Apparel

Traditionally, apparel purchasing decisions have depended predominantly on price, quality, style, brand reputation, and fabric. In the last 10 to 15 years, consumers have become more aware of the realities of the clothing they wear and may believe anything bearing the Fair Trade label is ethically made.

The growth in ethical apparel is being driven by consumer demand for fairly produced and sustainable goods. The data analysis group Mintel reports that the ethical clothing market is now worth $288 million, with increasingly stylish designs of fairly produced apparel and a growing awareness of production. The demand for ethical clothing has been increasingly met by independent stores and a growing number of major upscale retailers and supermarkets. Among the many apparel retailers, Patagonia (an outdoor clothing company) and Timberland were named the world's most ethical apparel companies in 2008, having demonstrated ethical leadership at the Forbes-Ethisphere Ethical Leadership Forum in New York City. The awarded companies were given the highest scores based on the results of a survey in which they were rated in seven distinct categories: corporate citizenship and responsibility; corporate governance; innovations contributing to the public well-being; executive leadership and tone from the top; legal, regulatory, and reputation track record; internal systems; and ethics or compliance programs.

Timberland is among a group of apparel retailers that were recognized as the world's most ethical apparel companies, based on criteria that included corporate responsibility, contributions to the public well-being, and a regulatory track record.

Source: Dimpalen/Wikipedia

The term ethical means different things to different people and organizations. The term generally means that workers' rights need to be respected throughout the supply chain. [Page 12]The main ethical concerns are excessive hours, forced overtime, lack of job security, poverty wages, and denial of trade union rights, poor health, exhaustion, sexual harassment, and mental stress. However, it may also mean promoting ecological and sustainable manufacturing practices that use a different model of production or trade. Some alternative brands are making a genuine effort to challenge the way the garment industry currently operates. Taking Patagonia as an example, the company is pushing a more sustainable model by initiating the Organic Exchange with the sole purpose of training other companies to source and manufacture organic goods. In an effort to provide its customers with greater access to information and to promote transparency, Patagonia created the Footprint Chronicles, a study that traces the life cycle of a product from design through to shipment. One of its most exciting goals is the development of not just fully recyclable clothing but completely biodegradable natural garments that will wind up on a compost heap, as opposed to in a landfill.

As the ethical movement has grown, there is a growing diverse use of the following terms; companies designate ethical apparel under different headings to reflect different types of concern:

• Fair Trade and sweatshop-free apparel: Focus on people, human rights, workers' rights, supply chain policy; aims to give producers in poorer countries a “fair deal.”
• Vegan apparel: Oppose animal cruelty, animal testing, factory farming, other abrogation of animal rights.
• Organic cotton apparel: Focus on product sustainability, positive environmental features; that is, apparel might be certified to Soil Association standards.
• Natural environmentally friendly, ecofriendly apparel: Focus on pollution and toxics, habitats and resources, such as apparel that uses only high-quality organic and sustainable materials (e.g., ecodyes); its production typically relies on far fewer agrochemicals.

These terms are used interchangeably based on different ethical consideration. Even in factories that on the surface look clean and modern, workers are often deprived of their internationally recognized basic rights.

...