- What is ’skin friendly cotton?’
Although a T-shirt may well contain the purest cotton available, this refers to the raw material and not how it has been processed. During the dyeing and finishing process chemicals can be used which can affect the wearer and the environment. If allowed to be absorbed into the fabric these chemicals can cause skin irritation.
- How can I avoid this risk?
Developed in 1992 by a group of European textile institutes the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Mark (sometimes abbreviated to Oko-Tex) is a global standard that sets strict limits on the amount of harmful substances which can be found in the product. Find out more about Oko-Tex’s work on their Website
The Oeko-Tex Label
The Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is widely regarded as the industry benchmark in the field of human ecology, since it provides a thorough and rigorously scrupulous screening scheme, which sets more stringent limits than current EC legislation on banned or restricted substances used in textile manufacture. The Oeko-Tex test even searches for chemicals not currently banned by legislation but are considered potentially hazardous such as: Banned Carcinogenic Dyestuffs, Allergenic Dyestuffs, Extractable Heavy Metals, Flame Retardants, Formaldehyde, Loose Dye/Colour, Organo-tin Compounds, Phthalates (plasticizers), Chlorinated Aromatic Compounds and Volatile Organics.
Here at polo-shirts.co.uk all of our ‘Fruit of the Loom’, ‘Hanes’ and ‘Stedman’ branded stock carries an Oko-tex certification that signifies, not only do the t-shirts contain 100% cotton, but also that this cotton has been treatred conscientiously to create the safest possible t-shirt for you and your family.
Fruit of the Loom’s ’skin-friendly’ clothing
June 26th, 2007
Of the Big three - Hanes, Gildan and Fruit of the Loom only Hanes was present.
Hanes were promoting both the Hanes and Stedman ranges on separate stands.
The Hanes stand was a minimalists dream, big lights and 3 plasma screens. A bit like Foxtons, the London estate agents, there was little evidence of product on display. The Stedman stand had the product behind bars, guarded by people dressed painted to look like wild animals. What was the slogan “Bite the Customer” or was it “Fight the T-shirt” I can’t remember.
Continentals stand reflected a cool fashion image, a sort of French Connection ready for print or embroidery.
At embroidery machine stands Baruden, Tajima, SWF and Midwest ……, things were much as usual - embroidery machines busily beavering away. No hint of minimalism here.
The suppliers of heat presses and vinyl seemed to be getting plenty of traffic.
The newer technology digital printing took my interest. There were several stands including YES and Amaya offering rival machines that could print multicolour prints straight onto a t-shirt.
Notable new stands included Trutex the schoolwear supplier. I didn’t really understand the logic of their strategy of offering free embroidery on their products when the majority of visitors at the show were printers and embroiderers.
Back at our JHK stand things were busy. Could the customers get past the marketing manager from Blue Max /Stag taking photographs of our stand? Had Kustom Kit’s people had been round for a third time for brochures and price lists. No wonder we were running out. How could we politely stop the people who had decided that they wanted to win the Ipod and that they were going to do this by going through all the scratch cards. Things had started to turn nasty when they decided that the only reason that they hadn’t won was because that we weren’t really giving one away.
There were plenty of interesting moments. “Could the person who picked up the promotional bag with the lap top inside, please return it to the organisers office”.
The show was a great opportunity for new printers, embroiderers and find suppliers.
After 3 days of scoffing biscuits and multicoloured M&M’s which reflected the colours of our T-shirts it was time to go home. As for next year why does this show have to be in Birmingham again….. London or Manchester would make a nice change.
March 8th, 2007
