SUSTAINABILITY
Trying a little bit
harder.
The fashion industry is one of the least sustainable
and most polluting industries on Earth.
Everyone needs to change their mindset.
Ethical Production
As a Polish brand we think that it is obvious for us to manufacture locally. With strong textile and fabric traditions going back to the 18th Century, Poland has a lot of skilled and amazing people in all areas of this industry.
Poland is also a member of the European Union, which guarantees strong employee rights and a solid safety net. All persons that prepare, print and make our clothes are adults that are legally hired, and with that comes health insurance, paid holiday and sick leave, plus a pension contribution.
Most of our partners are within a 200 km/125 mile radius from our office, which means that we can and do visit them frequently to check that the conditions that we require are met and that all employees are treated fairly.
We mainly cooperate with small family companies like ours and we’re focused on a long term win-win cooperation model so that everyone can benefit and be happy with the situation. By being in close, daily contact with our partners, we believe that we can maintain a constant level of high quality and solve problems before they become overwhelming.
Sustainable Materials
In order to reduce our carbon footprint, we do our utmost to use sustainable materials in our production: the most frequently used one is Certified Organic Cotton, which is grown using ecological methods and strictly controlled.
In our Spring-Summer 2020 season we introduced swimwear made with recycled consumer waste, such as plastic bottles and we plan to continue using this material in other clothes in the future. We also experiment using cellulose fibre and other natural and more sustainable alternatives to cotton.
Packaging is another area that traditionally uses a lot of single-use plastic that gets thrown away, contributing to the deterioration of the environment. Since Spring 2020 we pack 98% of our new products into OXO-biodegradable plastic bags that start to biodegrade in about 18 months. OXO-biodegradable plastic does not leave microplastics in the environment, as the plastic is converted into small chain organic chemicals such as ketones, alcohol and waxes. The rest of the contents are biodegraded by bacteria.
Charity
Although we are a small family-run company and our ability to help is only a drop in the Ocean we try to give back to the community. We don’t like to brag about it but decided to post some information here so that you can get to know us founders from a more personal perspective.
The biggest effort so far is our Water for Water project together with non-profit organization Well Constructed for the Alfie Atkins Capsule collection of SS20. The idea is simple: since cotton uses a lot of water to grow, we wanted to offset parts of the water to build wells in Ghana, Africa, giving access to fresh water in the rural parts of the country. We decided to donate a part of the proceeds from the collection for this cause. Please read more about this in our Alfie Atkins info page.
In 2020, Raspberry Republic also tries to contribute to help the Polish National Health Service during COVID-19 by donating 1000 face masks (made from leftover fabric) to be used by doctors, nurses and patients at the Municipal Hospital in Ciechanów, Poland.
Quality: Shop less, shop better
Since our start in 2016, we try to focus on providing you clothes that can be used by a child and later passed down to other children, decreasing the total amount of clothes purchased in the World. We focus on selecting durable materials of high quality and on the organic processes to strengthen them. For instance, the cotton fabric undergoes thirteen different processes such as steaming, mechanical shrinking and stretching, pre-shrinking in 80 degrees celsius and many more before it is ready and printed. We hope that our efforts will give you clothes that won’t be thrown away after a few washes but will last for many years!
