Our set-up in Bangladesh.

We’ve received several questions from customers on how and where our t-shirts are made. The short version: the Honest Basics team works through a German agency. The agency helps us to develop and produce with one partner factory in Bangladesh. The organic cotton is grown in India and then acquired by the factory to produce our t-shirts.

The factory is specialized in so called circular knits, which means for example t-shirts, polos and sweats. We are currently developing new products with them for Honest Basics 2019. They are vertically integrated meaning they first knit and dye the fabric internally, before moving on to the final step of sewing the t-shirts.

We believe that the factory offers their workers fair wages and good working conditions. We base this on the fact that they are GOTS-certified, which covers (and checks) points concerning working conditions. In addition the factory is being audited regularly by independent agencies and other larger brands that produce there. Finally we base it on stories we hear of the goings-on in the factory as well as other indications such as stable high quality through-out the years. In our experience bad factories usually also deliver bad quality. 

A friend of ours who does factory-checking professionally has visited the factory and she mentioned that it is a very nice and well organized factory. Also she said that the workers and the factory owners have a very friendly working relationship (“like they are family”). Which signals that the working conditions are good and that the workers themselves are happy to work in the factory.

The GOTS-certification covers quite some standards on the working conditions that factories must adhere to. For example no child labour (of course), no excessive overtime and the right for the workers to organize themselves. They are checked against this by independent certifying agencies and the workers are themselves also aware of the regulations. For example earlier this year they collectively renegotiated their wages with the factory management.

We’ve unfortunately not been able to make the trip to Bangladesh yet ourselves – but we hope to do so in 2019 and will then provide a more in-depth report with pictures on the factory.

Why did we decide to work with this factory? Mostly because some of us at Honest Basics have some years professional experience with them from previous jobs. The factory has during several years always managed to deliver products of high quality – which in our experience is very rare in the fashion industry. In addition we knew that they are able to produce sustainable products within the strict GOTS-regulation. Everything together the decision was an easy one.

As always: if you have more questions or comments let us know!