Native Youth

Nati­ve Youth is head­quar­te­red in Man­ches­ter, Eng­land. The brand works with manu­fac­tu­r­ers in Tur­key, India, Paki­stan and Chi­na. To ensu­re their clo­thes are pro­du­ced in ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons, Nati­ve Youth only works with manu­fac­tu­r­ers regis­tered on the SEDEX trade ser­vice plat­form. SEDEX is an orga­ni­sa­ti­on that aims to impro­ve working con­di­ti­ons in glo­bal pro­duc­tion chains. Part of the way they do this is by car­ry­ing out checks at regis­tered factories. 

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, becau­se Nati­ve Youth doesn’t share infor­ma­ti­on about their manu­fac­tu­r­ers, COSH! can­not veri­fy whe­ther the­se manu­fac­tu­r­ers are real­ly audi­ted. As a result, we can­not form a com­ple­te pic­tu­re of the con­di­ti­ons in which the clo­thes are made.

Nati­ve Youth offers sus­tainable clot­hing within their coll­ec­tion. For this part of the coll­ec­tion, the brand uses sus­tainable mate­ri­als such as orga­nic cot­ton, Eco­vero vis­co­se, Ten­cel and linen.

Orga­nic cot­ton is more sus­tainable than con­ven­tio­nal cot­ton becau­se the­re are no che­mi­cals invol­ved. It also requi­res less irri­ga­ti­on water to grow. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, Nati­ve Youth doesn’t have a cer­ti­fi­ca­te to pro­ve whe­ther the cot­ton is tru­ly orga­nic. The per­cen­ta­ge of recy­cled mate­ri­als is also unclear. As a result, we can­not esti­ma­te how sus­tainable the clo­thes are. 

Eco­vero vis­co­se and Ten­cel are two types of vis­co­se made by pro­du­cer Lenzing. Lenzing gua­ran­tees that all wood pulp comes from respon­si­bly mana­ged forests. In doing so, the pro­du­cer deve­lo­ped a clo­sed-loop sys­tem whe­re no che­mi­cals can be released. This ensu­res that the­se mate­ri­als are sustainable.

Nati­ve Youth also uses recy­cled poly­es­ter. At first glan­ce, this seems like a sus­tainable mate­ri­al, but COSH! rese­arch show­ed that this is not neces­s­a­ri­ly the case. Recy­cled poly­es­ter is usual­ly made from old PET bot­t­les. Howe­ver, to be tru­ly cir­cu­lar, old PET bot­t­les should be recy­cled into new bot­t­les, not into other pro­ducts. On top of that, the recy­cling pro­cess can be pol­lu­ting and very ener­gy-inten­si­ve.

Part of the Nati­ve Youth coll­ec­tion is not sus­tainable at all, as it is made from syn­the­tic mate­ri­als such as poly­es­ter and poly­acrylic which are made from petro­le­um. Moreo­ver, the­se mate­ri­als have the risk of releasing micro­pla­s­tics into the envi­ron­ment when the clo­thes are washed. 

To off­set their envi­ron­men­tal impact, Nati­ve Youth works with Tree­point. This is an orga­ni­sa­ti­on that helps com­pa­nies dona­te to envi­ron­men­tal cha­ri­ties. The dona­ti­ons are used to plant trees to com­pen­sa­te Nati­ve You­th’s car­bon emissions.

The cir­cu­la­ri­ty of a gar­ment depends on the mate­ri­als it is made of. A gar­ment made of a sin­gle mate­ri­al is rela­tively easy to recy­cle. Part of Nati­ve You­th’s coll­ec­tion is made of such mono-mate­ri­als. For exam­p­le, dres­ses made of 100% cot­ton or 100% poly­es­ter can be recy­cled and given a new life.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, the­re is also a lar­ge part of the coll­ec­tion that is made from mate­ri­al blends. This means that dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als are com­bi­ned in one gar­ment. This is much more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle, often even impos­si­ble with cur­rent recy­cling tech­no­lo­gies. COSH! the­r­e­fo­re recom­mends always pay­ing atten­ti­on to the mate­ri­al com­po­si­ti­on of your purcha­se and hopes that Nati­ve Youth will use more mono-mate­ri­als in the future.

Nati­ve Youth has a long sup­p­ly chain. The brand designs the coll­ec­tion in Eng­land. The garm­ents are then pro­du­ced in Tur­key, India, Paki­stan and Chi­na. So your purcha­se tra­vels a long way to get to Euro­pe. Moreo­ver, it is not clear whe­re the used mate­ri­al come from, so we can­not get a full view of the sup­p­ly chain.

Nati­ve Youth laun­ched a coll­ec­tion of vegan lea­ther jackets and trou­sers. The­se clo­thes are made from a syn­the­tic lea­ther alter­na­ti­ve so no ani­mals have to die for it. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, such mate­ri­als are often not sus­tainable. A lot of che­mi­cals are nee­ded to pro­vi­de the coa­ting on the jacket and the syn­the­tic mate­ri­al can release micro­pla­s­tics.

In cer­tain designs, Nati­ve Youth still uses mate­ri­als of ani­mal ori­gin. The knit­wear coll­ec­tion, for exam­p­le, con­ta­ins wool. The brand does not pro­vi­de infor­ma­ti­on on the ori­gin of this mate­ri­al, so we can­not form a pic­tu­re of the ani­mal’s wellbeing.

Becau­se Nati­ve Youth relea­ses new coll­ec­tions regu­lar­ly and also fol­lows dis­count peri­ods, the brand does not fall under tim­e­l­ess fashion. Due to lack of infor­ma­ti­on, COSH! can­not esti­ma­te the qua­li­ty of the mate­ri­als used. As a result, the clo­thes are unli­kely to have a long life­span.

The coll­ec­tion is casu­al and con­tem­po­ra­ry. With colourful prints, retro designs and casu­al out­fits, Nati­ve Youth has a distinct style of its own. Howe­ver, the coll­ec­tion also includes com­for­ta­ble basics that can be com­bi­ned with any outfit.

Nati­ve Youth is unfort­u­na­te­ly not trans­pa­rent about their pro­duc­tion. Infor­ma­ti­on about both their manu­fac­tu­r­ers and the used mate­ri­al is lacking.