Ethical Brand Profile - Continental

Continental, alongside Starworld, are the names behind the two promotional clothing ranges who supply direct to Pier 32. Almost all the other brands that we have been reviewing in our Ethical Brand Profiles are supplied to us through an intermediary distributor. Starworld's ethical credentials have been the subject of many articles in this blog; Continental have featured too - but we have not yet completed a Brand Profile - so with no further ado.....

Continental go about presenting their products in a modern, polished manner. Instantly from the home page of their website there is a green environmental message coming across is all the branding. We have already featured in this blog their EarthPositive range featuring their Climate Neutral clothing collection, their role in campaigning against the exploitation of child labour in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan, the positive aspects of using organic cotton in conversion, and the eco-friendly luxury of the bamboo t-shirt.

This paints the background of a company with high eco-friendly standards. They are a private company and their UK based founders feature prominently in the various initiatives which they have followed. While their Climate Neutral clothing range directly using natural energy in its production, the rest of the company's activities are certified as Carbon Neutral by an independent monitor as a result of carbon offsetting.

Independent monitoring of their environmental claims is very evident with Oeko-Tex certification, their main line of organic t-shirts are certified organic by Skal and carry the organisation's EKO symbol and last but by no means least, their Earth Positive range is certified organic by the Soil Association.

What you get in terms of environmental impact very much depends on which brand line you go for. To concentrate on their mainstream range, "Continental Collection", and moving away from their Skal certified organic range that is part of that collection, what you get here is a t-shirt made from organic cotton in conversion. Follow the link for more information.

So there is the environment looking good. What about ethical, free trade issues? Here things are not quite so clear from the website. The supply chain of the EarthPositive range is stated to be Fair Wear foundation accredited. The same applies to the Eco Apparel range within the unbranded "Private Label" service. What about the rest? Our conclusion is that Continental have messed up their presentation

The Fair Wear Foundation website lists all its members and there you will find details of Continental. The message confirms our own long standing understanding that Continental products are manufactured in a factory in Turkey and that factory is monitored by the Fair Wear Foundation. With Continental's concern for the environment and their campaigning on child labour issue, it would have been most surprising to have discovered a chink in their ethical armour.

Know any different? Let us know!

Starworld WRAP it up

Although we offer a huge range of options, the majority of the t-shirts that we print are supplied by Starworld who manufacture the shirts in Egypt. We like Starworld because of the price and the high ethical standards under which they operate. They don't just boast about standards using flowery language, they back up their position with independent certification from a range of sources.

The Oeko-Tex 100 certification means that a whole range of harmful chemicals are not used in the production process. The quality management systems are certified to the ISO 9001 standard. The organic t-shirts are certified organic by Skal to the Global Organic Textiles Standard and carry the organisation's EKO symbol.

Now Starworld are certified by WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production). WRAP is a not for profit organisation based in the USA with an office in Hong Kong dedicated to promoting humane, ethical, and lawful conditions and practices in manufacturing facilities all over the world.

The organisation achieves this in two ways. First, the Certification Program certifies individual factories for compliance with WRAP's principles and procedures concerning, fair pay, workers' dignity, safe and secure conditions, and environmental impact. The Apparel Certification Program has operated since 2000; programs for other industries will be added in the future. Second, various training programs educate workers, factory managers, government inspectors, and others about issues related to global supply chains and their workers.

The WRAP website sets out here what gives their certification integrity. The certificate, which covers all the areas of the Starworld Ethical Policy Statement, and goes further, means that Starworld can be relied on to actually be following the high standards they set themselves - "Our compliance with the WRAP standards is just the beginning is just the beginning of our commitment to our employees and the environment. We have developed a wide range of initiatives that greatly reduce our impact on the planet and contribute positively to the well-being of our workers and the local community"

We'd like to highlight the vertical integration of Starworld. The whole production process is carried out by Starworld and its employees. Pier32 buys direct and that means our customers get the best value while the new WRAP certification means that we have ever growing confidence about the ethics of our supply chain.

