Sustainability

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

We have a lot to tell about sustainability.

Why? Because sustainability in fashion is complicated. And there is a lot to improve. But also because SKOT wants to go the extra mile to make clothes with a good story.

We are on a journey. We want to contribute towards 100% sustainable fashion. That means that there is plenty to improve with us as well. But it starts with transparency and a clear vision about sustainability in fashion.

That is why this section is dedicated to how SKOT thinks about sustainability. And which steps we have taken to offer the most sustainable products.

If you have any questions or tips after reading, let us know! Send an email to hello@skotfashion.com. Together we can make a difference.

Impact ánd quality for a sharp price. That is what SKOT offers.

The goal is 100%. Join the Party.

THE SKOT PATH TO 100% SUSTAINABILITY.

 

PRODUCTION

Each SKOT shirt is a work of art. Our shirts are made in Europe by craftsmen who are proud of their product. They work under safe and fair conditions. Our T-shirts are happily produced in India and have a Fair Trade® certification.

We personally visited the factories and we chose suppliers with high labor standards and fair production.

We want you to feel good while wearing a SKOT shirt. This is only possible when you know that your shirt is made in the right way. Made by craftsmen in locations where you could work too.

SKOT uses various producers in different countries. We pay close attention to our footprint. Multiple considerations are taken into account in the selection of cotton, fabric and shirt production:

  • Production in or close to Europe
  • Production of cotton, fabric and shirt close together to minimize transport
  • 100% certified organic cotton (GOTS or OCS)
  • Ethical production standards (such as BSCI, Sedex or SA8000)
  • Water-saving production methods for cotton

The SKOT shirts are produced in Istanbul, Turkey. Here we found the best mix between quality, fair employment conditions and price. The bulk of the cotton is sourced in Turkey as well, this leads to minimal transport distances. The high-standard Karbel factory in Istanbul is BSCI and Sedex certified. This ensures safe and fair employment conditions. Personnel are transported to and from their homes, there is a maximum on the number of hours worked per week and there is a staff council, where employees can safely file complaints. The higher management of Karbel partly consists of women, to ensure gender equality in all layers of the company.

The SKOT T-shirts are produced in India. The factory has the industry-leading SA8000 certificate for safety and working conditions. All workers receive a fair wage, the products have a Fair Trade® certification. The printing facility only uses GOTS approved pigments. The washing and dyeing facility has the Detox certification from Greenpeace. Also, the factory has a partnership with the Chetna project. This is a project with small organic farmers and supported by Solidaridad. The whole production chain is transparent, from cotton plants to fabric. You know exactly which steps your SKOT T-shirt has taken. This transparency is unique and a big step forward towards sustainable fashion in India.

Both production locations have taken measures to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are strict health regulations, and employees work in separate clusters in order to prevent infecting others.

 

MATERIALS

We take great care in selecting the right materials for your SKOT product. We don’t want to compromise on two important factors: top quality and sustainable production.

Top quality materials ensure that the shirt lasts for a long time. That is sustainable in itself. You can clearly see the difference if you wear a shirt made of extra-long cotton fiber of high quality, without the addition of plastic materials. The fabric feels softer on your skin, and the wearing comfort is higher. The sustainable production simply ensures that many more people can enjoy the production of your shirt. The people who make it and loads of people who also want to enjoy the earth later on. Doesn’t it feel twice as good when you wear a shirt made the right way? We only want to use natural materials in our shirts. No pesticides. No plastic.

The fabric of our shirts comes from respected mills in Europe. We have partnerships with Albini (Italy), Monti (Italy), Soktas (Turkey) and Getzner (Austria). They themselves have high factory standards on sustainable and energy-efficient production. We only use organic cotton, with either the GOTS or the OCS certification. These are quality marks that ensure that the cotton is produced ethically and according to the highest sustainable standards. In 2020 we started using fabric that consists partly out of recycled material (36% Refibra™), next to OCS certified organic cotton (64%). More info on this in the Circular section. The fabric of our T-shirts is 95% GOTS certified organic cotton and 5% elastane, both of which are grown in India.

The production of cotton gets a lot of criticism, because it requires a lot of chemicals and the cotton crop uses a lot of water. As far as the chemicals are concerned, we can be brief: there’s none in the production of organic cotton. Conventional cotton uses an immense 25% of the total amount of pesticides used in the world. With regard to water use, there are many different opinions about the water savings in the cultivation of organic cotton. Most sources tell us that organic cotton saves an immense 88% water use. What also does save water is drip irrigation. By spraying the cotton plant at the root, evaporation is prevented and exactly the needed water amount can be given. A conventional shirt requires 3,500 liters of water, with drip irrigation 60% water is saved.

