Fairtrade School Uniform News

Happy as well! - Boys of the village where our cotton is grown

Well we have great news.  I am pleased. Very.

We are about to introduce School uniform which is Fairtrade certified!  Hurrah.  To start with white, red and sky blue polo shirts, white t shirts, navy and red sweatshirts.  As more schools ask for more colours we will add them to the range.  Helen, Lisa, Natalie Jenny and I have been thinking about this for a while.  We already supply many schools with uniform and it seemed such an obvious idea to offer a Fairtrade option.

Of course nothing is that simple – I wish it was!  Supply, quality, reliability and stock holding, all need to be thought through. 

But here we are about to launch. 

 I am happy!

Fairtrade School Uniform

Solstice – The band

The Band

The wonderful band Solstice performed at The Pitz in Milton Keynes on Saturday.  They have reformed after many years of branching out individually as musicians.  I had seen a DVD of them performing at the Cropredy Festival many years ago and thought they were superb.  Last weekend something made me dig it out and play it to a friend – and then of course rave about it.  Hey presto two days later a get an e-mail from Andy telling me all about the re launch and their new CD Spirit.  Synchronicity or what!

A chance to link a wonderful band full of talented people with Fairtrade t shirts to help promote the band.   Next the design they wanted – a Indian mandala based design – how fitting.  So there we were Fairtrade t shirts in hand, printed, and watching a great band.  The crowd loved them.  Download some tracks on www.solsticewebsite.com and go and listen to them………

A Hot Cuppa Fashion – Business & Economy Magazine

A Hot Cuppa Fashion!

While we were in India we were surprised and very, very pleased to be featured in an issue of Business & Economy magazine.  We are featured along with a few other companies as “the latest brewing in ethical fashion”.  Well we are flattered to be included in fashion although most of the garments we sell are very straightforward –  for example organic t shirts.  The company clothing industry on the whole requires good quality, colour fast garments which will fit a range of employees.  I believe if we were too fashionable e.g. figure hugging t shirts we would not meet our customers requirements.

The question I ask every week, or even more often is  “Are the enough customers who want to consider sustainability, social responsibility and fairness for Cotton Roots to be sustainable?”  Impact Trading (my original company) still supports Cotton Roots but every order we get for Fairtrade polo shirts, every new customer who commits to the ethical options we offer,  gives me a thrill.  Really!

Most recently Chester Zoo has started to purchase from us their staff uniforms.  They now have organic trousers and Fairtrade aprons.  We are hopeful that  when our new bottle green,  Fairtrade and organic polo shirts arrive that the zoo also change to these garments.  On a visit to Chester Zoo recently with Helen we met Brendan who made us most welcome and showed us around.  They are so committed to ethical sourcing generally which includes food, water and now uniforms.  I was impressed.   www.chesterzoo.org  Helen is in discussion with a number of other zoos so watch this space for more news.

Eden Project and natural dyes

Ros & Jenny coffee and tea dyed aprons

We are excited!  The Eden Project has decided to place an order for our aprons. Some dyed with tea and some dyed with coffee. When I visited India Sian and I spent some time visiting Aura Textiles where Sonal, Arun, Mukul and Nishith looked after us so well and proudly showed us their factory. The garments they make for us are dyed organically using plants and herbs to make beautiful, long lasting colours. I was so keen to try and develop this idea in the UK. The factory was fascinating, protective equipment was not needed, unlike chemical dying and the waste water can be used as fertilizer.

The Eden Project as ambassadors for the plant kingdom decided that our aprons would be perfect to add to their merchandise range.  The cotton is organic and certified Fairtrade. 

Pomegranate being used to create an orange dye

Global Poverty Project

We were proud to sponsor Global Poverty Project for the launch at St Paul’s Cathedral to churches across the UK. They had an audience of 800 which we think is a wonderful achievement. Well done!

They were  joined by the Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander, the  Archbishop of York John Setanmu and TV presenter Denise Robertson.

Here they are wearing their Fairtrade T shirts and taking part in the Global Poverty Project “Tug of War”.

Look at their web site to find out more about the work they do http://globalpovertyproject.com/blog/

Times Article

An article in the Times today reported sales of Fairtrade goods up by 12% in the UK. The majority of this was due to an increase in Chocolate and Coffee sales (Cadbury and Starbucks). However there was not an equivalent increase in sales of Cotton.  Other interesting snippets in the article was that now all 58 flavours of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream are made with Fairtrade ingredients. Sainsbury’s is the worlds biggest retailer of Fairtrade goods.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article7035597.ece

So – as Cotton Roots is in the business of Cotton, how do we make our contribution and start to increase sales in cotton?  Our stategy is to supply good quality garments at a competitive price.  For example offering garments which if the are labeled  “medium” actually are “medium”.  Time after time.  It sounds common sense but in our industry this is not always the case and we searched high and low before finding our manufacturing partner.  They consistently makes for us top quality garments every time and it is organised beautifully by Morses who continues to give us confidence.  It means that when a customer comes back to us for their second and third orders they are confident of what they will receive.

Price – always a sensitive issue.  Again in our industry companies are used to being able to purchase T shirts and polo shirts at incredibly low prices.  However we do believe “you get what you pay for” and we have customers who do want good quality garments, printed or embroidered with their logo, along with excellent quality service.  Fairtrade T shirts do cost a little more but not that much more.  We want to offer good quality at a comparable price and give a real option.

Misty Day on Rose Lane Farm

We are based on the beautiful Rose Lane Farm. Our drive is through quietly growing cornfields just showing through the soil. It is a wonderful misty day. Karen and Ros are working to ensure superb high quality embroidery for the Open University ready for the opening of their new restaurants next week. Lisa is in India which reminds me of my trip to visit the Fairtrade cotton farmers I spent time with in November. A different type of farm to Rose lane!

Fairtrade School T Shirts

Happy Fairtrade families

Well we have our thinking caps on here at Cotton Roots.  We have stock in five different colours of our Fairtrade and organic cotton T shirts in adult sizes – extra small – 2xl.  But we are thinking “Why not stock childrens sizes as well”?  It seems like a good idea but are there schools who would like them for part of their uniform? A Fairtrade School uniform.  Helen is investigating.  We are planning to ask headteachers of schools who are already Fairtrade  to see if they would be interested.  If you have any comments, thoughts, or suggestions please leave a comment for us.  All ideas gratefully received!

Fairtrade Fortnight Milton Keynes

Our local city Milton Keynes has a very pro-active Fairtrade group and they have organised many events for the Fairtrade Fortnight. See http://www.mkfairtrade.org.uk/page.cfm. Our intrepid Helen is launching her EyetoEye Fairtrade Food stall at Wolverton market this week. So fingers crossed it is a roaring success. The group also have a stall at the Stony Stratford Beer Festival – with Fairtrade wines and beers.