I grew up in a relatively small town - less than 2,000 people. And I lived for another seven years in a similarly small town. I know the importance of buying locally and supporting local businesses. I understand that dollars spent in the community where you live tend to stay in that community and be exchanged many times. The money spent in town helps to support your neighbors and makes the local economy work. I like the idea. I try to shop locally when I am able.

Sometimes, however, there are frustrations with shopping locally. I confess that when a local bookstore doesn’t have the book I want, I don’t respond positively to their offer of “I can order it for you.” After all, I can order it myself. And If I order it myself I will get it more quickly and at a lower price. I pretty much shop local stores for the inventory they keep in stock, and when they don’t have the inventory in which I am interested, I look elsewhere.

There is another problem with shopping locally and that is that local businesses no longer shop locally. Take my quest for a new pair of jeans. There are no stores in our town that stock jeans that are sewn in the United States. To buy a pair of jeans means exporting my money to another country. And I guess I could accept that if I could find a pair of jeans that fit. I have been trying for over a week. I’ve been to quite a few different stores.

You probably already know the problem. Sizes are no longer consistent. Since I was 15 years old I have worn a 29’ inseam. And I think that my legs have been fairly consistent in length over that time. For starters, there aren’t many stores that stock odd numbers in inseam lengths. Adult sizes start at 30” and are stocked only in even numbers. When I do find a pair that is labeled 29” the length of the legs can be anywhere from about the right length to over 6” too long. Inseam doesn’t tell you anything about the length of the leg. Just to check it out, I observed the men at a local farm supply store. More than half of them had jeans with legs that were too long for their height. I guess it is “in” to wear jeans bunched up at the ankles.

But it isn’t just the length of the legs. There can be up to four inches of variation in waist size of jeans that are labeled with the same number.

And, being too short to officially wear men’s jeans, the problem is worse with boys’ sizing. I can wear a 14 husky in the relaxed style of one brand, but can’t squeeze myself into a 16 husky of another brand. The numbers don’t seem to mean anything. I guess there are a lot of different 14’s and 16’s in the world.

Which is part of the problem. I admit that I am short and stout. Perhaps my old age has produced a body that is rather atypical in shape. I’m pretty sure that there aren’t many people my size and shape in China, where a lot of the jeans for sale around here are sewn.

It would be nice if it were just jeans. But the bottom line is that I can’t buy any pants in a store around here that I can wear off the shelf without requiring some modification.

And this isn’t a problem that the Internet will solve. The sizing on the Internet is just as inconsistent. At least in a retail store you can go into a dressing room and try on the pants without having to go through the process of waiting for them to arrive, trying them on, and then shipping them back to wait for another size to arrive.

OK, short heavy guys like me might just have to have our pant legs trimmed and hemmed in order to wear them. I can live with that. When it comes to sewing, I lack skill, but I married well. My wife is an excellent seamstress who can hem my pants. In my dreams, however, I long for a world where if I bought the same brand and the same style, I could count on the size being the same as the last trip to the store. Of course the store won’t have the same brand and style next time I go in.

And you really don’t want to get me started on this topic. The reason I need new jeans so often is that the ones I can find are of such poor quality that they don’t last, so I have to replace them more often.

I have no reason to complain. Many people in the world face much more difficult challenges when it comes to obtaining basics like clothing. When you don’t have enough money to buy things, it doesn’t matter what they have in the store. When you outfit yourself at the thrift store, you have to go to the next size larger just to have something that will cover you up. If you are skilled with a needle, you can make adjustments. If not, you get used to wearing clothes that don’t quite fit. If your number one priority is obtaining food for your children, you don’t have th luxury of worrying about how your clothing looks.

And what I lack in jeans, I make up for in t-shirts. I have t-shirts with logos for United Way, Alzheimer’s Foundation, Softball tournaments, Front Porch Coalition, and dozens of church youth events. I have t shirts from General Synod and ones with Air Force logos on them. I have t shirts urging others to become blood donors and ones marking Freshman Impact days at local schools. I have a drawer crammed full of t-shirts with plenty to spare. And most t-shirts labeled “M” fit. But so do most of the ones labeled “L” Short sleeves were designed for short guys.

Maybe if I start getting my t-shirts in XXXL, people wouldn’t notice the holes in my jeans.

Copyright © 2014 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.