Mission and Ethics
G'day! While our vision for Chunky Checkers is nothing but fun and good vibes, there are some important things we'd like to discuss....
We believe that you, as a consumer, reserve the right to know and understand where your clothes are coming from. It’s important to us that you have the tools to make a conscious and informed decisions on whether or not to make a purchase and support a business or industry.
We care about where our clothes and products come from. We have done our very best to understand terms such as ‘sustainable’ and ‘ethical’ to ensure that we are making good choices, for the planet, for the men and women who bring our designs to life, and for you, the consumer. We hear these words been thrown around the industry A LOT. We’ve put the definitions here to help you gain a better understanding too.
Sustainable: noun. Environmental Science. the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance:
The committee is developing sustainability standards for products that use energy.
Ethical: adjective. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct. being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, especially the standards of a profession:
It was not considered ethical for physicians to advertise.
We want to be clear, we aren’t saving the world here at Chunky Checkers. But we want to make sure we're doing our part. You’ll notice when you get to the final stages of checkout we have listed 4 of our favourite non profit organisations (listed below) for every sale we are donating $1 and you get to pick where it goes. In the spirit of making good choices, you'll be given the option to further donate by rounding your purchase up to the nearest dollar.
- The Trevor Project. Determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources.
- WIRES. Wildlife information and Rescue service. To actively rehabilitate and preserve Australian Wildlife and inspire others to do the same.
- Beyond Blue. Provides information and support to help everyone in Australia achieve their best possible mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live.
- Dumb Friends League. Working with our compassionate communities we will end pet homelessness and suffering. Speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves
It’s a team effort.
Our fabrics
Cotton, Linen and Hemp. What do these three fabrics have in common? They’re natural textiles. This isn’t by mistake that we’ve chosen to go this way. It’s because these fabrics don’t produce any micro plastics. Everything that we have created has been done so with the knowledge that one day it’ll end up back where it started; the Earth. Natural textiles will all eventually decompose. Cotton can take as little as a week to fully decompose, though, usually around 5 months. Compared to synthetic textiles such as Polyester and Nylon taking anywhere from 20 to 200 years.
Our Tees
Here at Chunky Checkers, our T-Shirts are 100% cotton and are currently all Gildan Products. For those unfamiliar, Gildan is a giant in the textile world and is responsible for a wide share of the market. We made sure we did our due diligence when deciding who would manufacture our products; Made from responsibly sourced U.S cotton, we're proud to offer you tees that are going to last you a long time, and not to the detriment of our earth. A bold statement we know, however, Gilden are certified by a number of industry-leading organizations, including the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) certification, which ensures that our products are produced in a responsible manner and that the people who make them are treated fairly (can we get a hells yeah?!). We believe that fashion and sustainability can go hand-in-hand, and that's why we're committed to ensuring our products are produced in a way that is kind to people and the planet.
Other products
Here at Chunky Checkers we source our products from all over the world - wherever the most ethical and sustainable.
Despite countries like Bangladesh, China and India having a bad rap for their ethics we have chosen to support them. - WAIT there’s more.
We have chosen to still work with these countries because these people depend on our business. They rely on the wage that we provide to feed themselves and their families. Every factory that we work with has been hand selected, based off of their minimum wage, work environment and NO child labour policies.
We believe that it would actually be less ethical and less sustainable to have our fabrics made in one place, then, shipped all the way to Australia or the USA, to then be cut, sewn and finally mailed out. Think about how many hands it has to go though before it reaches you mailbox?! - Not to mention that it just would not be feasible. We believe that sustainability has to meet affordability somewhere. Because for us, $90 on a tee just isn't practical or what we deem affordable.
We want you as the consumer to understand that just because something is made or sewn in a western country doesn’t make it sustainable. What it’s made out of, where that comes from does. We also want you to understand that for something to be ‘ethical’ can also be ‘Made in Bangladesh’. The country in which an item comes from, does not determine whether its ethical or not. The conditions in which the employees work in, and the quality of their wage does.
If you’ve held on this long reading, thank you. You’re a champ.
We hope to encourage you to do your research on brands and prioritize transparency. YES there is a lot of shit out there, and a lot of work places in these regions are, plain and simply, shit. But they aren’t all shit.
We hope that you can trust us to make the right decisions for you, the planet, our employees at home and overseas.
Claire & Grant.
Team Chunky Checkers x
Resources
https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4097&context=sspapers&httpsredir=1&referer=
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ethical
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sustainability
https://www.ilo.org/dhaka/Areasofwork/working-conditions/lang--en/index.htm
https://www.fastcompany.com/40419020/when-made-in-china-means-artful-ethical-and-expert