Source: treehugger.com
Published: June 29, 2016
© Beru Kids
This company is committed to ethics and environmentalism by manufacturing its clothing line in downtown LA, paying fair wages, and repurposing deadstock textiles.
Beru Kids is an ethical children’s clothing company that manufacturers its adorable designs in a factory downtown Los Angeles. The garment workers are mostly female and are paid higher than minimum wage (not per-garment, as is usual in the fashion industry).
What’s really interesting about Beru is that it repurposes deadstock fabrics to make its clothes. ‘Deadstock’ refers to surplus fabric that has not been used by other factories. In LA, it is sent to a warehouse, where Beru’s founder Sofia Melograno goes on a regular basis to purchase whatever textiles catch her eye. Beru has also begun recently incorporating organic, traceable cotton into its garments.
© Beru Kids (via Facebook)
This unique approach to sourcing materials is a boon for the environment, as the fashion industry is the second biggest polluter in the world. It provides a function for leftover fabric that would otherwise get thrown away and reduces the demand on the planet to produce yet more virgin material. From the Beru website:
“It’s pretty scary that six percent of all trash in US landfills comes from textiles. Over 95 percent of that textile can be reused or recycled, but only 15 percent actually avoids the dump. Talk about depressing. So instead of sitting in a landfill, we take fabric left over from other fashion brands, mills, or garment factories that otherwise would be thrown away and make sweet threads for your wild child.”
The company has an admirably close connection to its supply chain, which affords a turnaround time of as little as 2 to 4 weeks. This allows the company to get a feel for the market at a particular moment before producing any quantity of items, thereby not contributing to our cultural propensity for over-consumption. All of Beru’s clothing is produced in limited-quantity capsule collections, which means that the fabrics and patterns are constantly evolving. In other words, you’d better snatch up a cute piece if you see it, because it might not be available the next time you look!
Melograno, who originally hoped to manufacture clothing in sub-Saharan Africa, now realizes benefits of producing right here in the United States, where only 3 percent of the clothing sold is actually made. Primarily, it allows her to keep a close eye on things:
“When you outsource your manufacturing to a country where you are not based full-time it is virtually impossible to know details of the production process. You can be told that things are operating ethically, that people are being treated well, that kids are not employed, but are you really certain? You can hire a quality assurance specialist but it isn’t rare that they get kickbacks and tell you one thing when other things are going on under the table” (via Huffington Post)
Beru is an interesting, innovative company with a meaningful environmental commitment. Visit its website to check out the ever-evolving collection of really cute kids’ clothes. Free shipping on all U.S. orders.