Why make a lousy T-shirt out of organic cotton?
In my daily life helping fashion brands I often hear this: “We make really good quality products, that consumers can keep for years, is that not sustainable?”.
The question is normally asked while we are developing a sustainable material strategy.
And the answer is:
YES, of course it is sustainable to make good quality products.
A well thought-through design process, considering:
- the fibers used,
- the quality of the fabric,
- the design to easy disassemble the product for repair or recycling,
- the use fase (how will the consumer care for it?)
- and the after-use fase
(already in designfase, but also considering how the consumer can easily hand it down or dispose of it)
In fact, I would say that it is the very basic of sustainable products, that they are made with the purpose of longevity (fancy word for a classic style in a good quality).
However, do not let quality be the only sustainable feature of your product – if you want to call it sustainable, that is.
Quality is a necessary basis to build sustainability, but it should not be the place where you rest your head in belief, that you have to do nothing more.
It is not going to make a huge difference to our world, if we are turning lousy T-shirts into organic lousy T-shirts. We would still be using natural resources, but only to produce something that can be worn – maybe 8 times and then it is twisted, peeling or simply torn.
The same idea goes if we are producing too many items made from organic cotton. Selling half of them and getting rid of the rest. Yes, the choice of fiber was better, but we still produced too much of it, straining on natural resources.
The House of Cards
I like to explain things in pictures, and one of my favorite pictures is the House of Cards. Where you can imagine that the lack of a base, would make the house collapse.
So, for sustainable materials, I would say that the base of the house of cards would be to produce the right amount, the middle would be to produce it considering longevity, then made from sustainable fibers and lastly – designed and produced so that alternations and recycling is made possible.
Patagonia – my favorite….
If you want to read more about longevity (that fancy word you know), then also check out this blog from one of my favorite brands Patagonia.
https://www.patagonia.com/stories/quality-is-an-environmental-issue/story-93237.html
I generally just love their approach, that they can always do better. We just have to start and evolve from where we are currently at. Patagonia are at a really high level, but they are not done yet. But, it does not mean that the rest of us should stop, because they are ahead, all the small steps counts. And hey, maybe they even pathed a way for us…….