Radical Transparency

With organisations such as Fashion Revolution and rising awareness of the lack of ethics in the garment industry; consumers are beginning to question how, where and who makes their clothes. To someone outside of the industry this often feels impossible to decipher and consumers have little choice but to trust the marketing campaigns of brands. Brands like Everlane and Patagonia are offering the consumer innovative levels of pricing and manufacturing transparency. New technologies such as Blockchain are also giving brands a foolproof way to have transparency in their supply chain.

Sharing any supply chain details has always been a big taboo in all consumer product industries and brands feared losing any competitive edge by doing so. Its time for the industry to work together and embrace the challenges transparency brings. Manufacturing certifications and audits are extremely important but ultimately its impossible to track every change of hands for a product which can go through many locations in weaving, dyeing, cutting, knitting/sewing, finishing and packaging. Factories very often outsource parts of this due to demand or internal issues and audits will not cover 100% of the situation.

Blockchain

Blockchain is an innovative technology already in use by many companies. Tracking every transaction made by a product or business ‘Each user on the network has a copy of this shared database, which makes it impossible for a malicious user to modify or change the contents of this database. This database, or ledger, is append-only; you can only add to it but not modify anything after the fact. This data can not be changed or corrupted.’ (https://medium.com). Blockchain has been adopted by many banks and has made its way into supply chains through brands such as Walmart, De Beers and Unilever, all wishing to control the ethics of their product.

Blocktexx

Believing the textile industry needs to transition to closed loop sourcing, Graham Ross looked to technology for the solution, seeing the opportunity to adapt Blockchain and the Internet of Things to address the global problem of consumer textile waste. The BlockTexx marketplace and advisory services will drive significant change within the textile industry and the way fashion brands work.

BlockTexx is bringing textile upcycling technology to Australia. They are undertaking a study of turning discarded clothes to recycled fabric. In partnership with the Salvation Army and CSIRO. Blocktexx is also researching a way to break down textile waste into pulp and pellets which can be used in construction.

A.BCH

I have already dedicated a blog post to this brand but they are an incredible example of transparency. Against each product A.BCH lists each component (e.g. thread, label, buttons) not just the legal minimum of the fabric fibre content and describe how it is made, they also list the supplier of each item and describe how the product can be recycled or composted at the end of it’s life. A.BCH has also started a Facebook group bringing together brands to place orders for product components they would otherwise never be able to meet minimums, such as GOTs thread.

Everlane

Everlane has built their brand off of a promise of ‘Radical Transparency’ They do this primarily through their pricing but also have an interactive page listing all of their suppliers.... This page is very polished and built like a blog, showing well photographed images of each factory and describing its owner etc. But as mentioned about what about the dye house or the weaving mill?

Patagonia

Patagonia are world renowned for having amazing sustainability initiatives and own a portion of their own factories. They have a similar interactive portion of their website to Everlane listing some of their suppliers and describing how they are vetted. Patagonia also has clear goals to bring renewable energy into their owned and leased locations, working with suppliers to constantly improve practice. Perhaps the fact that Patagonia is so willing and shows so much passion and innovation in their initiatives is what gives the brand such a sense of honesty in their sustainability messaging.