The work bit is easy to quantify because we track it, and have done since day one. Every hour at every factory, keeping a running tally that we now update every six months. I am incredibly proud to say that our ten-year total stands at a fantastic 667,287 hours. Over two thirds of a million hours of skilled work created in the 59 partner factories we now work with.
The work bit is easy to quantify because we track it, and have done since day one. Every hour at every factory, keeping a running tally that we now update every six months. I am incredibly proud to say that our ten-year total stands at a fantastic 667,287 hours. Over two thirds of a million hours of skilled work created in the 59 partner factories we now work with.
I remember being incredibly excited when we hit a thousand hours, and elated at ten thousand. When we started we just had four factories. Adding new ones is always a real pleasure, getting to know the staff, the history, the processes, and the product. Most of these factories are in areas that need an economic leg up even more now than they did a decade ago. In my Ted Talk back in 2018 (TED: Ideas change everything) ) I said I wanted CC to create 5,000 permanent jobs. Whilst we are nowhere near that number yet, the factories we work with employ over two thousand people, and in some we are now their biggest customer, so we’re on the right track.
I remember being incredibly excited when we hit a thousand hours, and elated at ten thousand. When we started we just had four factories. Adding new ones is always a real pleasure, getting to know the staff, the history, the processes, and the product. Most of these factories are in areas that need an economic leg up even more now than they did a decade ago. In my Ted Talk back in 2018 (TED: Ideas change everything) ) I said I wanted CC to create 5,000 permanent jobs. Whilst we are nowhere near that number yet, the factories we work with employ over two thousand people, and in some we are now their biggest customer, so we’re on the right track.
Our business has never been about consuming more, its always been about consuming better, and we’ve never encouraged anyone to buy clothes they don’t need. But because so many of you now shop with us we’ve made and sold an awful lot of stuff.
Here are some fun (and I think quite amazing) stats from our first decade of selling great British clothes.
Our business has never been about consuming more, its always been about consuming better, and we’ve never encouraged anyone to buy clothes they don’t need. But because so many of you now shop with us we’ve made and sold an awful lot of stuff.
Here are some fun (and I think quite amazing) stats from our first decade of selling great British clothes.
Lets start with the thing we sell most of, and that’s socks. Since we launched them in 2017 we’ve made a whopping 471,064 of them! If you laid them out end to end, they’d stretch all the way from Blackburn to Hathern in Leicestershire where the brilliant J. Alex Swift sock factory is.
Lets start with the thing we sell most of, and that’s socks. Since we launched them in 2017 we’ve made a whopping 471,064 of them! If you laid them out end to end, they’d stretch all the way from Blackburn to Hathern in Leicestershire where the brilliant J. Alex Swift sock factory is.
All this socks contain an awful lot of cotton, and if you add that to the cotton in our jeans, chinos, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pants, dresses and shirts it all adds up to a massive 30 tonnes of cotton (most of it organic). If 30 tonnes is hard to imagine, think of it as forty-three Mark 1 Fiestas!
All this socks contain an awful lot of cotton, and if you add that to the cotton in our jeans, chinos, t-shirts, sweatshirts, pants, dresses and shirts it all adds up to a massive 30 tonnes of cotton (most of it organic). If 30 tonnes is hard to imagine, think of it as forty-three Mark 1 Fiestas!
We’ve also sold an awful lot of jumpers, and a fair few hats, scarves and gloves. In fact if you unravelled the yarn used to make all our knitted woollens it would stretch over 67,000 kms, enough to wrap twice around the world and halfway round again.
We’ve also sold an awful lot of jumpers, and a fair few hats, scarves and gloves. In fact if you unravelled the yarn used to make all our knitted woollens it would stretch over 67,000 kms, enough to wrap twice around the world and halfway round again.
And if that’s not mind blowing enough, just imagine how many cups of tea are needed to fuel all thise knitters, sewers and cutters, spinners, weavers and dyers. We all love a good brew, and the folks in our factories no less than anyone else. Assuming our average maker enjoys three cuppas a day that makes a whopping 250,000 cups of tea supped whilst making your clothes! If that was one giant brew it would need 62,000 litre mug to contain it!
And if that’s not mind blowing enough, just imagine how many cups of tea are needed to fuel all thise knitters, sewers and cutters, spinners, weavers and dyers. We all love a good brew, and the folks in our factories no less than anyone else. Assuming our average maker enjoys three cuppas a day that makes a whopping 250,000 cups of tea supped whilst making your clothes! If that was one giant brew it would need 62,000 litre mug to contain it!
So, here’s to more socks, and wool, and ford fiestas worth of cotton, and many many more cups of tea brewed in British factory kitchens to come.
So, here’s to more socks, and wool, and ford fiestas worth of cotton, and many many more cups of tea brewed in British factory kitchens to come.
And as if that’s not enough 10th anniversary goodness, we’ve also done some merch, some t shirts and some totes.
And as if that’s not enough 10th anniversary goodness, we’ve also done some merch, some t shirts and some totes.
Everything we do is a celebration of the people, the skills and the traditions of the amazing factories we work with, all of them the very best of their kind, all of them deeply embedded in the culture and history of their communities.
Great photographs don’t just show our clothes, they tell our story and connect you with what we do.
Our philosophy around photography is really simple: just keep it honest. Shoot the clothes as they are, don’t alter or pin them, don’t retouch. When our clothes arrive and you put them on we want them to look like the clothes you see in the pictures.
Celebrating 10 Years of Community Clothing. The highs, the lows, the socks and the factories