Ethical brand profile - Regatta

Regatta supplies clothing for the "great outdoors" - going beyond t-shirts, through weather protection clothing for those occasionally active outdoors, to high performance clothing for "high-energy activities". And it supplies these in ranges for men, women and children. There's also a specific corporate clothing website http://www.regattacorporatewear.com/

Right on the homepage of its main website is the prominent image link to their ethical trading policy, available for viewing as a .pdf. Regatta is part of a bigger group that includes popular brands for British mail order or High Street shoppers such as Hawkshead and Craghoppers. The ethical trading policy covers all their brands.

Most of the clothing is supplied from Asia (although it's not clear where) and there's a focus on 'the worker' in what is presented. "We feel very strongly that workers in factories are treated fairly and are better off through working with us than they were before."

Moving into the detail, it's a little confusing as to what's going on. There's a Policy section which sets out that Regatta require visual inspections of factories and conduct interviews with managers and workers. Then there's an audit section which says "In addition to our own Ethical Trading policy, we also use a recognised third party organisation that carries out strict ethical inspections." So there's a suggestion of a 2 tier approach - regatta monitoring and 3rd party monitoring - but it's not quite clear that this is indeed the case. It may be that the audit of the policy is in the hands of third parties only.

The audit is carried out by a "recognised leader in its field" but Regatta aren't telling us who! But we should not nit pic because Regatta do go rather further than many and the ethical code that is presented is as good as most.

One area where these ethical codes can break down (as highlighted in recent television coverage of Primark) is where some work on the clothing being produced is being carried out in sweatshop conditions outside the confines of the factory being audited. The possibilities of abuses in sub contracting further down the supply chain is something which does not feature in policies which centre on auditing factories. We think that it would be better if the full supply chain for a particular garment was audited - however the nature of what Regatta sell probably means that the whole manufacturing process occurs in one place.

Unlike some bigger companies such as Adidas, Regatta do not publish the results of the audit process. Again it may seem like nit picking for what appears to be a fairly well sorted company, but it's through comment on this sort of thing that standards get pushed even further forward.

Switching to environmental issues, the Regatta brochures highlight the wide range of performance fabrics used in their clothing - 'Polartec', 'Isotex' and 'Isolite' being examples. Curiously there seems to be no specific mention of the impact of production on the environment, which is disappointing.

Back in action....

Yes, there's not been a blog article for a while! It's not that things slow down in the summer months, if anything with the profusion of outdoor events it gets busier, but we have been getting in our own holidays and making significant changes to the web site as well. But things are settling down now and we intend to be blogging again on a regular basis.

So what are the changes on the website? They are aimed at making life easier for our customers through amendments to the site that make it simpler to use and by providing more information in a cleaner, clearer way....

• There's a new cleaner home page design; we've reduced the number of navigation links and this makes it easier for customers to head off in the right direction
• We've introduced the Quick Quote facility which allows customers to answer a minimum of questions about what they want, and send us an artwork sample, so we can get back to them with a clear t-shirt printing quote within a working day
• We'd provided new pages setting out information such as what exactly we need in the way of artwork and segmented lots of information that previously used to be on a single page
• We've set up a new section to deal with the Earth Positive range of climate neutral t-shirts
• We've reduced the clutter from our banner to give you a more soothing fluffy blue sky experience (just like the blog has always been!).
  
• And, finally, you navigate from page to page using our new extended menu system that, yes, works not only in Internet Explorer but also in Firefox and far more obscure browsers

The plan for the blog is now to complete our Brand Profiles before concentrating on bringing you more general articles and news. With talk of recession and the seemingly interminable credit crunch, it's the businesses that invest in promoting themselves that will be the ones that will ride out the storm - and we will be here as ever helping them to cut costs while not sacrificing their ethics.

