Friday, May 18, 2012

Textile Friday: TS Designs, Cotton T-shirts Done Right

      Cotton is coming back to North Carolina, some would argue it never left, but since the 1970s Texas and the PCCA produces 40-60% of the worlds cotton supply by some estimates. North Carolina is a little guy by any estimation even though we sew a lot of fabric. Several of my fellow designers and suppliers have decided to change this on putting their money and livelihoods literally where their mouth is to shorten the supply route. These are generally my suppliers, and the people I try to support as I also feel the same way.
      My current favorite, and the one I am sharing with you today is TS Designs who produces small carbon footprint organically made cotton t-shirts here in my home state of North Carolina. You can watch their Youtube talk here. In a world where the average t-shirt or clothing article made today travels over 17,000 miles from start to finish, theirs is less than 750 miles, 800 when it hits my doorstep. That's from field to shirt.
      These shirts are real, excellent quality, and you can order a shirt for $18-24 printed off their website. They also do wholesale orders if you are interested in doing short runs, their smallest order size is generally 72, though they have a great sample program if you would like your t-shirts to come to you printed. They are one of my favorite suggestions for designers in the area trying to make a difference in a real tangible way.
      If you are a business that uses t-shirts such as ours, this is a great way to go. I finally bit the bullet this year at looking toward using these guys for our own work shirts, mostly because since leaving the retail field, I've come to realize home many people in the blue-collar trades survive on t-shirts. Especially us. Wearing a designer suit to work is asking for trouble. So we're putting our money where our mouth is and buying business t-shirts we believe in from TS designs. They will probably be a boring navy blue since that's my favorite color, but hey...I know where they come from and at heart I'm pretty boring in preferring the classics. Hopefully, you will get to see more of this awesome company in the future. I think that they have a great future ahead of them. And if you need some t-shirts for an event, business, or just fun...give these guys a call.
     I hope that you enjoy getting to see some of our local people in the area making a difference one day at a time. Sometimes I think there's a perception that textiles have vanished from the State when really, they just reinvented themselves.

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