Clean Tee delivers premium quality apparel through five principles:
1. Guarantee living wages to every employee
Above all else, we must guarantee a living wage as a minimum starting salary for every person in our factory. This guarantee extends from team leaders to entry-level cleaning staff. We verify this by posting our payroll every month rather than paid-for, third party certifications.
Read here why we don't pay for certifications like Fair Trade.
2. Produce with zero inventory waste
Thirty percent of the clothing made is never sold. Most of this inventory waste is either incinerated or landfilled.
Clean Tee's on-demand production model creates zero inventory waste and allows us to expand the standard size range to be inclusive to everyone.
3. Eliminate virgin fabrics and plastic packaging
No virgin fabrics
All Clean Tee garments are made with either 100% recycled or reclaimed fabrics. As the second most polluting industry in the world, fashion creates vast amounts of fabric remnants that can’t be reincorporated into its mass manufacturing model. Clean Tee's made-to-order system allows us to reclaim this perfectly good fabric and put it back into circulation.
Read here about the sustainbility issues with virgin fabrics like organic cotton.
No plastic packaging
Our packaging is plastic-free and made on-demand in our factory. While other brands must use plastic bags to protect garments for warehouse storage and handling, Clean Tee ships directly from our factory to your front door in paper pouches we make ourselves. Moreover, your entire order is packaged together, avoiding the waste of single unit packaging.
4. Never outsource production
The root of every problem in the fashion industry is this: nearly every brand outsources production, which in turn outsources ethics and environmental responsibility.
Certifications are not enough. Consumers are led to believe that a "fair trade certified" factory means workers earn a living wage. But the fair trade standard gives factories and brands six years to "work toward" meeting living wage minimums.
The other unfortunate reality is that certification programs are rife with fraud. Factories are audited at their main location but then often sub-contract production to smaller factories who operate outside of ethical and sustainability requirements.
Read here about the prevalance of sub-contracting in the fashion industry.
5. Make continuous improvement integral to the process
We can always do better. We can always do more.
In December 2023, we'll launch our Upwoven program that upcycles 100 percent of our production scraps into beautiful home goods. These will be available for purchase on the Clean Tee website.
We'll also announce an industry-first "Tip the Makers" program which tells customers who made their clothes and lets them show appreciation for a job well done.