Our Supply Chain

Clothing manufacturing supply chains can be very complex. Put simply a supply chain is the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a product. 

For making clothing, the supply chain is fraught with both environmental and ethical disasters! Harsh pesticides, by-products of the fabric production and/or dyes can poison the local ecosystem. Clothing manufacturing requires manual labour, so companies look to exploit labour in countries that have low wages and/or minimal worker’s rights. 

This is often why clothing manufacturers are not transparent with their supply chain, as it could lead to a lot of unwanted questions from their customers!

At Sharp Minds our mission is to change the world, one t-shirt at a time and our supply chain is one way we intend to do this. Below is the Sharp Minds supply chain, which highlights the steps we take to ensure our t-shirts are made both ethically and sustainably.

 

Apart from the production of the organic cotton yarn, all the steps in our supply chain take place in Australia. This ensures that workers must be paid a living wage by law and that they have rights. It also ensures that the production and dying of the fabric and manufacturing of our t-shirts happen under strict environmental protection laws.

We would love to source our organic cotton from Australia but unfortunately 99% of all cotton produced in Australia is shipped overseas, so we had to go with the next best option. We only use Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified organic cotton, which requires the production of the cotton must meet strict sustainability and social criteria. You can learn more about GOTS here.

We challenge you to investigate the supply chain of some of the clothing manufacturers that claim to be ethical and sustainable and see how much of it is true and how much of it is just marketing hype!