Certton
Big shout out to Joy French for her Kora blog post about Organic Cotton Apparel. We have been working with Joy for many years and have always enjoyed seeing her incredible art work become contemporary pieces of clothing.
Joy prints her limited edition artwork on the OCC Australian organic cotton tees and singlets so we can all easily own a little piece of Joy French!
New Certton Website has Launched! OCC Apparel founders, Nick Barclay and Andrew Quinn, have once again collaborated with the online business gurus at DIJIGURU MEDIA to provide their customers with a rich experience and loads of information about Certified 100% Organic Cotton Clothing.
Christmas shopping for a friend who likes yoga, someone who has a baby, or maybe just looking for an ethical tee?
Formed in 2004, Certton manufactures t shirts and singlets as well as
yoga pants, tote bags, dresses, and organic baby clothes and blankets.
Certton has recently joined 42 other companies to become accredited to
Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA). ECA certifies that workers in
Australia have access to legally mandated conditions and are paid
according to the industry award.
In addition to being labour friendly, Certton t-shirts are made of 100% certified organic cotton sourced in Australia, India or Turkey. The company also uses Oeko-Tex 100 certified eco-dyes, which are less harmful to the environment than conventional dyes and help ensure that end products are free from harmful chemicals or residues.
All this goes to demonstrate that a more environmentally friendly fashion industry that respects the rights of workers is Certton-ly possible.
Happy shopping!
Reference: www.oxfam.org.au/blogs/2010/12/certton-steps-towards-more-ethical-fashion/
Organic cotton t-shirt and fabric specialists, Certton, have successfully completed the Ethical Clothing Australia accreditation process and are eying new markets.
Whilst the organic cotton is a drawcard for clients such Greenpeace and Sea Sheppard and the quality fashion cuts attract clients such as the Sydney Theatre Company and the Blues Fest, Certton’s Andrew Quinn hopes accreditation will appeal to union and labour rights organisations looking for quality Australian-made t-shirts.
“With the ability to produce over 600 shirts a day, we have a very fast turn-around time for orders of all sizes. We stock over 28 colours of organic fabric in 7 different types which is all ready to go on order demand. The fabric has a lovely feel and is of great quality because it’s knitted here in Australia from 100% certified organic cotton yarn, and our fashion background means the cut and fits of our shirts really put us in a different league to a lot of our competitors,” Mr Quinn said.
With Certton Australian made organic t-shirts only costing $1 more than conventional cotton garments, Mr Quinn said there was a significant education task required to explain that adhering to high environmental and ethical standards is not prohibitively expensive.
“Some clients are obviously lured by cheap imports to save money. We not only save our customers money we also increase their profit margins on end sales by supplying a world class ethical product including worlds best practice screenprinting techniques in super fast turnarounds. Our whole focus is based on taking any stress out of the equation for our clients by providing a convenient one stop shop and delivery of a quality customised product at an exceptional price,” Mr Quinn said.
Ethical Clothing Australia spokesperson, Tommy Clarke, agreed that many people still had misconceptions about prices, but said even when the ethical choice is slightly more expensive various studies show that consumers are willing to put their money where their mouths are.
“Recent labelling experiments conducted by Harvard University revealed consumers are willing to pay 10 to 20% more when they are confident products have been made under good labour standards. Mix this with Roy Morgan research that shows a ‘super’ majority (90%) of Australians are more likely to buy Australian-made, and I think the outlook is quite promising for businesses that can effectively demonstrate their ethical credentials,” Mr Clarke said.
Mr Quinn said since its inception Certton has been committed to upholding strong labour standards, but it wasn’t until Ethical Clothing Australia replaced its ‘No Sweat Shop label’ with the ‘stitched e’ logo that the business applied to become accredited.
“We’ve always avoided outsourcing - which can more easily lead to sweatshop or home-based production and the problems associated with that, instead we’ve kept the manufacturing at our own factory in Sydney. We feel that the Ethical Clothing Australia labelling is in keeping with Certton’s direction and appeals to the sensibility of many of our clients,” Mr Quin said.
For more information about Certton see: www.certton.com.au
Reference: www.ethicalclothingaustralia.org.au/_webapp_753218/Flying_colours_for_Certton
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