Gap founder and third-generation San Franciscan Don Fisher died on Sunday. He was 81.
Co-founding the wildly successful clothing retailer in 1969 with his wife, Doris -- the very first Gap was on Ocean Avenue, which grew into 3,100 stores in six countries -- Fisher was also an art collector, with much of his collection (Warhol, Lichtenstein and de Koonin) most finding a home at SFMOMA.
Before Gap and amassing a net worth estimated at $3.3 billion, Fisher was just another kid living in the Outer Richmond. Graduating from Lowell High School way back in 1946, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of the the swimming and water polo teams. According to Wikipedia, "Fisher had a robust college experience at Berkeley where his nickname was ‘Horny Fish’ and where he was caught cheating by then-Professor Clark Kerr. Kerr gave Fisher an F, but did not have him expelled."
In a statement, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom said, "Don Fisher was a great San Franciscan, a loving husband and father, and a dear friend ... His unwavering commitment to our city's arts and civic culture will be remembered for generations to come."
Flags around San Francisco will be flown at half staff in honor of Fisher.
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Huh, wild. I guess the SFMOMA announcement last week was a bit more poignant than it appeared.
No amount of "unwavering commitment to our city's arts and civic culture" or philanthropic generosity could ever overshadow the social injustice and environmental devastation perpetrated by Don Fisher. He basically invented the modern sweatshop movement and later invested his already considerable wealth into business enterprises geared towards the removal of old growth forests.
sweatshops vs. child prostitution - such a tough call on which would be better
Despite the carping from the loony left who would prefer that people in the third world remain starving and not have the benefits of a more advanced society, Fisher will be remembered as a brilliant entrepreneur, a great philanthropist and true San Franciscan.
You realize that not all economic development is created equally?
it is possible for someone to have accomplished things that are both good and caused harm as well.
Nuances...
So what you're saying is that this man forces starving children into sweatshops to make substandard clothing for wealthy Americans?
What a great guy!
forced? as in brought in shock troops and drove them into the sweatshops at gun point, shackled them to the sewing machines and then beat them if they failed to work hard enough?
or are you using the word "forced" when implying there wasn't anything better out there for them?
@ImitationCrab: It's really cute that you think Forced Labor doesn't occur in sweatshops, ...really. In fact, here's one about Forced Labor specifically for Gap: http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/3388
do you have any article links showing how the rest of India's companies do business?
SFBurke: Name one Gap factory that was built in a location that previously was given to starvation.
God I hope not.
10buck solid color shirts ftw
You can buy California made solid print Ts from that company that everyone in the Mission hates/loves for $13. I'm pretty okay spending $3 a shirt to keep the payroll and sales taxes in California. Or you can buy from WalMart for $6.00 each.
Still trying to figure out what was so great about Gap.
=v= Over on SFGate, the comments section had a lot of information and links about the Gap's sweatshops (including the most recent revelation of one that employed 10yos, beat them with pieces of rubber, and stuff oily rags in their mouths as punishment). His expansion into clearcutting and horrible meddling in city politics were also mentioned. Today the SFGate's editors purged those comments sections of all that material.
SFGate's online obituaries of black folks and anyone with a Hispanic surname are filled with vile racist commentary, but obviously certain people are more equal than the rest of us.