Pact's five tips for building a sustainable clothing brand
Be honest and adaptable, advises this organic fashion label.
When organic clothing label Pact launched in 2011, sustainability wasn’t the buzzword that it is today. Back then, it was barely part of the fashion lexicon at all.
That meant that when the Boulder, USA-based company launched with a 100-percent organic range of cotton boxers and briefs, it was way ahead of the curve.
The only problem? “We were probably a bit too early from a consumer standpoint,” says chief financial officer Drew Cook. “And that can be a challenging thing for a business.”
“Being too early from a consumer standpoint can be challenging for a business.”
Fast forward 11 years and awareness of sustainability has exploded. With consumer interest catching up to Pact, so, too, has success.
Today the clothing brand is lauded for its stylish and sustainable basics range, which has expanded to include everything from T-shirts to sweaters and underwear for men and women, and it has become a leader in the sustainability space.
Along the way the brand has also learned a swathe of lessons about how to build a sustainable brand – while making maximum impact in the process. Here, Cook shares some of these learnings.
1. Get certified
Click on Pact website and the first thing you’ll notice is the brand’s commitment to the environment. It’s there, in the slogan “Earth’s favorite clothing”, at the top of the home page. It’s explicit in the multiple references to ‘organic cotton’ and it’s even reinforced by the brand’s own name, Pact (short for impact).
Because this is so core to their business, Pact certifies the ethical claims behind its entire product line by partnering with the world’s leading third-party organizations, including Fair Trade USA and the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) — the gold standard in sustainable textile processing. Cook explains: “Claims that aren't backed by certifications don’t really mean much.”
“Claims that aren't backed by certifications don’t mean much.”
According to Cook, not only are certifications a good way to back up everything you’re telling your customers (and build trust with them) but they can also act as good guardrails for your business, especially when scaling. “Having strict adherence to being organic and fair-trade means that we know exactly what we have to do, but it also means we have a smaller universe of people we can work with.”
2. You’ll never stop sourcing suppliers
Finding suppliers to meet the strict standards required for certification is a time-consuming process, and unfortunately, says Cook, it never stops. “Our business is about 10 times the size it was when I started, and so that means we make a lot more clothes. A lot of the factories that we were working with back [at the beginning] were smaller and not necessarily able to scale with us. So, we’ve had to continuously work to find the right partners to make our clothes in a way that aligns with our values.”
"We’re continuously working to find the right partners to make our clothes.”
When evaluating suppliers, Cook recommends meeting the factory management and employees “to get a first-hand feel for how they operate and what’s important to them”. “Getting to talk to employees is critical as well as you get to hear a non-management perspective on the factory and how things operate.”
3. Acknowledge your shortcomings
“We acknowledge that we're not perfect,” notes Cook, who says that the team at Pact are always looking for ways they can make every aspect of the business more sustainable. This year the company is working towards achieving carbon neutrality, as well as finalizing their transition away from plastic polybags to a paper alternative. “We’re always working towards better,” notes Cook.
"We’re always working towards better."
The brand’s commitment to transparency also extends to a frequently asked questions section on its home page, which aims to anticipate and address any question that customers might have about the brand’s commitment to sustainability. For example, ‘Why aren’t Pact clothes made in the United States?’(Answer: because it’s not economically viable. However, all clothing is sweatshop and child-labor-free.)
4. Be ready to pivot
When Pact was founded in 2011 it was primarily a men's underwear business; since Cook’s arrival in 2014, it has migrated from a men’s-focused business to one that is primarily aimed at women. And its sustainability credentials are now the brand’s biggest selling point. This is a lesson in adaptability, explains Cook.
“The strategy that got you to where you are today might not be the same one that gets you where you need to go tomorrow."
“Don’t assume that the strategy that got you to where you are today is going be the same one that gets you where you need to go tomorrow,” advises Cook, who notes that with constant innovation happening in the sustainability space, brands who choose this path must be adaptable as well as early-adopters of new technologies. For example, the company recently made the switch from shipping products in plastic polybags to paper bags after it became commercially feasible to do so without damaging the products.
4. Make it accessible
Maximum change begins with the basics, says Cook, who adds that it’s much easier to do good (and do well) when the product you're trying to sell is something people actually need and already use.
“For the most part, everybody wears underwear. It’s a core staple that everybody has a use for, and we’re just doing it in a way that’s better for the environment.”
Regardless of what type of products you sell, Cook says it’s important to make them as accessible as possible – and that means not pricing out vast swathes of your customer base. “To make the biggest impact, we don't want our product just to be for a very small niche of consumers,” adds Cook. “We want our products to be available to as many people as possible and so we make them as affordably as we can.”
"Accessibility is key when you’re trying to affect an industry."
“Accessibility is key when you’re trying to affect an industry,” he explains. “To make the biggest impact on what's a really nasty industry, you have to try to reach as many people as possible and the only way to do that is by making a product that everybody can afford."
One way that Pact improves its accessibility is through partnering with Afterpay. Cook notes, “Afterpay makes Pact more available to customers who might not otherwise buy from us,” adding, “there are also customers I think who love Afterpay, love that model and find brands by shopping on Afterpay’s website and so I think that helps us to reach new customers who might not otherwise have heard of us.”
5. Be honest
Don’t cut corners, and don’t overinflate your credentials, warns Cook. “Consumers are really smart these days and they have access to more information than they ever had, and so they're really quick to sniff out brands that are not authentic or are trying to get a little benefit from something that's not really important to them.”
All references to any registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Afterpay does not endorse or recommend any one particular supplier and the information provided is for educational purposes only.
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