Indigo Clothing Blog - News from inside Indigo, the promotional clothing industry and cool t-shirt sites reviewed.
August sale — you can get Oddica shirts for $15 if you buy three. Yay!
WHAT’S NEW
Oddica continue their fascination with Music and Robots by presenting new designs from newcomers Olli Rudi and Jed Voltz:
ROBOT MUSIC
Olli brings down the house with Robot Music, a piece inspired by the German band, Kraftwerk. This design comes on tees, polos, and a pullover hoodie.
SHAM BAND
Jed Voltz aka Monglo brings us a band of Mongrel Musicians who are wired with the latest technology.
What does ‘in conversion‘ mean on an organic cotton label? Well, the Global Organic Textile Standard also enables the labelling of cotton fibre from the organic conversion period, for example ‘100% organic cotton - in conversion‘.
Cotton in conversion is grown on land which has only recently been converted to organic methods (typically less than 2 or 3 years). Therefore, although no chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are being used, residues may still be found in the soil. This conversion period is very difficult for farmers, who usually experience an initial drop in yield, while not being able to obtain premium organic price for their crops.
Therefore, purchasing ‘organic cotton - in conversion‘ is a great way to support farmers making the difficult transition to organic.
Continental Clothing has announced their intention to become 100% organic. In our opinion, this is a massive piece of news and again highlights the change that is going on in the organic apparel marketplace and suggests that organic cotton clothing is one step to being more mainstream within the promotional clothing, corporatewear and staff uniform industries.
Continental have purchased 750 tonnes of ‘100% organic cotton - in conversion’, which is due to be harvested in October. Thereafter, from November onwards, all Continental cotton garments will be 100% organic, or 100% organic - in conversion. Continental will be the first major manufacturer to do this, and the implications for other apparel manufacturers are enormous.
Phil (Director of Continental) said “This is a major step towards going 100% organic – and by developing lasting & sustainable relationships with organic cotton farmers, we ensure our future supply of organic cotton in a time when demand might exceed supply.”
“The cost of organic in conversion is only 3-5% more than conventional cotton, as compared to approximately 20-30% more for fully organic cotton, which means that can absorb the increase and we will not have to increase the prices of our garments.”
“I hope this gives a glimpse of what the future of the promotional industry might be, by demonstrating that it is possible to switch all cotton to organic, rather than have a few lines only of organic T-shirts in a complete wholesale collection of conventional cotton garments.”
Indigo Clothing now offers Continental’s organic range, which Katie has been adding to the organic cotton section, along with the rest of the Continental range.
Hi, I’m Katie and I’m doing work experience for a week in Indigo Clothing. I chose to do my work experience at Indigo because I wanted to have a look at how a business works from the inside. I am hoping to study business studies at University, so I thought Indigo Clothing would be perfect!
I come from a small quiet seaside town in North Wales called Harlech, so coming to London and making my way here everyday is quite scary by myself, as I’ve only been to London a few times and was never alone! I’m also regretting watching Creep as I have to get the tube to and from here! I’m in college at the moment in Moreton Hall near Oswestry studying Business Studies, English Literature and History of Art. Indigo is a small company, with only 7 members of staff. This means that I can understand most aspects of the business.
I am now on my second day. Yesterday I spent the first hour and a half getting to know the other staff who work at Indigo, seeing what they do. After that I spent most of the day putting new clothes onto the website from Continental and American Apparel, which sounds like an easy task, but actually took me about 4 hours to do! The new clothes I put on the website are all organic and there are even some clothes made from bamboo! This morning I have put the images of the clothes into a folder ready to put onto the website!
More from me later in the week!
This week Threadless announce the Eagle vs Shark Loves Winner, Five New Tees, Three Tees in Kids’ Sizes, Two Reprints, Blik Wall Graphics and the Portable Film Festival!
There are a number of serious brands now offering good quality organic and Fairtrade products in this niche part of the promotional clothing market. Katie, who joins Indigo for one week of work experience from Wales, is adding about twenty organic cotton products to the Indigo site as I type and she’ll be writing on the Indigo blog to tell you more about what we can do in this sector.
These brands include Continental, American Apparel, Tradicraft, Epona, Howies and Okarma, all of which Indigo offers and can customise with your logo or design.
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