When I started Community Clothing the plan was to try to do three things; make great clothes; create skilled work; and restore pride in our textile making communities. And whilst we’re still a long way from lasting success (I remember the great Paul Smith saying it took 20 years to build his business), I think we’re doing pretty well on all three of those fronts.
When I started Community Clothing the plan was to try to do three things; make great clothes; create skilled work; and restore pride in our textile making communities. And whilst we’re still a long way from lasting success (I remember the great Paul Smith saying it took 20 years to build his business), I think we’re doing pretty well on all three of those fronts.
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.
Do we make good clothes? Yes we do, really good. I know that because I wear them all the time, Winter and summer, rain and shine, and after over two decades making them, I know good clothes. If we did suits and cycling clothes I'd never have to wear anything else. I’ve CC socks that I've worn since we first started making them in 2017, that’s nearly nine years for a six quid sock. I’ve field trousers still going strong after many hundreds of wears, ditto my Parlick trainers, worn easily 300 times and still in great nick. A navy lambswool crew neck nine years old and counting, and my bombproof fisherman’s jumper a permanent fixture during the coldest months. I've always been obsessive about quality, and I can put my hand on my heart and say that our clothes are as good as any you’ll find at any price.
Also they must be good, because otherwise why would you keep buying them in such amazing quantities; tens of thousands of pairs of jeans, chinos and underpants, tens of thousands of t shirts and sweatshirts, and close to half a million socks!
The trickiest bit to measure is the pride. I know I am very proud of the way we conduct our business, and of the product we make, and I know that the staff in our factories are proud to make it. I have spoken to many of you at pop ups and book talks and you all tell me that feel a strong connection to what we’re doing, and do feel proud to support something that’s keeping skills and history and supporting the working lives of so many individuals. I suspect and hope that this is the case for well over 150,000 of you that support and follow what we do.
So thanks for that support, thank you for buying our clothes, and for supporting all these great jobs.
Patrick
Do we make good clothes? Yes we do, really good. I know that because I wear them all the time, Winter and summer, rain and shine, and after over two decades making them, I know good clothes. If we did suits and cycling clothes I'd never have to wear anything else. I’ve CC socks that I've worn since we first started making them in 2017, that’s nearly nine years for a six quid sock. I’ve field trousers still going strong after many hundreds of wears, ditto my Parlick trainers, worn easily 300 times and still in great nick. A navy lambswool crew neck nine years old and counting, and my bombproof fisherman’s jumper a permanent fixture during the coldest months. I've always been obsessive about quality, and I can put my hand on my heart and say that our clothes are as good as any you’ll find at any price.
Also they must be good, because otherwise why would you keep buying them in such amazing quantities; tens of thousands of pairs of jeans, chinos and underpants, tens of thousands of t shirts and sweatshirts, and close to half a million socks!
The trickiest bit to measure is the pride. I know I am very proud of the way we conduct our business, and of the product we make, and I know that the staff in our factories are proud to make it. I have spoken to many of you at pop ups and book talks and you all tell me that feel a strong connection to what we’re doing, and do feel proud to support something that’s keeping skills and history and supporting the working lives of so many individuals. I suspect and hope that this is the case for well over 150,000 of you that support and follow what we do.
So thanks for that support, thank you for buying our clothes, and for supporting all these great jobs.
Patrick
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.
Celebrating 10 Years of Community Clothing. The highs, the lows, the socks and the factories
It's time to share our half annual impact figures, and once again it has been a fantastically positive six months. Lots of new customers, a couple of new factories we're developing product with (and a gang of hand knitters), and lots of skilled work created.
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