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22 – 03 – 20
We made 90s inspired Sweatshirts from Organic Cotton and they're everything!
Because if we don’t, who will? Read up on the thought process behind our first drop of hoodies and crewnecks and check out some more photos of the limited capsule collection. Staying conscious out here!
WORDS by ERIC MIRBACH
PHOTOS by ANNA VATHEUER
Sure, originally, our strength is in outerwear. We know coats and parkas and jackets, especially really warm ones (but without using any animal-based materials because wtf). But just like with outerwear, we didn’t originally start to just create an alternative, a more consciously sound version of a product. We started because we saw a gap in the market design-wise.
Just like with our jackets, our new line of sweats is design-driven. We had been looking for hoodies and crewnecks with a bit of a throwback, 90s look & feel forever and when they finally got available, nobody was making them in a responsible way.
So here we are.
Our ‘Conscious’ hoodie is an all-gender oversized fit, thick and sturdy and complete with dropped shoulders and a kind reminder of a chest print.
But let’s go back to the production of our jackets for a minute: As you most likely already know, our outerwear production is in China. That has various reasons, the most important one for us is that the knowledge of making real high quality outerwear has wandered off from Europe years ago. As we think that real sustainability starts with offering a long lasting, quality product, it was obvious for us that we wouldn’t be able to produce nearer to our Europe headquarters.
Production prices are another big point here. Even if we would be able to find a European producer with the quality in outerwear we’re looking for, it would be very hard to offer our products in an even remotely affordable price range. It’s also important to remember that just because something’s sewn in Europe, doesn’t mean the materials haven’t been shipped from all over the place.
Good thing we found a way to at least have our products delivered to us by train (instead of ship or air freight).
“For our first drop of sweatshirts, a couple of things were super important to us.”
Now with all that being said, of course there are things that are really favorable about a production in Europe – so when we started planning our first drop of sweatshirts, a couple things were clear to us from the get-go:
- They would be made in Europe (in this case Portugal)
- We’d be going for Organic Cotton
- We wanted to try to opt out of using a material mix in order to not play into the whole micro-plastic problem when washing
- We wanted a solid, heavy weight 90s appeal, slightly oversized, a comfy hood, dropped shoulders, all that
… and today, we’re happy to announce that we succeeded in all of the above.
In addition to the hoodie, the “Conscious” crewneck sweat is a more feminine style with a vintage-inspired silhouette.
Now this is the very first, rather limited drop of sweatshirts. We’ll have more stuff coming throughout the year 2020 and we have plans to build out the range as well as take additional steps to make this new line of products more and more sustainable. We’d love to have you join us for the journey.
Our first drop of sweatshirts is now live in the webshop. First come first serve!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As Head of Brand for Embassy of Bricks and Logs, Eric Mirbach is in charge of all marketing efforts… which includes all things ’sustainability’ here at the HQ.