Ethical Brand Profile - Outer Banks

After the frustrations of trying to nail down Maddins (see previous post), Outer Banks proved to be equally frustrating at first but I got there in the end - see their website here.

The first thing that hits you is the preppy feel provided by the photo of the polo shirts - then the straplines "The finest fabrics paired with exquisite craftsmanship" "Impeccable Attention to Detail".

And this up market image is emphasised by the fact that they do polos and casual shirts but do not do t-shirts! Or do they? This picture is the nearest they get - the "Double Mercerized Pima Short Sleeve Mock Tee". Come on guys, it's a t-shirt!

Anyway, more importantly will buying this top end promotional clothing brand be a sound ethical choice? Unfortunately, and curiously, the website says little or nothing. There is no organic option but there is a range of 'Eco-Fiber' products "An innovative cotton/bamboo blend – bamboo naturally adds softness, breathability and inhibits the growth of bacteria."

There is an answer to our quest for information however and it's there at the foot of the website... "© 2007 Hanesbrands Inc." Yes, Outer Banks is a Hanesbrands company which means that at this point I refer you to my previous Ethical Brand Profile on Hanes.

If you are able to provide any further information on Outer Banks (or indeed Hanesbrands) as regards their ethical stance then please let us know.

Ethical Brand Profile - Maddins

Maddins is a range of school clothing that we can print and is available though our principle wholesaler for us to print custom logos and designs etc. The strange issue is that I can find no trace of them on the web. And I am not the only one looking....

See http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080222122721AAJWjTa

Watch this space!

Ethical Brand Profile - Result

Result Clothing are a promotional clothing brand founded in 1994 based in Colchester, Essex, UK. A visit to their website reveals that they have a 'Retail' arm that sells advanced outdoor clothing made from advanced esoteric materials under the "Result Performance" brand.

Many of the clothing lines are also available through promotional clothing outlets. The purchase of clothing that enables the user to yomp up Snowdon in winter is not the focus of all promotional clothing buyers so the range includes more down to earth items such as fleeces, body warmers and workwear.

The company has a short statement on "Employment Policy" and "Child Labour" on the trade section of its site. "RESULT requires that all authorised garments baring [sic] its name are manufactured under conditions which adhere to strict standards on working hours and good working conditions including factory temperature." and "RESULT does not permit the use of child labour in any part of their manufacturing process." There is a short statement on equal opportunities.

Curiously the Retail section of the site features similar but different statements. On environmental issues the trade section of the site says "RESULT also encourages the use of azo-free dyed fabric where possible" whereas the Retail section says "RESULT Performance prohibits the use of fabrics containing banned amines from certain Azo dyes." While it would be good for all garments to be AZO free, on the Pier32 site you will see many marked as AZO free.

In common with other brands, we'd like to see more specific information on the ethical and environmental issues surrounding their clothing on their site. Where is the clothing made? If there are more detailed policies behind the scenes, how are they monitored?

Because of the brand name and relatively small size, Result makes it difficult to trace any commentary on their activities on the web. If you know more please let us know be sending an email or leaving a comment.

Ethical Brand Profile - AWDis hoodies

AWDis, "All We Do is Hoodies" or "Just Hoods by AWDis" all are trade names attached to a new company that we have just begun doing business with. And, yes, all they do is hoodies!

Their website, with an attractive brochure that makes the most of the street culture associated with hoodies (while portraying wearers in a positive light) is justhoods.co.uk. A rich variety of colours are available.

One thing that they have not had time to get around to on their website is their ethics. With no mention at all of fair trade, let alone eco-language, we contacted them to find out more. we were pleased with the response. A set of written Business Partner Guidelines cover the expected points - to summarise: "JUST HOODS BY AWDIS's goal is to create and encourage creation of model operations that provide good jobs at fair wages and also improve conditions in their communities"

On the environment "JUST HOODS BY AWDIS will seek business partners who demonstrate a commitment to progressive environmental practices and to preserving the earth's resources". "Products supplied must conform to all European Union environmental legislation".

