SUSTAINABILITY

We do your best and keep improving

Let's get serious

Jokes aside, sustainability is an important topic that literally concerns all of us. Our goal at Socks & Tales is to provide great products and to make people happy – but not at any cost. The harm humankind has done to our planet over the last decades is devastating. Processes still contributing to this madness cannot be accepted as a standard. Therefore, we at have committed ourselves to do our best to achieve clean and green processes. Let’s take a look at what this means.

OUR SUPPLY CHAIN

GREEN HAIR & GREEN YARN
It starts with the Alpacas in Peru. Luckily, those animals do not just have great hair, they also are very frugal animals. They neither require much food, nor much water and their soft hooves don’t destroy the top-soil on which they happily spend their days. Our yarn partner in Peru holds sustainability high. The company breeds alpacas on their own farms to ensure their high standards. In addition, they work together with the Peruvian Department of Agriculture on several studies to understand the animals better. And, with local farmers they contribute to sustainable developments of surrounding communities. Since 2015, the company offers 100% organic Alpaca yarn certified by the Global Organics Textiles Standards. They hold many more certifications such as Fair Trade, OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Alpaca del Peru and several others proving their sustainable and fair operations. We are proud to have found this reliable partner whose values match so well with ours.

FAIR PRODUCTION
Especially in the past years, the devastating work environments of large parts of the fashion industry have become more apparent to the public. We all need to be aware that buying cheap clothes has consequences - partly devastating consequences to our fellow human beings and our planet. We therefore decided to find a production partner located in the European Union who operates according to high standards. And we are happy to have found this partner in Portugal. Again, we are very proud to having partnered with a likeminded company that understands today’s issues and contributes their share to make this world a better place.

YOU'LL WONDER WHERE ALL THE PACKAGING WENT
You might be surprised when you get the first delivery of Socks & Tales. Usually, clothing is wrapped in a box, maybe another box, a plastic bag, a sheet of silk paper and has lots of labels attached, sometimes, with those small plastic thingies we always need to get scissors for (or tear our fingers if we are too lazy to get up). Not with us. We ship our socks in an envelope made from recycled paper, a tiny sheet of silk paper with one sticker on it and a small note – that’s it. Our packaging can’t get much more minimalistic than that. We love it! Because we keep waste and emissions low and on top, we save money on additional packaging material. Going green doesn’t always cost much money.

Sustainability-Supply-Chain

LET'S DIG A HOLE FOR WHAT IS LEFT

… and plant a tree in it. 

Unfortunately, there are some emissions we just can’t avoid. The yarn must get to Portugal and the finished sock must arrive at your doorstep. Additionally, to equip the yarn with its required stability, we must add some strengthener – in our case, some polyamide. While most socks you buy contain a few percent synthetic fiber, more and more natural substitutes are produced. On the long run, our socks will get 100% synthetic fiber free but for now, we will compensate for our footprint. We are aware that those actions influence our planet and we do our best to make up for those emissions. For now, we have joined a carbon offset program called carbonfund.org which aims on neutralising emissions caused by businesses or individuals. On a regular basis, we contribute to their funds.