January 2012 Spotlight: Good and Fair Clothing

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 - 01:27 pm

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Shelton Green is turning his passion into a reality - right here in Austin.

In 2007, Shelton became interested in the issue of slavery and human trafficking. The thought that marginalized people across the world were being forced into labor and abusive work-conditions to make a single pair of his jeans disturbed him deeply. In 2008, Shelton spent an entire year without shopping for clothes. He was determined not to support an industry that often pays unfair wages to maximize its own profit. Soon, Shelton decided to create a platform that provides easy access to clothing that was both good to the earth and fair to people. This led to the creation of Good and Fair Clothing an Austin based wholesaler of clothes to big retail stores.

Taking big leaps:
Shelton had no prior experience in fashion or the apparel business. “I just wanted to wear something where no one was hurt to make the clothes” Shelton told me during our interview. The outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing to developing countries has been motivated by companies interested in cheap labor. But this has often led to an exploitative “race to the bottom” by companies#. Although apparel companies have started adopting codes of conduct to improve transparency in their supply chain conditions; the process, the industry’s adherence to such codes and their impacts are unclear.
Shelton’s biggest task in ensuring truly good and fair clothing was to understand the long and complex supply-chain. A supply chain for a retail company includes a diverse network of workers doing different jobs in many parts of the world – from growing cotton to stitching the final product. He travelled to India, a country he had never been to before, and explored his options. Today, he has successfully established a supply chain that incorporates a fair-trade certified factory near Kolkatta and a farmer’s cooperative which ensures that cotton is grown organically. He also has partnerships with 9 stores across the United States where his products are available. He manages all this by wearing multiple hats – from a sourcing manager to the marketing manager.

Understanding the realities:
With so many products these days having a fair-trade label it is important to understand what ‘fair-trade’ really means. Shelton’s experiences taught him that fair-trade on paper and fair-trade on the ground can be very different. “Fair-trade keeps people out of poverty, provides education and other basic needs in life; but it does not make workers upwardly mobile. It does not turn a laborer into a middle-class-blue-collared worker. Being in India taught me not to over fanaticize fair-trade and still be cognizant of its multiplier positive effects”.

Telling the story:
Creating a fair supply chain in the apparel industry all but guarantees you will have higher costs and lower margins. With the competitiveness of the industry, it is critical for Shelton to communicate the positive impact of fair-trade to his final consumer. The message, according to Shelton, must be realistic (i.e. non-fanaticized) and yet tell the story in a compelling manner. A compelling story will go a long way in giving his store a competitive edge.

Defining success:
Achieving financial success with a business whose core is fair-trade and organic sourcing is challenging, but possible if it is done right and the story is communicated well. However, there is something Shelton probably values more than his bottom-line. “Even if I am able to move the attitude of the clothing industry by an inch, and make people think about these issues, then we have won”, says Shelton.
What’s next on Shelton’s mind? An all-American supply-chain for his products.