When you look at the tags on the inside of your Tradlands shirts, you see the label ‘ethically made’. What does ethically made mean?
For us, it means a different approach to business. We had a firm belief that business should be done differently, ethically, and responsibly. Our mission toward ethical and responsible manufacturing has been the foundation of Tradlands and, in many ways, the foundation of why we care so much about the quality of our clothes, how they are made, and how they make our customers feel when they put them on.
Each piece of clothing goes on a journey that’s immersed in safe and caring environments until it finally makes it home in your closet - hopefully as a new wardrobe favorite.
Since our brand was started in 2012 we've focused first and foremost on creating high-quality, timeless products through small-batch, responsible production. Our focus on quality and the impact through things like cost per wear help align us in making clothes that are ethically made and made to last.
Why does quality matter to us? Wearing clothing 50 times instead of 5 times (the fast fashion average) reduces carbon emissions by more than 400% per item per year. We design our pieces to be heirloom quality and if cared for properly they should last for years to come. We are in full support of prolonging the life of clothing as much as possible in the way it is cared for too. A focus on quality is the most important aspect of what we do, including garment fit and details.
We design our pieces be lived in now and loved forever. We drew inspiration from men’s aisles where we saw better quality, more durable fabrics, more refined details, and styles that out-lasted trends. We didn't see the same options for women and focused on bridging that space with a focus on quality, fit, and details to design something everyone can love.
What we’ve learned is that so many of us are frustrated with being fed a healthy diet of fast fashion and are looking for something better. You don’t have to choose between quality, comfort, and style anymore. And you can finally experience and embrace craftsmanship quality, distinctive details, and timeless silhouettes that help bring out your best, most confident, self.
We design our pieces be lived in now and loved forever. We drew inspiration from men’s aisles where we saw better quality, more durable fabrics, more refined details, and styles that out-lasted trends. We didn't see the same options for women and focused on bridging that space with a focus on quality, fit, and details to design something everyone can love.
What we’ve learned is that so many of us are frustrated with being fed a healthy diet of fast fashion and are looking for something better. You don’t have to choose between quality, comfort, and style anymore. And you can finally experience and embrace craftsmanship quality, distinctive details, and timeless silhouettes that help bring out your best, most confident, self.
We work with two small family-owned, responsible factories. One makes our knitwear and the other our woven goods. Our suppliers comply with employment laws and regulations, with particular regard to a minimum age of employment, freely chosen employment, terms of employment, rates of pay, working hours, health and safety. There is absolutely no discrimination and no harsh or inhumane treatment.
This also includes regulations with US-based standards of working hours, paying over-time, and never allowing triple shifts. We perform compliance audits yearly to evaluate employee satisfaction and environmental conditions. How a business treats its workers speaks volumes of their motives in business and this has been something we made a priority when it came to running a business.
For our fabrics, we use natural and deadstock fabrics and only do two small-batch production runs per year - versus companies that are always coming out with new products and constantly in production, which has a huge effect on emissions. If possible, we try to up-cycle unused fabrics into items like bandanas and scrunchies.
We work with two small family-owned, responsible factories. One makes our knitwear and the other our woven goods. Our suppliers comply with employment laws and regulations, with particular regard to a minimum age of employment, freely chosen employment, terms of employment, rates of pay, working hours, health and safety. There is absolutely no discrimination and no harsh or inhumane treatment.
This also includes regulations with US-based standards of working hours, paying over-time, and never allowing triple shifts. We perform compliance audits yearly to evaluate employee satisfaction and environmental conditions. How a business treats its workers speaks volumes of their motives in business and this has been something we made a priority when it came to running a business.
For our fabrics, we use natural and deadstock fabrics and only do two small-batch production runs per year - versus companies that are always coming out with new products and constantly in production, which has a huge effect on emissions. If possible, we try to up-cycle unused fabrics into items like bandanas and scrunchies.
Though we’re a small team, we are in constant conversation on how we can try new things, improve, and make more positive changes. To start, we pride ourselves on giving our customers a truly one-of-a-kind experience, something larger brands often neglect. We work to ensure your experience is seamless, welcoming, and personalized so you don’t feel like a customer, but rather a part of a close-knit community.
From there, we practice sustainability whenever and wherever we can - from production, shipping, fabrics and material selection, and more. We do our best in all facets to do right by the environment and its ecosystems.
We have a few projects in the works now and many more ideas we’re looking forward to implementing. A few we’d like to explore include: eliminating recycled plastic in our packaging, updating our website with new information more consistently (just like this post!), including in-depth details about our sourcing and documenting traceability through all the stages of production, and more inclusive sizing. We are considering programs for recycling past purchases and finding more ways to upcycle old styles.
Though we’re a small team, we are in constant conversation on how we can try new things, improve, and make more positive changes. To start, we pride ourselves on giving our customers a truly one-of-a-kind experience, something larger brands often neglect. We work to ensure your experience is seamless, welcoming, and personalized so you don’t feel like a customer, but rather a part of a close-knit community.
From there, we practice sustainability whenever and wherever we can - from production, shipping, fabrics and material selection, and more. We do our best in all facets to do right by the environment and its ecosystems.
We have a few projects in the works now and many more ideas we’re looking forward to implementing. A few we’d like to explore include: eliminating recycled plastic in our packaging, updating our website with new information more consistently (just like this post!), including in-depth details about our sourcing and documenting traceability through all the stages of production, and more inclusive sizing. We are considering programs for recycling past purchases and finding more ways to upcycle old styles.
Our focus on timeless, well-made closet essentials and our emphasis on customer experience has allowed us to concentrate on slow, sustainable growth. And, it’s been through the support of many of you that we’ve been able to continue this growth to bring more people the high-quality and effortless pieces we all know and love. We’re extremely proud of our history and are eager to see what the future holds for us. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
We’d love to hear your ideas on how we can continue to improve and we’d love for you to share positive experiences you’ve had with theTradlands team or our products. Feel free to leave a comment and start a conversion. We’d love to hear from you.
