Let’s talk about sustainability.

In the fashion industry, technically, no brand is really sustainable. We contribute to 10% of global carbon emissions. To give you an idea of what that looks like, it’s more than all international airline flights and maritime shipping trips combined, the statistics are ugly. Growing up in the 80’s, we went shopping once a year, the clothes we wore were quality, they were saved, passed down. As fast fashion rose in popularity, our expectations for quality and longevity went in the opposite direction.

The kids fashion market is intrinsically fast, children’s clothes are usually made to fit them for only 3 months under a year, 6 months until 2 years and 1or 2 years there on up. Kids fashion became about cheap prices and a throw away mentality. When you’re done with it, in the landfill it goes. Thankfully, the last decade has seen a surge of brands creating products more responsibly, parents buying more responsibly, clothes being saved and handed down and the second hand market is thriving. Have we finally realized it is better to have quality over quantity? Hopefully we all do the best we can and understanding how helps.

With this positive trend of sustainability in the fashion market, what does it all mean? Eco-friendly, sustainable, slow fashion, circular fashion, small batch, upcycling, carefully sourced, ethical, fair trade. Head explode yet. As a new parent, first we look for organic, organic, organic. It’s the easiest to understand, the most straight forward. The more you learn, you realize you’re missing the big picture. A lot of brands market themselves as eco-friendly and sustainable. You want in, but how? If a brand is eco-friendly, why isn’t there more information on their website? They’re working to be sustainable, amazing, shout it from the rooftops, celebrate it. A lot of brands will mention the top notes, but even the most sustainable aren’t talking about everything, so we decided to just ask.

We have a list of questions we put together, through both research and consulting with industry experts on what it really means to be sustainable. We’ve sent these questions to hundreds of the most popular kids brands on the market. A lot have answered, and it’s been so inspiring. Most children’s brands are not big companies, contrary to what we think, they are small teams, with low margins, and working toward sustainability lowers those margins even more. Some are doing a little, some are doing a lot. With so much choice, we wanted to lend some transparency to the sustainability question in the kids market.