This past year has seen us work even more closely with our two factory partners both located just outside Delhi in India and saw us spend significant time directly with the workers and management.

One of our initial challenges was to help factory management to change their overall mindset on waste and how this industry should operate.

For decades they've been made to focus on as much volume of product for as cheap as possible - not really having to take into account if this will actually be sold, that's the brand’s responsibility not theirs after all.

So as we've grown we've had to convince factories to change their approach and think not just about producing as much as possible but instead - producing the right amount.

How do you mean? Surely that's simple?

Well not really - most factories are set up to produce a minimum of 1-2k units of the same product. They focus on the benefits of scale, even if those products aren't ever actually sold to a shopper like you or me.

So we've had to work with them to focus on creating 'the correct' amount and putting in place systems that allows the process to be optimised for the good of the factory, the workers, shoppers and the planet!

In practise this actually means factories making the same money for making fewer products - not something that a lot of brands want to talk about, let alone do!

This change has taken time but it's clear through the quality of our product continually improving and the fact that more and more factories are wanting to work with us that it's working.

Workers

It was great to meet so many of the workers who create Unfolded clothes earlier this year - hearing from them about their lives and trying my hand at some of the production myself... I'm definitely not good enough to be taking a place on the production line for Unfolded clothes.

The thing that strikes me so much about our work with our factories is the care and thought that goes into managing the workers and how many of them come to Delhi just to work for a couple of months per year - going back to rural India to farm at other points in the year.

Environmental Impact

This year our factories have invested in solar panels - this sees nearly 50% of their power usage now coming from these panels. There is an app that allows them to track this work.

Furthermore the mills that produce our fabrics also continue to invest heavily in environmental protection and nearly 90% of water is now reused in the mills with the rest fully cleaned and tested before being released. I think they were shocked when on our last visit I insisted on going through every part of the process and climbing the water tanks to see this for apparently it's not something a lot of brands do. 

We test our factories to Sedex standards to ensure our high ethical and enviromental standards are achieved. These reports check things such as workers payments, health and safety log, spacing in the factory, exits and a range of other factors.

These tests are carried out on a regular basis and we also ensure regular unscheduled drop ins from our other partners in India to check on conditions and workers.