How we choose our suppliers
Before we decide to carry a product, we research the company that makes it. We aren't comfortable selling things made by companies that exploit the people who work for them. So we scour the public record for instances of forced labor, child labor, or violence against workers--all of which are dealbreakers for us. Sadly, these things are more commonplace than you would think, and this relatively low bar actually rules out a lot of familiar brands and some of the biggest suppliers.
Union Standard and Union Approved
We carry two product tiers: Union Standard and Union Approved. Union Approved means we research the supplier's public labor record ourselves and recheck it every week. Union Standard means an independent body has examined the supplier and published its findings.
Union Standard
Independently examined
An outside organization either examined the supplier's labor practices and published its findings, or certifies the supplier's organic apparel and lists it on a public register.
Union Approved
Where we do the looking ourselves
Independent verification covers some suppliers today. For the rest, we do the looking ourselves: we read what the supplier discloses and its public labor record, and we recheck that record every week.
Every supplier we use clears the same floor before it appears here.
Never Finished
Suppliers get swallowed up by bigger companies all the time, and production never stops, so a single check isn't good enough. We update our research on every supplier we use, every week. Sometimes, that means a product needs to be dropped from the store, or a different supplier starts making it. We make those changes when new information about a company's record necessitates it. Whenever that's the case, we make the change as quickly as possible.
Everyone wins.
Artists keep full ownership. Purchases support artists and regenerate more art. Apparel and goods of the highest quality and integrity. If someone's getting screwed, we're not interested.