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with orders over £50
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PLATINUM TRUSTED
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FREE UK DELIVERY
with orders over £50
FREE RETURNS
30 Day UK returns
PLATINUM TRUSTED
service award 2024.
FREE UK DELIVERY
with orders over £50
FREE RETURNS
30 Day UK returns
PLATINUM TRUSTED
service award 2024.
FREE UK DELIVERY
with orders over £50
FREE RETURNS
30 Day UK returns
PLATINUM TRUSTED
service award 2024.
What’s in your clothes, and who made them? How were they made, and what’s their environmental impact? What can you do to minimise their impact even more? BAM DNA is here to help you get the scoop!
We believe that information is powerful, and we want to put that power in your hands. Our customers trust us to do right by people and the planet because it’s been part of BAM’s DNA from the get-go. But for the fashion industry as a whole to make a real change, we all need to be more transparent. We’re sharing the story behind every item and giving you the lowdown on how you can help shape its future.
Now you can see who made your clothes at every stage of the process.
We carefully consider everything, from the crop or raw material your garment is made from, to every process that it goes through. Now you can see which raw material or fibre went into your product and why we chose it. You can see who made the fibres into yarn, then fabric, then finally who stitched your item of clothing.
We can share this with you because we’ve been mapping our supply chain for years. We still have a few gaps (it’s an ongoing process) but where we do, we’ll highlight them and tell you what we’re doing about it.
Raw Material
Cultivation, production or extraction of raw materials
Bamboo is an inherently lower impact crop than hardwood trees because it needs little to no irrigation or pesticides, grows rapidly so needs less land, can be harvested without damaging root systems and surrounding habitats, and even has the potential to store carbon and regenerate soil health. We've mapped the sources of our bamboo and we're actively working to ensure responsible cultivation practices and as well as assessing the exact benefits of bamboo cultivation.
Organic cotton is grown without pesticides, uses less energy and significantly less water than conventional cotton. Cotton farms are often small holdings with the cotton sold on to processing companies. We can't identify each of the hundreds of small farms who likely supply BAM's cotton. Instead, we rely on transaction certificates to trace back to country level and guarantee our cotton is organic.
Synthetic fibres are generally made from petroleum, which is made from non-renewable fossil fuels. We've used a small amount in this product to give your garment better performance and durability. As of 2022, virgin synthetic fibres make up less than 5% of BAM's total fibre usage. We aim to eliminate them completely by 2030 and are actively exploring recycled or lower impact alternatives that we can use without compromising on performance.
Fibre Processing
Processing of raw materials into usable fibres
Jigao Jilin were the first company to produce viscose from bamboo and continue to lead the way as a responsible viscose producer in China. They are rated joint 3rd best on the Canopy Hot Button Report which ranks viscose and MMCF producers on environmental performance and commitment to protecting ancient and endangered forests. They also hold OekoTex Step level 3 certification – one of the most rigorous industry audits assessing the use of chemicals, quality management, environmental and social impact. They have completed an EU BAT assessment and are in the process of completing the ZDHC MMCF module.
Cotton plants need to go through a process called ginning, where the seed is removed from the fibre. This usually happens in the same region as the farms, before the bales are sent to yarn mills to be cleaned, carded (combed), and spun into yarn.
Elastane comes from petroleum derived from fossil fuels. In addition to being an unsustainable material it can also contaminate textile recycling streams and won't biodegrade in landfill. We are actively searching for lower impact alternatives, in the meantime strictly limiting our use of elastane when needed for performance – to improve fit, allow the garment to retain its shape over time, prolong the life of the garment and keep it in use longer.
Fabric
Knitting or weaving yarns into fabrics
Sustainability and quality are priorities for this mill where fabrics are knitted, dyed, printed, and finished. BAM visited them in 2023 and were able to see the newly installed high-efficiency boiler system which will significantly lower emissions. They are already following best practice in many areas and are certified to Foundational level on the ZDHC Supplier to Zero programme. They rank as “best” on our scale of “good, better, best".
Dye & Finish
Dyeing and finishing fabrics, ready for cutting
Sustainability and quality are priorities for this mill where fabrics are knitted, dyed, printed, and finished. BAM visited them in 2023 and were able to see the newly installed high-efficiency boiler system which will significantly lower emissions. They are already following best practice in many areas and are certified to Foundational level on the ZDHC Supplier to Zero programme. They rank as “best” on our scale of “good, better, best".
