28.3.16

TRANSPARENCY IN FASHION


Below is a list of the fashion brands who have agreed to disclose the rates of pay / hours textile workers and the number of carcinogen / EDC chemicals they use to make their clothes.
1. Golf Refugees
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22.3.16

GLUTEN FREE


A petition forced high street retailer Zara to withdraw a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Are you gluten free?’ after collecting more than 50,000 signatures.
I've been a registered coeliac for many years and all my friends know I’m a complete pain when it comes to food. Yes, this t-shirt takes the biscuit (that’ll have to be a gluten free biscuit), does it offend me? No. I think it’s quite funny.
With the original t-shirt being withdrawn by Zara after a group of grain-free-activists wielded their collective might.
Here’s my own ‘not as funny’ version.
‪#‎iamglutenfree‬
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12.3.16

WOULD YOU?


Would you sign a Nike contract after reading the following?
In Indonesia, Nike has 168,000 workers who are paid a paltry $212 a month. Here Nike has busted unions, refused to pay even the minimum wage, has verbally and physically threatened workers for exercising their fundamental right to freely associate, and they have cheated workers of millions of dollars in overtime pay. Along with the labour rights violations, Nike has also been dumping and burning scrap shoe rubber in Indonesian villages for 25 years – pumping toxins and carcinogens into the air, water, and soil.

In Malaysia, Nike has been found guilty of employing thousands of illegally trafficked workers. These workers had their passports confiscated to prevent them running away to get help or to find a better job. For years, Nike turned a blind eye on this issue until we brought the matter to prime-time TV and forced them to address it.

In Vietnam, the situation is even worse. Nike is the largest private employer in Vietnam with 330,000 workers. Here, workers are paid $132 per month. Because of Nike’s poverty wage, many workers cannot afford their basic needs, most distressingly, childcare. They are forced to leave their babies and young children with grandparents in their home villages while they migrate to cities to work. If they are lucky, they see their children a few times a year. Along with poor wages, workers in Vietnam deal with verbal abuse, inhuman production quotas, and one worker reported that because of restrictions on the use of toilets at work, a co-worker wet her pants on the production line despite repeated requests to her supervisor for a bathroom break.

Why are conditions for Nike workers in Vietnam worse than Indonesia and Malaysia? Workers in Vietnam have no voice. Through its state-run “union,” the ruling party has had an iron grip on labour for 50 years. It works with the police and government security forces so that workers who organise strikes are fired, arrested, and even jailed.
When courageous workers in Vietnam were fired for standing up themselves in recent years, Nike replied, "it is (our) legal right to terminate any employee who misses more than 5 days of work participating in a 'wildcat strike'. - Jim Keady
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7.3.16

THE BIG C.


Is it possible to design a ‘cancer free’ sports top?
What do we mean by ‘cancer free’?
A sport shirt that will keep you cool, dry and odour free when playing, but without using any chemicals classified as carcinogenic.
We intend to use our contacts and provide a brief to fashion students and designers to identify which carcinogens are currently used in sportswear and what functionality they provide.
It will be fascinating to see which materials, dyes and textile finishers designers select to create their 'cancer free' sportswear.
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2.3.16

DISCLOSURE


This may look like an ordinary polo shirt, but we believe it uses something of significance for the future of the fashion industry.
If you look bottom right, you'll see a small printed label which discloses the pay / hours of textile workers and the number of carcinogens / hormone disruptor chemicals used to you the consumer.
Over the past few weeks we have held discussions with fashion organisations across Europe, to gather feedback and support.
It will be the first time such a disclosure label has been used.
‪#‎disclosurelabel‬ ‪#‎golfrefugees‬
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EYE BALL


Been looking for the perfect golf ball to go with my Ping 'eye' irons. Eye ball by Golf Refugees; available in blue, brown and hazel. Don't tell Ping.
‪#‎eyegolfball‬
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