Background information about our unisex shirt

Go Shirty, it's your birthday. 

Just in time for the launch of our new organic cotton shirt, we want to give you some background information here. The new product is released in collaboration with Stanley/Stella. Now you'll find out why we chose this brand & the production site! 

 

"Organic cotton. Renewable resources. Recycled materials. That's our plan to reduce our ecological footprint."

- Tereza Ungerman, Product Development and Quality Management at Stanley/Stella

 

From raw material to your home.

The 4WA shirt goes through several stages before you finally wear it around.

It all starts in India with small farmers. They produce 100 percent organic cotton there. The farmers are regularly inspected, and they all share the fact that they work according to the Global Organic Textile Standard. GOTS ensures that the cotton is grown organically and without the use of genetically modified seeds or harmful chemicals. Emphasis is also placed on the traceability of the products from the field to your home.

Next, it goes to Bangladesh - here the raw material is spun and processed into fabric. The partner factories are not only GOTS certified but also collaborate with the organization Fair Wear. The NGO ensures that social standards and safety conditions are met. Both the partners in India and Bangladesh are paid above the minimum wage & have at least a living wage guaranteed until 2025.

The final steps to the finished product also take place on site: washing, dyeing, cutting, sewing, ironing, packing. Once everything is done, the unprinted shirt is shipped to Europe.

In Berlin, the shirt is then refined with our print by screen printing. From Neukölln it goes to the outskirts of Berlin - here is our warehouse.

Now the 4WA shirt is waiting to be loved, worn, danced in. As soon as you order it, it will be packed by our colleagues on site and shipped to you. 

Why Made in Bangladesh?

The country itself is known for unacceptable conditions in textile processing, that is clear to us. It is important to us NOT to accept EXACTLY THAT. At the same time, Bangladesh is very populous, so the workforce is immense. 80% of export goods are in the textile sector. This is therefore a huge economic sector that must not simply disappear - because that would threaten the livelihood of many people. 

The NGO Fair Wear is committed to improving working conditions in such countries. Payment is made above minimum wage & employees have a living wage at least until 2025. Additionally, benefits such as health insurance, maternity leave, coverage of travel costs & attendance bonuses as well as increasing wages are guaranteed.

We want to help improve the economic, ecological, and social conditions in the country here. Long story short: it’s not about the WHAT, but about the HOW. And we are convinced about the how at this point. 

With Stanley/Stella we have found a partner who shares our values and is brave enough to take action and improve conditions in countries like Bangladesh and India. We find that worth supporting. 

 

Spread our message: 4WA aka We will __ who we are. Fill in the blank.

We struggled for a long time with ourselves about whether production in a third country fits with us and our beliefs. But it does! We live in a globalized world, everything is interconnected. We cannot and do not want to stop that. But we want to overcome the gap between the individual countries, reduce it, hopefully remove it someday. 

Our new shirt carries the message: we will __ who we are. What will we be? Where do we want to go? This is not just a piece of clothing, this is a statement. 

 

Love & greetings

the 4WA Crew