Ethical T-Shirts Supporting Communities Worldwide

I’m going to feature a few t-shirt stores that stretch their budget just that little bit further than your usual label. Over the last few years more and more charities, progressive arts communities and even businesses have realised exactly how powerful t-shirt fashions can be when you have a good cause or message to propagate. I include businesses in the mix because they too know it makes sense to align themselves with worthier pursuits than the mere accumulation of wealth and power. The consumer is more savvy than ever, the choice they face, especially when shopping online is almost insurmountable. Charities used to sell second-hand goods for pennies in most rundown high streets throughout the eighties and nineties here in the UK.

Things have moved on and nowadays you’ll find many major charities have branched out into all sorts of merchandising. Forget Christmas cards and gift tags, we’re talking desirable bang up-to-date underground fashion here, not smelly old sweaters and handbags in a bargain bin, you could almost say that the idea of charity itself has become fashionable. We’ve moved a long way since those first Live Aid t-shirts of the eighties, not everything can be summed up in a slogan and some of the following sites may offer you a surprise or two, think glamour on a budget, subtle persuasion, and a growing underground appeal and you’re halfway there.

http://www.fivehumans.com - FiveHumans™ design and sell a range of disease related t-shirts, but plans are already afoot to expand their range to cover numerous causes affecting the world. Borne out of the ashes of Disease Tees, Dan Grunvald and Lee Fine’s (read Lee’s story here) original concept of producing t-shirts with slogans and information related to a variety of diseases.

They donate 10% of their profits to charitable organisations for every cause they support (dependent upon the product).

Currently they’re raising awareness for autism, cancer, diabetes, asthma and heart disease. They offer free US shipping on all orders over $100.

http://www.supportshirts.net - Support Shirts is a small t-shirt design label with a passion for the arts community. They began by helping to promote bands and eventually started to sell t-shirts at gigs.

Commissioning independent artists to produce their designs they take them on the road with various bands offering a unique crossover between the worlds of music and arts and fashion.

Some of the organisations they support include Skate 4 Cancer, VH1 Save The Music Foundation, Shirts for a Cure and Clothes Off Our Back.

http://www.commonthreadz.org - Common Threadz offers some excellent limited edition tees and for every sale they make they give a free school uniform to an orphan African child, essentially allowing them to attend school.

This is a great cause and provides immediate concrete results for the needy, well worth checking them out, if only for the good karma, although as I say, they do offer some really smart tees too!

http://www.organicstereo.com - Organic Stereo are based in Brighton. This independent British clothing label offers a few organic tees amongst many other fashion items. They donate 1% of their profits to charity and are members of onepercentfortheplanet.org

http://www.ethicalthreads.co.uk - Ethical Threads produce all the official merchandise for Glastonbury, so if you buy any festival shirts or fleeces there you can be assured that what you’re buying is entirely ethical!

They began with Billy Bragg’s Tours and offer a few designer tees all of which are printed with organic inks and using fair trade cotton, they personally inspect the factories where our garments are made, speak to the workers without management present, and ensure that employers adhere to the core ILO conventions

Their manifesto:

* No forced labour
* No child labour
* Freedom of association; the workforce is free to join a trade union. Our suppliers must allow access for local trade unions to talk to staff about joining a union and to verify employment practices.
* All health, hygiene and safety requirements are met by the company and can be independently verified.
* Decent shift patterns and regular breaks for staff
* Decent pay to the workforce and compliance with all minimum wage requirements.
* Equality of opportunity for all staff. * Paid holidays, paid sickness leave and paid maternity leave for staff.
* Suppliers that comply with environmental standards and to meet Oeko-Tex standard 100

http://www.mondonation.com - Mondonation is committed to inspiring positive, global change through the development of sustainable, charitable strategies. Our ‘believe’ t-shirts are just the first in a series of ethical products geared to give back to all world communities. For every shirt or product bought from Mondonation $1, $5, $10, or $20 (you decide) is given back to the charity of your choice. A list of charities available can be found on the Charity Selection page. I can’t provide an image because they offer a unique service where you add your text to their “I believe” statement - no images offered!

http://www.fairtrademedia.co.uk - Fair Trade Media offer a range of Fair Trade Tees - both designer and wholesale blanks and are committed to:-

* Supporting poor artists – 5% of the proceeds of all Fair Trade Media works sold are invested in our Fair Trade Media Fund, to finance projects supporting poor artists around the world.

* Engendering collaboration – a key aspect of Fair Trade Media is supporting creative projects in which artists and supporters work together, combined with the “open source” distribution of creative works into developing nations. To encourage collaboration, Fair Trade Media distributes works under a variety of Creative Commons licenses that provide original artists (i.e., the copyright owners) with a flexible and simple (no complex legal documents) means to open their work to an expanded audience and to potential collaborators in the world. Open to all.

http://www.idressmyself.co.uk - I Dress Myself works with artists from around the UK Creative Commons using non-profit flexible copyright licences for creative works to produce limited edition printed goodies.

Each contributing artist gets a percentage of their product sales so that if their designs do well, so do they.

They think this is fairer than a one-off fee. They aim to bring together work from established and emerging artists alike.

Their products are limited edition and screen-printed by hand using eco friendly water based inks on organic cotton and sustainable bamboo garments, and premium recycled paper.

http://410bc.com - 410 BC donate profits (usually 15 percent) from specific shirts to important causes and charitable organisations and we offer an environmentally friendly, 100 percent organic cotton line.

410 BC is all about choice, it’s about having choices when buying things, especially the choice to support people that have bigger goals than just making money. All of their clothing is made, manufactured and printed in the USA, which costs more than if they outsourced production to another country. The shirts they print on are sweatshop free, (American Apparel) and made in the USA.

You can check out their store at http://410bc.bigcartel.com

http://www.wearenumbers.com - We Are Numbers raises issues (via t-shirts) on personal liberty and political freedom.

http://www.districtcotton.com - District Cotton are an old favourite here at Buy Tees.  They offer a monthly t-shirt design competition and they need votes now! A very generous 10% profits from each t-shirt are donated to various charities covering everything from the environment to human rights.

http://www.teecycle.org - Tee Cycle offer a unique service, they scour their local flea markets for abandoned classics, wash, press and sell them cheap to the public, I’ve bought three t-shirts from them before including an old Clockwork Orange tee, an old school Homer (from the Simpsons) t-shirt and a great little cropped top for my partner Christina. Well worth a visit if you’re after a bargain, yes their prices are rock-bottom and the profits are donated to environmental charities.

http://www.organictshirt.net - I’m still seeking partners to begin my own unique organic fair trade t-shirt company - I have a range of unique designs and we can offer a percentage to other designers, however I do need an organic screenprinter and a whizz at online marketing, we split the profits three ways… contact me if you’re game.