ABOUT THE PEOPLE BEHIND BLEED

We all love extreme sports like skateboarding, surfing, montainbikig and snowboarding.
All of these awesome activities are depending on our beautiful nature. It´s just not the same feeling to spend your time in dull leisure facilities.  That´s why it is so important for us to save the environment.

Our name "bleed" stands for the "bleeding" nature which is exploited by the human race for decades.

We want to prove that eco-friendly Street- and Sportswear doesn’t have to be boring at all.
We love sports and fun in the nature, so it is very important for us to keep the ecological damage during the production of our clothes as low as possible and to reach even so a high function for active application.
That's why the bleed collection is composed for the most part of organic cotton and kapok. For highly sophisticated sportswear like functional jackets recycled materials will be applied. No need to say that even our accessories are sustainable as far as possible.
The energy for our production is won completely from renewable resources such as solar electricity and wind energy.

We don't want to save only the environment, we want to abolish the exploitation of workers as well.
With an ironic name and revolutionary, progressive prints we try to get peoples awareness for our environment. Unfortunately it is still fact that a lot of companies manufacture their clothes on inhuman and environmentally unacceptable terms. We don't follow this path. We go another way. (a better one!)

TRANSPARENCY

The following clauses are supposed to explain about our textile chain, and to unfold manufacturing plants, certificates, strengths and weaknesses.

In general we do believe in the importance of certificates in order to strengthen transparency and confidence in one company´s production. Because we do put a special focus on the research and development of exotic and sustainable materials, having unconventional fibres certified often is difficult.

For instance, we prefer accepting a weakness of attestation, instead of resigning a functional fibre, which does make a significant contribution to environmental relief due to its minimal water demands and with no involvement of pesticides and herbicides. At the same time it creates fair wages for good work within a socially weak country.

Organic Cotton (as basic material for shirts, pants, sweater, etc)

Our clothings main part consists of organically cultivated cotton. This material is strictly handled according to the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) ground rules.

That one already intervenes at cultivating of cotton and improves the farmers labour conditions in Africa and India. Similarly the independent institute also checks the remaining production process, which completely takes place in Portugal.

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Tencel (in functional tees)

Tencel is a viscose made out of eucalyptus. Indeed it needs chemicals to create the fibres, however water as well as solvent can be used within a closed system quite often and do not get in touch with nature by that.

The manufactoring process has been awarded by the European Union with the "European Award for the Environment", as the needed chemicals are biologically degraded in organical filter plants and the water demand turns out to be a lot lower compared to the water needs of cotton.

Not only because of its water consumption, water-saving fibres should be paid much more attention on. The Tencel production takes place by the company Lenzing in Austria.

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Hemp (in Shirts)

Another sustainable and functional material is formed by the natural fibres hemp. This one mainly is available in China, as this country is connected by a long historical tradition with this plant. The hemp, which we do obtain from China, is being cultivated based on a firm and long partnership with the regional farmers.

We believe it wouldnt be reasonable to draw the production off a country, which is known for low wages and inhuman working conditions. We rather lead by example to introduce important social kriteria, where those are needed much more than in the European Union. Our production manager, who has been operating a plantation together with domestic farmers for several years, visits the plants repeatedly in order to improve the social conditions regularly.

The natural fibre hemp turns out to be a remarkable enrichment to our line of goods and materials, as it contributes a significant input to the environmental relief thanks to its minimal water consumption and without any needs for chemical treats.

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Recycled Polyester (vegan jeans and functional textiles)

Jährlich werden über 100 Millionen Barrel Rohöl für die Herstellung von Polyester aufgewendet. Davon fließen 70% in die Produktion von synthetischen Fasern der Textilindustrie, wohingegen die übrigen 30% für PET-Flaschen verwendet werden.
Um diesen immensen Bedarf von Rohöl zu stoppen, verwenden wir für unsere hochfunktionellen Stoffe ausschließlich recycelte Materialien.

Nicht nur, dass wir damit auf die Verwendung neuen Rohöls verzichten, auch der Energieverbrauch – und damit die CO2 Emissionen - zur Wiederverwendung der Kunstfasern fallen deutlich geringer an als bei der Ersterstellung neuer Fasern. Nebenbei werden die Mülldeponien spürbar entlastet, da die Materialien mit verlängerter Lebensdauer wirken.

The Sympatex-Fabrics are awarded with ÖkoTex Standard 100 and the bluesign-certificate due to its exceptional eco friendliness.

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