Kowtow

Kow­tow works with main­ly Indi­an manu­fac­tu­rers, and beca­me B‑Corp cer­ti­fied in 2022 with a sco­re of 101.3 (the requi­red sco­re being 80, and the maxi­mum being 200), and sin­ce incep­ti­on have only wor­ked with Fair­t­ra­de cer­ti­fied com­pa­nies which ensu­res ethi­cal acti­vi­ties of the brand, and direct pro­tec­ti­on of the wor­kers’ rights. All their gar­ments are cer­ti­fied by Fair­t­ra­de Label­ling Orga­ni­za­ti­ons Inter­na­ti­o­nal (FLO) which empo­wers far­mers to secu­re bet­ter cot­ton pri­ces, and made in a ful­ly tra­ce­a­ble sup­ply chain wor­king with only Fair­t­ra­de-cer­ti­fied far­mers and manu­fac­tu­rers from seed to gar­ment. They also have main­tai­ned their rela­ti­ons­hip with the same manu­fac­tu­rers over this time, and visit them regu­lar­ly. Their manu­fac­tu­rers are also SA8000 cer­ti­fied, which encou­ra­ges soci­al­ly accep­ta­ble prac­ti­ces and are audi­ted by cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on bodies accre­di­ted by Soci­al Accoun­ta­bi­li­ty Accre­dita­ti­on Ser­vi­ces (SAAS), which gua­ran­tees mini­mum wage, soci­al secu­ri­ty funds, pen­si­on funds, paid holi­day lea­ve, sick pay, medi­cal insu­ran­ce, sub­si­di­sed lun­ches, over­ti­me pay and work­pla­ce uni­ons. Their manu­fac­tu­rers are also cer­ti­fied SME­TA (Sedex Mem­bers Ethi­cal Tra­de Audit) and WRAP (World­wi­de Res­pon­si­ble Accre­di­ted Pro­duc­ti­on) organizations.

Their orga­nic cot­ton is pro­ces­sed using only GOTS (Glo­bal Orga­nic Tex­ti­le Standard) allo­wed inks and dyes which are free of toxic sub­stan­ces and ensu­res no harm on the wor­kers hand­ling the­se substances.

Kowtow’s sustai­na­bi­li­ty stra­te­gy sta­tes the goal to give cus­to­mers the opti­on to round up pur­cha­ses to con­tri­bu­te to a cha­ri­ty by the end of 2020, howe­ver this has not yet been imple­men­ted.

But over­all Kow­tow is ahead of the game, with sup­por­ting soci­al cha­ri­ties inclu­ding the Red Cross Refu­gee sett­le­ment pro­gram­me and Women’s Refu­ge, and pro­vi­ding finan­ci­al sup­port to an orp­ha­na­ge in India near their manu­fac­tu­ring supplier. 

This brand works exclu­si­ve­ly with 100% fair­t­ra­de orga­nic cot­ton, which is a natu­ral, bio­de­gra­da­ble and rene­wa­ble sour­ce wit­hout the use of harm­ful che­mi­cals. The cot­ton is grown on small lots alongsi­de food crops to feed the far­mer and pro­mo­te soil fer­ti­li­ty. Then the gar­ments are was­hed using GOTS allo­wed was­hing pro­ducts, which ensu­res the sustai­na­ble use and tre­at­ment of was­te­wa­ter. They acti­ve­ly seek to redu­ce mate­ri­als sent to land­fill, using vir­tu­al rea­li­ty tech­no­lo­gy in the design pro­cess to redu­ce use of resources. 

The linings and trims of the­se gar­ments are also cho­sen care­ful­ly, with nic­kel-free metal tacks, and but­tons made from agoya shell and coro­zo nut. In 2022, they repla­ced their elas­tic with natu­ral rub­ber, finis­hed in an orga­nic cot­ton casing and their fusi­bles are now made from 100% orga­nic cot­ton. All their trims are GOTS appro­ved or tested by OEKO-TEX for harm­ful sub­stan­ces. As such they are real­ly on point wor­king with only bio­de­gra­da­ble fabrics and trims.

They are wor­king on ope­ra­ting as a zero was­te and plas­tic free wor­kroom, and their pack­a­ging is enti­re­ly recy­cla­ble and 0% plas­tic, using only Fore­stry Ste­wards­hip Cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on (FSC) or Glo­bal Recy­cled Standard (GRS) cer­ti­fied card­board and paper fib­re, prin­ted with soy-based and petro­le­um-free inks. FSC ensu­res bet­ter mana­ge­ment of the forests and the local com­mu­ni­ties that rely on them.