Their products are sourced from a factory in Pakistan. Their cotton "is sourced from ethical cotton suppliers in Pakistan local to the factory". More tangibly, the factory is WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production) certified - see website - a monitoring organisation based in the USA. Here it is the factory that is monitored and has obtained certification rather than the company but WRAP (a US based entity) have a thorough approach to their certification and their activities give us some considerable comfort that AWDis - a one product, one factory company - is doing what it can to respond positively to the pressures now on even the smallest clothing companies to ensure that its supplies of hoodies are ethically sourced.

Ethical Brand Profile - Starworld

Starworld is a very popular choice for the customers of Pier 32 and we have associations with the brand for over 7 years now so we know the quality of the finished t-shirts and other products well and supply it with confidence to our customers. Because we deal direct with the manufacturer, we are able to offer prices which are extremely competitive.

Starworld produces its t-shirts and other clothing in Egypt, an African country with a great tradition in cotton production and one of the more Western facing African nations.

We publish the ethical statement of Starworld on our site - it's a lot more specific than some of the vaguer statements issued by other manufacturers (who may say that they respect the labour laws of the producer countries and then don't go on to tell you where they are or that they permit 16 hour working days....). The American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt publish a summary of Egyptian labour law and it's easy to see how it fits in with the Starworld statement. Indeed it's quite close in many aspects to European labour law.

We like the fact that Starworld are not very good at glossy websites and brochures. It is very evident that money is spent on other things!

We also like that Starworld t-shirts are produced within the Oeko-Tex 100 standard - which means that production is carried out in such a way that the final product is free of any toxic substances.

Starworld now go further with its new range of organic t-shirts that we recently discussed. This gives our customers a cost effective organic option

Digging for dirt found a recent debate at York University on whether it was possible at all to find a supplier that could provide t-shirts in an ethical way and at an appropriate price. It seems that the University Student Union did not have to change its ethical merchandising policy (which was being actively discussed) because Starworld met their stringent cost criteria.

So there we have why Starworld remains our mainstream option for those who want a cost effective organic choice. Know anything different? Please let us know......

What is fair trade? Or Fair Trade? Or Fairtrade?

An interesting read is a new article published at the NewConsumer.com website asking how aware the public might be about "what Fair Trade is"?

It's a good article which certainly raises the conciousness that the Fairtrade Foundation label means that the cotton in clothing may be Fairtrade certified but at present the manufacturing will not be, because right now there is no objective means of deciding what exactly Fair Trade is in a manufacturing context. It's all rather subjective.....

The article consistently capitalises Fair Trade - giving it the feel of something that is definite, defined, but I think the reason for this capitalisation in the article is because it's applied to Fair Trade in the context of IFAT - the global network of Fair Trade Organizations. Just as the Fairtrade Foundation certifies PRODUCTS for the UK market, IFAT certifies businesses (such as Divine Chocolate) and organisations (such as Oxfam UK).

The message in the article is that Fair Trade can apply and be certified in respect of the purchase of raw and close-to-raw materials but not after there has been any degree of manufacturing. So neither IFAT or the Fairtrade Foundation certify manufactured clothing. Fair Trade clothing does not exist. Let's talk about fair trade.

Yes we, and many companies like Pier 32, continue talk about fair trade because it is a concept that people can relate to - a phrase for us that means we care who we buy from and we'd like you to too. Whether it's Starworld in Egypt because of our close ties, Continental for their organic products, Wombat for their Fairtrade certified cotton, Adidas for its extensive and transparent monitoring programme, Gildan for its Fair Labor Association accreditation; all we can do is try and be as upfront as possible in sharing what we know. This information is largely shared in this blog - it can help you decide by your own fair trade standards what fair trade is and what you should buy.