Sustainability is a principle for us. But why did we choose to do this? We want to share with you what drove us to want to change something fundamental in the fashion industry and found HOOFMENT.
Sustainability is a principle for us. We don't do things by halves, we want you to be able to buy from us 100% with a clear conscience. In-house product development, sustainable material production, fair production, short transport routes, environmentally friendly packaging and climate-neutral shipping - our principle of sustainability accompanies us in each of these steps without compromise.
But why did we choose to do this? We want to share with you what drove us to want to change something fundamental in the fashion industry and found HOOFMENT. We hope this gives you a better understanding of why sustainability and fairness in the fashion industry is so important to us.
Juliane Franke/@stock.adobe.com
Reason 1 – More than 90% of the clothing produced worldwide comes from low-wage countries in Asia.
Unfortunately, exploitation is the norm in the textile industry. Only about 4% of the fashion companies pay the textile workers wages that are enough to live on. The textile workers in Bangladesh, for example, often have to get by on the equivalent of around €83 a month and feed a family. The official minimum wage in Asian countries is so low that people are only able to live in absolute poverty. Nevertheless, many companies arm themselves with the statement that they would pay the minimum wage. Unfortunately, few consumers know that this is not something companies can be proud of.
toa555/@stock.adobe.com
Reason 2 - Over 66% of all Chinese rivers and lakes are considered polluted and hazardous to health.
Not only people suffer in the textile industry - nature also suffers enormously from the burden. Many chemicals, pesticides and toxins are used in the production of textiles, which are often discharged untreated into water. Residues are increasingly found in drinking water and are harmful to human and animal health. In some rivers there are now neither fish nor other living beings. Nature is also extremely burdened as a result, since hardly any factory adheres to environmental standards. Some say the rivers are already wearing the next trend color of the season. Consumers are not aware of this, because the labels in the textiles do not have to state which harmful substances are contained. Many chemicals are even carcinogenic to humans. Workers in the textile factories often don't live past 50 and die from cancer and other effects of the toxic chemicals.
nadinousch/@stock.adobe.com
Reason 3 - Water use in the textile industry has dried up the Aral Sea to 10% of its area.
The Aral Sea was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world - just 50 years ago it was almost as big as Bavaria. Now there is hardly anything left of the lake. Old fishing villages are now 90 km from the shore. How could that happen? The textile industry is to blame for this, because there are huge cotton plantations near the Aral Sea, to which irrigation canals from the Aral Sea were led. The conventional cultivation of cotton (not organic) requires huge amounts of water. It takes about 3,000 liters of water to make a single cotton T-shirt - that's about 15 bathtubs. In comparison: A Lyocell T-shirt only requires 4 liters of water to produce.
adydyka2780/@stock.adobe.com
Reason 4 - The global textile industry produces around 1.2 trillion tons of CO 2 annually, which is more than international flights and cruises combined.
The textile industry is considered to be one of the biggest climate sinners in the world. Most of the emissions come from the production of new chemical fibers such as polyester, but the production of wool is also a real climate problem. Because most of the textile factories are in Asia, the transport routes to Germany are extremely long and therefore have a huge impact on the climate. In addition, almost all factories in Asia are powered by coal. Consumers are also increasingly contributing to the CO 2 pollution caused by sometimes thoughtless orders for textiles on the Internet. One of the biggest problems here is the return of partial orders, which has become almost normal.
Swapan/@stock.adobe.com
Reason 5 - Every year over a million tons of old clothes end up in containers in Germany
Textile production worldwide has doubled in recent years - the average wearing time of clothing, on the other hand, has decreased significantly. On average, every German buys around 60 items of clothing a year, and every fifth person never wears them or only wears them once. After an average of one year, a piece of clothing is thrown away. 75% of all old clothes are not recycled and end up in large incinerators. The Germans consume far too much and far too quickly. Fashion has become disposable.
Realizing these facts is quite shocking. We've also gone through this process: from ignorant fast fashion consumers to conscious buyers. We hope that we can take you with us on our journey. With our HOOFMENT brand, we want to protect nature, people and animals and ensure that the world we live in remains beautiful for a long time to come. We want to offer you the opportunity to shop without a guilty conscience and to wear clothes that last and make you happy.
Sources:
Tagesschau, https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/bangladesch-loehne-101.html
Greenpeace, https://www.greenpeace.de/themen/endlager-umwelt/textilindustrie
The green thread, https://dergruene thread.blogspot.com/2018/06/die-thirsty-clothing-water-consumption.html
World, https://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/umwelt/article142448033/Wie-aus-dem-Aralsee-eine-Salzwueste-was.html
Quarks, https://www.quarks.de/umwelt/clothing-so-macht-sie-unsere-umwelt-kaputt/
Tagesschau, https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/report-muenchen/plastikmuell-153.html
ZDF, https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfinfo-doku/vergiftete-fluesse-100.html
Public Eye, https://www.publiceye.ch/fileadmin/doc/Mode/2019_PublicEye_CleanClothes_Firmencheck_Report.pdf
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