For over 20 years, we’ve done our best to be a clothing brand that pushes back against exploitation, environmental plunder and inequality and become a blueprint for how other businesses in our sector do business. Today, we’re very happy to officially announce our latest development - THTC Clothing is officially certified vegan by the Vegan Society, meaning all our clothing and products are recognised as free from animal byproducts and exploitation.
Why Vegan?
Since the emergence of the textiles sector as a globalised industry, way back in the early 18th century, exploitation has been at its very core. Whether it was the British Empire stealing technology and expertise from countries like India and China, black slavery in the cotton fields of America or even modern day sweatshops in the back-streets of Liverpool.
Throughout our existence, we have worked hard to create a production and supply chain that is environmentally sustainable, and socially equitable. From using hemp and other natural, organically-sourced and certified fabrics, to implementing a circular economy through our production partners, we're constantly exploring ways to show that a major brand can make money without plundering the planet and stealing from workers.
Animal exploitation has been a cornerstone of human advancement. However, in the last century the scale of human industry has seen an exponential growth in the use of animals for private profit - and with that, comes a great degree of cruelty, as well as a huge environmental cost.
Ensuring that THTC is a vegan company not only means that our products are free of animal products like leather, wool, angora or cashmere; but also means that we didn’t use things like animal transport or labour within our supply chain.
Vegan clothing - better environmental outcomes
Every year, over billions of animals are killed for their hides. Some folk might not really care about that, given the mainstream attitude that ‘animals are here to serve us. However, people start to care when you look at the resources that go into raising animals - land, water, veterinary drugs - the costs start to add up. From land in the Amazon cut and torched to grow soya for animal feed, to the energy costs in rearing the billions of silk worms needed to keep up with global demand, the exploitation of animals on such a colossal scale has a detrimental effect on our environment.
Added to that, is the common practice within the fashion industry of stock destruction - an act that simply magnifies the inherent cruelty of our ‘business’. All of that animal suffering essentially becoming meaningless, just because shareholders want better returns, and maintained profits through artificially-induced scarcity.
In this context, being a vegan clothing company goes against the grain. Once again, THTC chooses a path less profitable - yet one that is more environmentally sustainable.
THTC being Vegan - Low Hanging Fruit?
The thing is, THTC has always been vegan - but not because we were trying! Our organic clothing has always been free from animal byproducts, whether we’re talking about the fabric, the inks or any adhesives used in production. Now that we’ve been officially audited and certified by the Vegan Society, we can properly shout about it.
Being a vegan clothing brand is actually pretty easy - especially if you're not bogged down with trying to please a bunch of shareholders and investors that don’t care about the environment. And maybe that’s the secret, eh?
Our hope is that we continue to show people you don’t have to engage in wholesale exploitation of the environment, animals and each other in order to live your best life - or run a moderately successful business.
