The real meaning of being a sustainable clothing brand

Sustainable clothing is here to stay. But what does being truly sustainable mean for a clothing brand like Brand Threads – and why is organic and sustainable materials so good for children’s (and adults) clothing?

From birth, the amount of waste produced with babies is huge. The sheer volume of wipes, nappies, nappy bags and clothing gone through in a year is staggering. So doing more than just dipping a toe in the water for clothing brands is vital as new parents look for advice and guidance on how they can do their bit to be sustainable.

Since Brand Threads was born in September 2020, everything the company does is with sustainability at the heart of everything they do. As Jason Steer, Marketing Director explains: “We want to be completely ethical and sustainable, but at the same time honest and open about our clothing. For example, we source organic and BCI cotton so we know our cotton is naturally and ethically grown.”

Organic cotton has many benefits – it’s kinder to young children’s skin, as the fibres are much longer, compared to regular cotton. This makes organic cotton a better choice for baby clothes due to its softness and the lack of harmful chemicals used in the manufacturing process.
It’s much better for the environment too and this is important to help educate parents and children as organic cotton helps combats climate change by saving precious water and in helping farmers feed their families. Better, still organic cotton eliminates hazardous synthetic pesticides, which couples with being better for soil and the outdoor environment, but vastly reduces the chances of irritating skin in clothing garments.

“We also try to avoid virgin plastics and work with recycled polyester made using old, recycled plastic bottles. While this is more expensive than virgin plastic, all our fleece robes & onesies are made using recycled polyester. This reduces dependence on petroleum as the raw material in our fabrics. It also reduces landfill and soil contamination, while using less energy than virgin polyester! Did you know it takes around 22 recycled plastic bottles to make one of our robes and to make one of our onesies 31 plastic bottles are recycled too!”
Brand Threads also plants a tree with every online order – and funds C02 reduction projects through it’s sustainable partners Ecologi. It’s less than a year since Brand Threads started up, but in the short time Brand Threads has been trading online, over 4,000 trees have been planted and hundreds of tonnes of C02 has been removed from the environment. Brand Threads is also a climate positive workforce, with each of it’s members of staff enrolled automatically to further fund climate friendly projects.
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware and willing to pay a premium for truly sustainable products, but often parents need guidance and education – and transparency from clothing manufacturers. Yet there’s little doubt sustainability is something we can all play a part in – and the earlier we can start with our clothing, the better!