Category Archives: Fairtrade Clothing

Blackwoood Golf Club – Groundsmen are really green!

Organisations Wearing Fairtrade
Groundsmen wearing recycled fleece jackets

Blackwood golfclub is beautiful course in the hills of South Wales and my brother in law John, is the secretary.   We thought that this was a great opportunity for a golf club to be “really green” by their groundsmen wearing ethically soursed uniform.  The two groundsmen are a father and son team of Alan and Owain Hughes who look after the course all year round. 

We supplied them with jackets made from recycled plasic bottles and polshirts which are cerified as both organic and Fairtrade.   Here they are in the photographs wearing their new “green” uniform.

Wearing the fairtrade certified polo shirts

I enjoyed this project, I think it’s great that a golf club decided to choose ethical clothing for their uniform.  I hope more clubs follow suit……thank you Owain, Alan and  of course John.

Visiting Swayam School Madhya Pradesh – Fairtrade Supported

Fairtrade School Uniform, Visiting India - Our suppliers

Schools working together

School busses - waiting

I visited India to spend some time with the people who grow the cotton for our Fairtrade Polo shirts and T shirts for schools.   It started out as an adventure and was fascinating from the moment we touched down in Ahmedabad.

There were two highlights.  The first was a surprise.  We were talking to spinners at the large Mahima Factory when they hurried us along.  We were told to hurry or the children would have already gone home.  Puzzled we did indeed hurry.  We were whisked away and taken to the Swayan Academy.

School children and me!

We were able to briefly visit each class. The children were predominantly from families who would not normally be able to send their children to school.  The pupils were from the rural cotton growing communities and the school was supported by Mahima Purespun.  The children were so polite, seemed a little in awe, but clearly happy.  It was one of those moments in life that I will remember.  As we left the school we both looked at each other and said that the whole trip was worth that one visit.  The knowledge that by manufacturing Fairtrade and organic school uniform we were directly in the circle that contributed to this school and their future. 

Home time

Next we squeezed again into the car and were taken by mostly bumpy tracks to a cotton farm co-operative.  We had no idea what to expect and had been told the harvest had taken place.  I will wite about that experience in my next blog.

School uniforms making children ill?

Fairtrade School Uniform, Susan's Musings

Here we are again thinking and learning.  I have had a number of telephone calls recently from parents worried about the school uniform their child has to wear made from polyester/cotton mix.  The polyester content has irritated the skin of the children.  Cotton is a naturally “breathable” fabric and is much kinder to the skin for both adults and children.  I certainly prefer cotton and wear it myself.

I then stumbled across the following article in “Wales online”.  Wales is my homeland and I enjoy keeping up with the news.  The article comments on the chemicals often applied to fabric to make it especially easy to care for.  It is sometimes called anti wrinkle or Teflon coated.   Perfluorinated compounds are added during manufacture and the World Wildlife Fund are worried about the effect of this man-made chemical on wild life.  It’s a really thought provoking article – School uniforms making children ill? 

Many schools choose polyester mix fabrics so that the garments can be washed very easily.  However the arguments for “just cotton” are significant, breathable, kind to the skin, wash at lower temperatures and if you add the Fairtade cotton as an extra reason then I think the decision should be a wise one.

Barn Owl
By the way on my way home form work Wednesday a magical barn owl accompanied me for about 200 yards.  It made me wonder………..what do I need to make wise choices about in my life at the moment.  Dig deep Susan.  But that’s for another day.

Fairtrade School Uniform News

Fairtrade School Uniform, Susan's Musings

Happy as well! - Boys of the village where our cotton is grown

Well we have great news.  I am pleased. Very.

We are about to introduce School uniform which is Fairtrade certified!  Hurrah.  To start with white, red and sky blue polo shirts, white t shirts, navy and red sweatshirts.  As more schools ask for more colours we will add them to the range.  Helen, Lisa, Natalie Jenny and I have been thinking about this for a while.  We already supply many schools with uniform and it seemed such an obvious idea to offer a Fairtrade option.

Of course nothing is that simple – I wish it was!  Supply, quality, reliability and stock holding, all need to be thought through. 

But here we are about to launch. 

 I am happy!

Fairtrade School Uniform

Solstice – The band

Music Industry, Organisations Wearing Fairtrade
The Band

The wonderful band Solstice performed at The Pitz in Milton Keynes on Saturday.  They have reformed after many years of branching out individually as musicians.  I had seen a DVD of them performing at the Cropredy Festival many years ago and thought they were superb.  Last weekend something made me dig it out and play it to a friend – and then of course rave about it.  Hey presto two days later a get an e-mail from Andy telling me all about the re launch and their new CD Spirit.  Synchronicity or what!

A chance to link a wonderful band full of talented people with Fairtrade t shirts to help promote the band.   Next the design they wanted – a Indian mandala based design – how fitting.  So there we were Fairtrade t shirts in hand, printed, and watching a great band.  The crowd loved them.  Download some tracks on www.solsticewebsite.com and go and listen to them………

Times Article

Fairtrade Clothing, Susan's Musings

An article in the Times today reported sales of Fairtrade goods up by 12% in the UK. The majority of this was due to an increase in Chocolate and Coffee sales (Cadbury and Starbucks). However there was not an equivalent increase in sales of Cotton.  Other interesting snippets in the article was that now all 58 flavours of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream are made with Fairtrade ingredients. Sainsbury’s is the worlds biggest retailer of Fairtrade goods.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article7035597.ece

So – as Cotton Roots is in the business of Cotton, how do we make our contribution and start to increase sales in cotton?  Our stategy is to supply good quality garments at a competitive price.  For example offering garments which if the are labeled  “medium” actually are “medium”.  Time after time.  It sounds common sense but in our industry this is not always the case and we searched high and low before finding our manufacturing partner.  They consistently makes for us top quality garments every time and it is organised beautifully by Morses who continues to give us confidence.  It means that when a customer comes back to us for their second and third orders they are confident of what they will receive.

Price – always a sensitive issue.  Again in our industry companies are used to being able to purchase T shirts and polo shirts at incredibly low prices.  However we do believe “you get what you pay for” and we have customers who do want good quality garments, printed or embroidered with their logo, along with excellent quality service.  Fairtrade T shirts do cost a little more but not that much more.  We want to offer good quality at a comparable price and give a real option.

Fairtrade School T Shirts

Fairtrade Clothing, Fairtrade School Uniform, Susan's Musings
Happy Fairtrade families

Well we have our thinking caps on here at Cotton Roots.  We have stock in five different colours of our Fairtrade and organic cotton T shirts in adult sizes – extra small – 2xl.  But we are thinking “Why not stock childrens sizes as well”?  It seems like a good idea but are there schools who would like them for part of their uniform? A Fairtrade School uniform.  Helen is investigating.  We are planning to ask headteachers of schools who are already Fairtrade  to see if they would be interested.  If you have any comments, thoughts, or suggestions please leave a comment for us.  All ideas gratefully received!

Fairtrade Fortnight Milton Keynes

Fairtrade Clothing

Our local city Milton Keynes has a very pro-active Fairtrade group and they have organised many events for the Fairtrade Fortnight. See http://www.mkfairtrade.org.uk/page.cfm. Our intrepid Helen is launching her EyetoEye Fairtrade Food stall at Wolverton market this week. So fingers crossed it is a roaring success. The group also have a stall at the Stony Stratford Beer Festival – with Fairtrade wines and beers.