“Sustainability is like a new trend that most brands want to be part of. Even if they are not really focused on sustainability, they are concerned about it,” said Thamonwan Virodchaiyan.
“We need to have a variety of solutions for them, and one of the top solutions is using natural fibers,” she said. Another is a new fabric sourcing platform that supports the circular economy.
Her company Apparel Creations has been very proactive in meeting the growing demand for both sustainability and transparency.
The company specializes in cotton knit polo shirts and t-shirts, mainly for export to the EU market.
As the EU increases its standards and requirements for sustainable apparel, the importance to brands to have a supply chain that is transparent is increasingly important.
No Order is Too Small
Brands want to place small orders but few garment manufacturers can accept orders below 500 pieces. “My factory can start with 300 pieces, or lower, depending on if we can source the material. Many times if we can source a smaller quantity of the fabric, then we are willing to take an even smaller batch as well,” said Ms. Virodchaiyan.“Sustainability is like a new trend that most brands want to be part of. So we are providing a variety of solutions for them.”
As brands look to offer more personalized products, as well as reduce their inventories, the ability to do small orders really sets factories like Apparel Creations apart from the many legacy manufacturers who focus on big volumes.
Although the company specializes in knits, they can also do woven garments, including pants and dresses.
Most of their fabric is sourced in Thailand, giving them the advantage of a domestic supply chain.
Innovating Sustainable Solutions
In addition to the garment factory, Apparel Creations has been one of the first companies to join a startup called ‘moreloop’ that curates leftover or surplus fabric from 70 factories in Thailand.
“moreloop deals only with deadstock fabric to serve the circular economy mindset. We want to use the resources that already exist instead of producing new products.
“Most of our customers already request natural fibers, so if I have left over fabric, for example like fabric made from U.S. cotton that already has the certificates and transparency, it is even more valuable for the next buyer who wants to purchase the deadstock,” said Ms. Virodchaiyan.
“There’s a big benefit in that they are not only reducing waste in the industry, but the fabric they are using is sustainable and transparent.”
This deadstock is often just the right quantity for making very small garment orders.
“We don’t actually purchase and warehouse this deadstock. Instead, we enter it in a database that also includes all the information about the fabrics, such as fiber content and certificates, like the Trust Protocol. When a buyer needs fabric, we can search this database and then order the fabric immediately.”
The combination of having a small and agile garment factory, and an extensive database of domestic deadstock fabrics is making Apparel Creations the perfect partner for smaller brands that need high quality, sustainable production.
Email. amm@apparelcreations.com | website. Apparelcreations.com Tel. +662 457 8341-5
Certified Sustainable
The Trust Protocol is aligned with existing sustainability programs including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. It brings quantifiable and verifiable goals and measurement to sustainable cotton production, and drives continuous improvement in six key sustainability metrics – land use, soil carbon, water management, soil loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency. The Trust Protocol is designed from the ground up to address the unique regulatory and larger farm growing environment in the United States.
How the Trust Protocol Works
The Protocol Consumption Management Solution (PCMS) starts at the gin when the participating producer’s cotton is ginned and each unique Permanent Bale Identification number (PBI) is attached. At this point we know the exact gin weight and can create an exact amount of Protocol Cotton Consumption Units, where one Protocol Cotton Consumption Unit is created for each kilogram of Protocol Verified Cotton. This important step provides absolute authentication of U.S. cotton origin, verifying against the USDA database.
Supply Chain Transparency
The PCMS harnesses blockchain technology through a powerful combination of the Trust Protocol platform and TextileGenesis™ system to deliver full supply chain transparency by recording and verifying the movement of U.S. cotton along the entire supply chain. This creates article-specific transparency for finished products that was not previously accessible to brands and retailers.
Trusted Third Party Certification
The Trust Protocol incorporates a comprehensive program of verification against Trust Protocol benchmarks, in the form of both second-party and independent third-party audits of grower performance through Control Union Certifications—the latter through allocated on-site visits.
Control Union Certifications has certified over 150 industry standards programs worldwide, including working as a key partner in the early development and piloting phases of Impact Claim Verification Protocol.
Learn More https://trustuscotton.org
The COTTON USA Advantage
- Family growers who are committed to working their fields sustainably and leaving them better for future generations.
- A long history of innovative harvesting and ginning technologies resulting in higher-quality cotton.
- One of the highest rates of adoption in the world for Precision Agriculture, which minimizes water and pesticide usage.
- U.S. farmers operate under voluminous, stringent, and enforceable regulations.
- A commitment to transparent partnership that is unmatched anywhere.
- One of the most comprehensive systems for monitoring and measuring all the key metrics involved in sustainability.
U.S. Cotton Facts
- 2/3 of U.S. cotton land uses only rain water
- U.S. cotton water use efficiency has improved by 79% over the past 35 years
- Cotton is carbon footprint neutral, meaning the plants remove more greenhouse gasses than production produces.
Sustainability Goals
The U.S. cotton industry is building upon the strong environmental gains already achieved over the past 35 years. The aim is to help members meet their current needs while making the world a better place for future generations.
Specific goals include:
- Reducing by 13 percent the amount of land needed to produce a pound of cotton fiber
- Reducing soil loss by 50 percent, in balance with new soil formation
- Increasing water use efficiency (more fiber per gallon) by 18 percent
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent
- Increasing soil carbon in fields by 30 percent
- Reducing energy to produce seed cotton and ginned lint by 15 percent
Learn More www.cotton.org
