AMHERST — Kelsey Timmerman never set out to be a Michael Moore or a muckraking investigator exposing graft and corruption.

“I never set out to write a book … I set out to travel,” the Muncie, Ind., resident said last week by phone.

But his curiosity grew about the people and countries that produced many of the clothes he wore, including a favorite T-shirt that bore an image of the diminutive Tattoo character of TV’s “Fantasy Island.”

“You remember, ‘de-plane, de-plane,’ ” Timmerman said with a laugh. “It was one of those ‘Come with me to a tropical paradise’ shirts.”

The veteran traveler, whose previous jobs included scuba instructor, looked at the T-shirt one day and saw a tag that said it was made in Honduras.

And so he set out for there some years ago — doing “a lot of things that had nothing to do with the garment industry or globalization” which is the basis of his book, “Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories and People that Make Our Clothes.”

A native of Greenville, Timmerman, 30, will discuss the book and the odyssey behind it when he appears at the Nordson Depot on Franklin Street in Amherst at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 22.

He said that as he spoke with workers leaving a Honduran factory one day, he couldn’t bring himself to ask the questions he really wanted to ask.

“Does this job provide a chance at a better life, good wages, working conditions?” Timmerman said.

Returning home, the married dad of a 9-month-old baby couldn’t shake his sobering experiences in Honduras.

Researching the garment business, globalization and the politics behind them, Timmerman said he became obsessed with where clothes are made.

Eventually, Timmerman set out in 2007 for the countries whose names wound up in so many of his items of clothing, including Bangladesh (boxer shorts) and Cambodia (Levis).

While experiencing distinct differences in cultures, food and scenery, Timmerman learned some universal truths.

Most garment workers come from small, impoverished farming villages to larger cities in hopes of better jobs and more money.

“They sacrifice a lot to have these jobs. There was one single mom of three I met in Bangladesh. Her kids were 3, 8 and 11. Rice cost her $15 a month, which left $9 for clothes, other food and housing,” he said.

Then there were the Cambodian women ages 18 to 26, who averaged $50 a month in pay.

“For one person, that might be living high on the hog, but these girls support six to seven people on average,” Timmerman said.

Surprisingly, most of the factories he visited were not the hot, dark, awful places Timmerman envisioned.

“The bigger factories were not too bad. But what is much different is the lives of these workers in that some of whom work over 100 hours a week,’’ he said. “They clock out and are told to go right back to work.”

Those who refuse are told they can be immediately replaced.

Despite these grim realities, there are promising signs of change, as in Cambodia, where 800-plus unions, some of which are very strong, monitor conditions in the country’s 300 factories, many of which produce clothing for Levis, GAP, Old Navy, and other major brands.

“There are also lots of nongovernment organizations that use DVDs and comic books to educate their work forces about rights and other things,” Timmerman said.

“A lot of companies are trying to make a difference,” he said. “Big brands recognize they all have codes of corporate social responsibility.”

“Where Am I Wearing?” is available in bookstores and at Amazon.com.

‘Where Am I Wearing’

• What: Kelsey Timmerman, author of “Where Am I Wearing,” will speak at Amherst Friends of the Library annual author luncheon.
• Where: Nordson Depot, 671 Franklin Ave., Amherst.
• When: 11:30 a.m. Oct. 22.
• How much: Tickets are $15 and available at the library. Call (440) 988-4280.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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