TRACK ME! The journey of «TT1DE»
Whether it’s a T-shirt, hoodie or tracksuit bottoms, you can trace every ZRCL garment through the entire production chain. It has its own traceability code on the care label or alternatively a QR code that you can scan. Simply enter the traceability code on the TRACK ME Site page and see the journey of your garment on the interactive world map – including our Basic Sweater SWISS EDITION «TT1DE».
THE JOURNEY BEGINS WITH THE SEEDS
The journey begins in Tanzania with the extraction of the GMO-free seeds that are the basic prerequisite for the cultivation of our organic cotton. And that is where the first challenge awaits us: worldwide, around 80% of cotton seeds are genetically modified. It is correspondingly difficult for smallholder families to obtain GMO-free seeds. The company Remei Tanzania Ldt. has a solution for this. It produces the seed UKM08. UK stands for the University of Ukiriguru, M for Malawi and 08 for the year 2008. The organic farmers receive this GMO-free seed for the cultivation of their organic cotton.
WHERE THE ORGANIC COTTON COMES FROM
Remei Tanzania Ltd. works with around 2000 smallholder farmers from 29 villages in the districts of Meatu and Maswa. Here, the farmers produce the organic cotton for our sweater «TT1DE». The farming families receive a purchase guarantee and an additional organic premium as a share of the added value, so that they have room for development. In addition, the farmers get involved with their say and can take part in coaching and training courses to further their knowledge of organic farming.
Between the end of May and August, the farmers harvest the organic cotton. You can find more information about our organic cotton in the article «Our organic cotton from Remei».
FROM RAW COTTON TO FIBRE
The harvested raw cotton of our sweater «TT1DE» is delivered to the Bibiti Ginneries Ltd. ginning plant in Meatu district. Here, employees gin several tonnes of raw cotton every day and produce up to 180 bales of organic cotton fibre. A bale of cotton weighs 170-230 kg, depending on the country of origin. The farm is certified according to EU Directive 834/2007 for organic cultivation and is audited within the framework of the bioRe® Sustainable Cotton Standard. This means that compliance with ecological and social standards is strictly controlled.
OUR FUTURE KNITTED JUMPER TRAVELS TO INDIA
In Bhilwara in the state of Rajasthan in India, the organic cotton fibres of our future sweater «TT1DE» are spun into yarn. The RSMW spinning mill is SA8000 certified and has been an important partner in our supply chain since the beginning. They have been working with Remei since 2011.
You are probably wondering why the cotton fibres from Tanzania are specially shipped to India. This is because Tanzania produces tiny quantities of organic cotton. But a spinning mill can only be profitable if it can process larger quantities. In order to achieve this quantity and because organic cotton fibres may not be mixed with conventional cotton fibres, we send them by truck and ship to India, where the cotton is spun into yarn together with the Indian BioRe cotton.
Of course, the CO₂ emissions from transport and production are offset by so-called insetting and are therefore CO₂-neutral. We don’t use air transport.
YARN GOES TO SWITZERLAND
From the spinning mill in India, the yarn goes straight to Switzerland, or more precisely: to Bichelsee in Thurgau. This is where Innolana AG produces our sweater «TT1DE». The company has been in the knitwear business for over 100 years and has always been able to prove itself as a pioneer in ecological and sustainable production. Thanks to new technologies and novel manufacturing processes, the company has made seamless knitting one of its features, among others. This technique consumes significantly less energy and produces less waste. The company produces completely CO₂-neutral and recycles all consumables and production residues.
Meanwhile, our Basic Sweater SWISS EDITION is ready for sale and travelling to its penultimate stop before hopefully becoming someone’s new favourite piece.
OFF TO THE BAR IN THE STORE!
Our jumpers travel from Thurgau to Schwyz to our own warehouse, from where they are delivered to the flagship store or to one of our partner stores. Kilian Wiget founded WE ARE ZRCL in 2014, partly because there was no offer for transparent streetwear in the specialized trade.
By the way: If you want to track your own favourite piece with the help of the code, and it is printed, the design was printed with GOTS certified ink at Durchstarter Werbetechnik GmbH in Schwyz, where all designs of the WE ARE ZRCL collections are printed.
BOX: If you are curious and want to follow the journey of a WE ARE ZRCL garment but don’t have one at hand, you can try «TRACK ME» with one of our t-shirts (CODE) or our trainer trousers (CODE).
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