WHAT MAKES A T-SHIRT SUSTAINABLE?
We make a lot of t-shirts for our clients. Over the years, we’ve seen a wide range of styles and designs, and we consider ourselves experts on materials, fit, and quality. Here’s a primer on our favourite sustainable fabrics. While we set out to help our clients design the perfect tee, we can’t lose sight of the fact that global textile production is one of the planet’s most polluting industries. In 2018, according to UN Climate News, the total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production, at 1.2 billion tonnes annually with sector emissions expected to rise by more than 60 percent by 2030. Fast fashion, known for its rapid production of inexpensive, trendy clothing, often prioritizes profit over ethical and environmental concerns. It is the second-largest consumer of water globally and contributes to around 10% of global carbon emissions.
The UN's Fashion and Lifestyle Network aims to drive sustainability in the fashion industry by promoting responsible production, reducing environmental impact, and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. The environmental cost of the textile industry makes it critical to design shirts that are low impact and high quality so that after they’re worn once, they’re kept being worn. We all have one or two dozen t-shirts in our closet, and when we ask our clients, they admit they wear the same four or five tees over and over. Our goal is to create those t-shirts, the top-drawer tees, the go-to favourites. With that in mind, here is a rundown of the different types of textiles commonly used in t-shirts. We focus on sustainable textiles but have added our top selling conventional materials as well.
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