On top of all tho­se are­as they are excel­ling at Kow­tow also sup­ports envi­ron­men­tal cha­ri­ties such as Take 3 for the Sea, and Trees that Count, and hold bi-annu­al staff tree plan­ting days and com­mu­ni­ty beach clea­nups with their cus­to­mers. They have a com­pre­hen­si­ve sustai­na­bi­li­ty stra­te­gy with envi­ron­men­tal goals, howe­ver many goals for the end of 2022 have not been achie­ved yet, inclu­ding for example the goal to pro­vi­de cus­to­mers the opti­on to off­set their car­bon foot­print at check­out. This brand also has a glo­bal sup­ply chain, which makes them una­ble to check their fos­sil fuel ener­gy use.

Kow­tow stron­gly belie­ves in clo­sing the loop, and that they are res­pon­si­ble for what they pro­du­ce and ensu­re all gar­ments can be pre­ven­ted from ending up in a land­fill. They make sole­ly 100% orga­nic cot­ton gar­ments. heir design team is real­ly pas­si­o­na­te about explo­ring the ver­sa­ti­li­ty of, and to design with the who­le life­cy­cle of a cot­ton gar­ment in mind. The mono­ma­te­ri­a­li­ty also ensu­res recy­cla­bi­li­ty at the end of use. The nic­kel-free metal tacks used in the fas­te­nings can be taken back and repur­po­sed into new mate­ri­als at their end of use. Kowtow’s pack­a­ging as well, as men­ti­o­ned abo­ve, is desig­ned to be ful­ly recy­cled at the end of use.

They have a repair pro­gram, which is free for all minor repairs, and a small fee is char­ged for lar­ger repairs for which they use the Japa­ne­se pat­ching tech­ni­que Sas­hi­ko. The lat­ter opti­on not only repairs the gar­ment by streng­the­ning it but also renews it with a new design, making it beau­ti­ful as well. Sin­ce the incep­ti­on of the repair pro­gram in 2019 Kow­tow has repai­red over 500 gar­ments, and they also regu­lar­ly host repair work­shops in their sto­res. Alrea­dy in 2019 they have imple­men­ted a Take Back pro­gram­me, and they are researching solu­ti­ons to attain full circularity. 

Kow­tow is loca­ted in New Zea­land, their gar­ments ship­ped out of a sto­re in Auck­land, clo­se to their main sto­re, and their pro­duc­ti­on con­duc­ted in India. Trans­porta­ti­on of their pro­ducts has not been men­ti­o­ned, howe­ver con­si­de­ring their glo­bal natu­re it can be assu­med that their trans­porta­ti­on inclu­des high car­bon emissions.

Kow­tow does not men­ti­on the use of ani­mal pro­ducts in their main mate­ri­a­li­ty, howe­ver they use agoya shells as but­tons, which are sour­ced from oysters and have his­to­ri­cally been used as but­tons and are a natu­ral and rene­wa­ble resour­ce.

Kow­tow uses orga­nic cot­ton, which is a bre­at­ha­ble, dura­ble and easy to care for fabric. They con­duct their design pro­cess in hou­se, allo­wing the team to deter­mi­ne eve­ry stitch, wea­ve, print and colour, which means eve­ry design is uni­que. This pro­cess takes 18 months from ini­ti­al con­cept to deli­ve­ry, hen­ce slow fas­hi­on is at the core of eve­ry gar­ment.
They have achie­ved their 2022 goal to pro­vi­de con­ci­se instruc­ti­ons on how to extend the life of gar­ments through caring and repai­ring. They had also set a tar­get to make a series of care and repair videos, howe­ver this is not to be found on the web­si­te yet. They make up for this by pro­vi­ding an email to be rea­ched out to for repair ser­vi­ce and ques­ti­ons, which along with the time­les­s­ness of the gar­ments ensu­res that they stay dura­ble and usa­ble for a very long time.

Kow­tow is very transpa­rent about all their acti­vi­ties, and makes their pro­ces­ses easy to fol­low by the cus­to­mers, with each pro­duct page sta­ting the mate­ri­al and pro­duc­ti­on and cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons. They inclu­de a sustai­na­bi­li­ty stra­te­gy which makes it easy to track their goals for the upco­ming years, howe­ver they have not sta­ted the achie­ve­ment of their spe­ci­fic 2022 goals any­whe­re on the web­si­te yet. They have also not pro­vi­ded spe­ci­fic names or dis­tricts of their sup­pliers, which makes it hard to veri­fy the fair­t­ra­de natu­re of the­se sup­pliers, but you can find them on the GOTS web­si­te. Their B‑Corp cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on also inclu­des a link to their offi­ci­al page on the B‑Corp web­si­te, which shows the pro­gress they have made through the years.