In 2016, I performed factory audits for a sporting goods multi national. My job was to ensure new factories meet the safety and process requirements of my company in order to manufacture products. This was my first glance of fast fashion and its consequences. I audited 100+ factories in India, China and Bangladesh. Let’s see a scene  below,

Somewhere in China, 2016:

Standing at the 4th floor of this factory, I asked the factory manager one of the most staple questions of a factory auditor “Where is the fire evacuation?” He pointed to a small door which opened to a long steel pole, like at a fire station, only that it stands outside the building 4 floors high. I appreciated the good humor and laughed till I realized he was not kidding. Then things went dark.

A steel pole was the actual fire escape for 500+ people in the building. Not even a staircase, wow. Basically a death trap in case of an unfortunate fire. I immediately concluded the meeting saying that my company can’t collaborate as safety standards are not up to requirements. He told me quite dismissively, names of 4 big multi nationals, who they are currently working with and who have no issues with their factory’s “Safety Standards”. Today if you go to any mall in your city you will find 1 of this 4 brands for sure, in bigger malls all of them together. So yes, these were big multi billion dollar businesses.

The Steel Pole that saved the factory:

So out of curiosity I asked if he can provide me with audit reports from these “Big Buyers” as he referred to them. And of course, they were never audited in person, so he had no reports. These brands just worked with his factory for 5 years over emails and invoices. The story of the steel pole was that, the factory was asked to reduce 6% of manufacturing price of one of their highest selling products by a fast fashion brand. Every 1 out of 3 products coming out of this factory was for this brand, hence they were big customers. Factory’s solution was that, they extended their “Floor Area” by removing the staircase and added 48 more tables on 4 floors. He sounded so proud when he told me the story of how he “Saved the Factory” from losing it’s business with the brand. They met the price for 6% reduction by not having stairs. No jokes.

Conclusion and Inception

Needless to say, we did not work with this factory. But surprisingly, 75% of factories in China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam etc. have major issues with worker safety just like this factory. This was one of the reason why a good year for a factory auditor would be if he/she could open 2 factories. If you opened 3+ you would be up for awards. But these 75% factories run their operations for fast fashion brands, without accountability of risks (one of the highlight incidents were recorded in Bangladesh in 2012). Slow Fashion is not a magic wand to solve all ecological and human issues, but only the ones I experienced in my lifetime. My wife and I started Slow Fashion in 2023. We chose leather as it’s a co-product (not by-product) from meat industry (yes all those burgers we eat) and ensures less waste ends up in landfills (although globally, still around 330,000 tons of leather goes to landfill every year). In our factory operations we were very deliberate not to make the mistakes as above. We wanted to slow down fashion in order to make more reliable choices for our artisans and respect their skill-set. Today we make products in small batches that endures the test of time and looks better with usage. We use vegetable tan and vegetable chromium tan leather only, not genuine leather, not leather splits , not bonded leathers and definitely not PU as raw material. Most of our leathers are from India (90-95%) and some are sourced from our partners in Brazil, Australia and Italy.

Our Goal

Our goal is to make artisans as proud to make your products as you are to own them. We work with our and partner factories to create business models that motivates the artisans to be proud of their craft. For you, we offer the best price quality ratio by by minimizing overhead and advertising costs. Most logical way to do that is to bring the products directly from artisans into your hands