Did you know that only 1% of the world’s production of cotton is grown organically? SKOT would like this percentage to be much higher. Because it is so low, there is little supply in fabrics and we have to search everywhere for the right cotton. Organic is not only more expensive, it is also more difficult to find. Help us, help yourself and the rest of the world: buy organic cotton!

Our SKOT shirts only have natural buttons. No plastic. We use three types of buttons: Coconut, Corozo and mother-of-pearl. The brown coconut buttons give a nice contrast on a casual shirt. There is a lot of coconut waste, about 60 billion kilos per year. By making buttons of it, the waste can be reused in a clean way. We are one of the first suppliers of the white Corozo buttons. Corozo is also called “the vegetable ivory” and is made from the Tagua palm, which grows extensively in Latin America. Our mother-of-pearl buttons are sustainably grown and harvested. A protected reef area in the north of Australia is used for the cultivation of the shells. In the harvest season, divers manually choose the right shells for use. They only choose medium sizes. The young shells can grow further and the larger and older shells can ensure the growth of new shells.

All our buttons are fastened with a patented method called Ascolite. Under the button the threads are wrapped together, which ensure that the button is firmly secured. This way you never lose a button, and you do not need backup buttons. After all, sustainability starts with reducing.

For the stitching yarn, we are delighted to report that we started to use recycled yarn in our shirts and our T-shirts. This is a break-through in the development of sustainable yarn. We are probably the only shirt supplier that uses sustainable yarn. The problem has long been the sewing strength of recycled yarn, but after long periods of testing we finally have made steps in the increase of the use of recycled material.

Interlining is used for the extra stiffness in the collar and the sleeves. The bad news is that interlining is being glued to the substance with formaldehyde, which is a toxic substance. The SKOT shirts use a formaldehyde-free interlining, so no toxic chemicals for us.

In our webshop, every product has a comprehensive list of the used materials and the production location for the respective product.

 

CIRCULAR

100% sustainable fashion. That is the goal. SKOT wants to use a circular business model. That is why we give you a 10% premium when you return your shirt after use. No matter how long you have worn your shirt.

The impact of the clothing industry is currently too large. There are many factors that contribute to the pollution. For example cotton production, water use, painting, transport and the disposal of clothing waste. SKOT wants to move towards clothing with a positive impact. There are several steps in the process of becoming truly circular. Read our “Vision” section below. An important step is the recycling of existing clothing and recycling more clothing into new fabrics.

We are proud to announce that we are the first shirt supplier to start with recycled fabrics for our shirts. With the new circular shirts from SKOT you take the next step to a sustainable clothing world! The fabric of the shirts is made from recycled and organic cotton. This saves a lot of CO2 emissions, waste, water and energy. Besides you, the whole world benefits!

Refibra™ is a cicular yarn. With recycled cotton and wood pulp from sustainably managed forests, Lyocell fibers are made in a closed loop production process. Using Refibra for men’s shirts is unique, because it’s difficult to realize the long and thin fibers of shirts with recycled material. The high quality of SKOT shirts needs to be guaranteed as well!

While we are proud to have started using recycled fabric in our shirts, we’re still looking forward to more. Unfortunately, the market does not seem ready yet for bigger improvements. For example, the recycling of used shirts into new fabric is still in development stages. With mechanic fiberization, thin fabric such as bed linnen and shirts is reduced to dust. Closed loop chemical fiberization is still in development stages and not ready to use. For products with thick fabric and short fibers such as jeans, mechanic fiberization is a strong solution. For our SKOT shirts, we keep a close eye on future developments.

 

VISION

SKOT believes in a fun and fair world. We use the positive power of the fashion industry to create a better world. We make clothes with minimal impact on nature and positive impact on the people who make it. We make sustainable quality affordable. We are on a journey. The goal is 100% sustainable fashion with the best products. Join the Party!

The clothing industry is one of the most polluting industries on earth. Pollution occurs at various points in the chain, and it also involves different types of pollution. The footprint of clothing on the earth is too big, both ecologically and socially. SKOT wants to do change that.

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”.

Slowly, more information comes available about the state of the clothing industry. The 2017 Ellen McArthur Foundation report on the clothing industry and the annual Pulse Report of the Global Fashion Agenda are two worthwhile publications. SKOT has done extensive research and also looked at its own possibilities to contribute to a positive impact. This has led to our vision as shown below.

SKOT takes continuous steps towards positive impact in terms of materials and production. With respect to materials: many results have already been achieved for the first step, the elimination of harmful substances. By using organic cotton, the use of insecticides and pesticides is prevented. Our interlining is formaldehyde-free. A minimum amount of plastics is used, we are increasing the use of recycled polyester here. The next step we took was to increase the share of recycled material in SKOT shirts. In the future, we want to start re-use the SKOT fabrics. These measures ensure that less raw materials are needed. Ultimately, it should be possible to offer a completely circular product, with a minimal footprint on the earth.

In the field of production: the first step is ethical production. This requires continuous attention. In addition, we want to communicate fully transparently about where and how your SKOT shirt is made. This transparency is of great importance to inform consumers and give them the opportunity to make the right choices. It is hard to see from the outside of a shirt if it’s well made or not. And without extra information you only see the price difference, and the cheap and poorly made product often wins. The next step is to have the production chain operate in a climate-neutral way. This is a huge task, in which the chain has a shared responsibility. It is then the ambition of SKOT to help the people involved in the realization of the shirt with more than just paying a fair wage. Ultimately, the entire production chain can be integrated, so that all parties involved are focused on delivering a fair top quality product.

 

TRANSPARENCY

“Transparency is essential for trust. And trust is the first step towards change.”

The clothing industry is extremely polluting. At the same time, only few people know this is the case, and even fewer people know exactly what this means. Let alone know alternatives to solve it. SKOT was founded with these motives. One of the most important things to improve this negativity is to give information. That is why SKOT wants to lead the way in transparency.

Price transparency

SKOT is completely transparent about the price elements of a shirt. First, because we have nothing to hide. Second, we show that you pay more than double for the same product on main street. At SKOT you get transparency and top quality at a fair price.

Why is SKOT able to offer a shirt for € 79, while it costs € 159 in traditional retail? It’s pretty simple. SKOT works directly with factories and sells directly online to consumers. In this way we cut unnecessary links from the chain, which increase costs. We put the savings in the product and offer it at a competitive price.

 Each garment has a certain mark-up. That is the factor by which the purchase price is increased to the selling price for consumers. In traditional retail, this is a factor 5-6. At SKOT we feel a fair price is important, and we use normal margins for our shirts. That is why our factor is 2-3 times. And with that you simply get more shirt for your money!


What are the costs of your shirt? We have listed it for you. SKOT continuously searches for the best mix between quality, sustainability and price. We think we have found the perfect mix. And we are proud to share that with you!

Product passport

Each product contains information which raw materials have been used and where it has been made. This is very normal for food. But very uncommon for clothing. SKOT changes that. In our webshop, every product has a comprehensive list of the used materials and the production location for the respective product.

 

Impact report

We already inform the savings of buying a SKOT shirt compared to a regular one:

  • 2000 liters of water
  • 200 milliliters of chemical pesticides
  • Water pollution and soil exhaustion
  • Forced labor and unsafe working conditions

But there is a lot more. SKOT tries to minimize its own footprint in several more ways. One of them is our packaging:

  • We send a SKOT shirt or T-shirt package in a small package which fits through a regular mailbox. This prevents CO2 emissions from delivery vans
  • Minimal packaging, made from recycled carton or material from trusted sources (FSC). Of course, the carton can be recycled.
  • The shirt is folded with clothespins instead of plastic material or needles. You can easily reuse the clothespins!

In the future, SKOT wants to publish an impact report, in which its own footprint is calculated and in which methods are used to compensate for this footprint. However, being a start-up company with big dreams, we only can take one step at a time to reach our goal of a 100% sustainable clothing industry.

 

CERTIFICATIONS

SKOT works with several suppliers and materials. We make sure this is with minimal impact on nature and positive impact on the people involved. Where possible we work with several certificates to ensure the ethics and sustainable quality.

  • The shirt factory in Istanbul has the BSCI label, the T-shirt factory in Kolkata has the SA8000 standard
  • 100% of our fabrics have an organic certification. This is either GOTS or OCS
  • Our T-shirt is produced under the Fair Trade certification
  • The T-shirt printing facility has the GOTS certification
  • The wet processing of the T-shirts has the Detox certification