Garment
Cutting, stitching, finishing and packing the garments
Orimpex, a leading apparel manufacturer, specializes in organic cotton, responsibly sourced materials, and ethical production. With a monthly capacity of 50,000 units, the factory is certified by the Control Union and uses 53% renewable energy. Orimpex is committed to sustainability and aligns with the Global Goals, restoring biodiversity and eradicating poverty. With a European office and showroom in Utrecht, the company aims to support customers' sustainability objectives and collaborate with stakeholders.
BAM fabrics are better for the planet because we use lower impact, nature-based and recycled materials. And because we know who makes your clothes, we can work with them to reduce the impact from manufacturing.
Here’s how your garment compares to a conventionally made one:
3.6 m2 land has been farmed without pesticides
2.6 kg CO2e fewer carbon emissions have been created
883.4 litres of water saved
You’ve already made a better choice for the planet by choosing a lower impact product – hooray for you! We hope you’ll love and wear your BAM item for many years to come. In fact, one of the best things we can all do to reduce the impact of clothing, is to keep it in use for as long as possible.
Wear more, wash less. That’s the biggest bit of advice we can give you. As a society we tend to wash our clothing too often and this can wear them out faster. Try hanging a t-shirt back up to air it out for a day or two and you’ll probably get at least one more wear out of it before needing to wash. Try spot cleaning or putting your jeans in the freezer for a few hours to freshen any odours.
To reduce the impact when you do wash, choose lower temperatures and line dry.
Check out the individual product page on our site to check for any special care instructions on your BAM item.
Millions of garments are discarded each year that could continue to be worn with a simple repair. If you don’t feel confident getting a needle and thread out yourself, there are plenty of tailoring and repair services out there with the skills to do all sorts of repairs. The bonus is the cost of keeping your all-time favourite jacket going for a few more years is likely to be a lot less than buying a new one!
BAM is currently investigating partnerships with repair services to help make it even easier for you – watch this space.
BAM is partnering with the resale platform Continue. Click here for more information.
Sharewear is a charity on a mission to eliminate clothing poverty and reduce clothing waste in the UK. When we met them in 2020, we were shocked to learn about the scale of clothing poverty in this country. It’s especially shocking given what we already knew about the scale of the clothing waste problem.
In 2022, we offered customers a postage-paid donation bag at checkout. The response was phenomenal leading to over 4000kgs of high-quality clothing being donated throughout the year.
The service is on pause now due to a lack of volunteer availability to receive and sort donations. If you’re interested in volunteering with Sharewear or sending a donation directly to them (they are based in Nottingham) please contact [email protected]
Eventually all clothing will get to a point where it can’t be worn anymore. At this point, we still want to ensure the materials can be recovered and recycled, ideally back into clothing again. Closing the loop on clothing means fewer virgin resources will be needed to produce clothing in the future.
BAM’s 73 Zero circular range has been designed to be recycled and is certified by the Circular Textiles Foundation. We offer a free take back scheme on these products so we can ensure they end up in the right place. Just check here to see if your product is included.
If your product is not yet included, please take it to a charity shop or community clothing bank so it can be disposed of responsibly.
We’ve been mapping our supply chain and working with Life Cycle Analysis experts Green Story to measure our impact for years. Our BAM Product DNA is powered by their new technology which is not only allowing us to make huge steps forward with our traceability and impact goals, its also enabling us to share what we know with you.
We’ve been mapping our supply chain beyond our garment factories for many years – it’s an on-going challenge as things are always changing. Until now we’ve relied on declarations and trust in our suppliers to gather this information – asking our suppliers to tell us who their suppliers are. Green Story’s system now allows us to improve our traceability by collecting and verifying the information on an individual products level.
Green Story’s industry leading platform uses the most credible data sets, specific to the production locations in our own supply chain – so as a single example, they know the efficiency of the energy grids in the exact locations where our factories are, and they take that into account when measuring the energy required to make our clothes. They also use a globally recognised standard of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, ISO 14044, to calculate the impact of our products.
Green Story reviews greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use and blue water consumption from cradle to gate (this means from the raw material through every stage up to and including cutting & sewing your clothes). They can also include primary data, so for example, if one of our suppliers invests in solar panels, we can see how that lowers our impact.
We can see exactly how much better our clothing is for the planet than conventional alternatives. But more importantly we can see where we can cut our impact further – this information drives further reductions.
Finally, we share this with you. Transparency is an essential part of reducing our impact because it lets you hold us to account and make sure we do exactly what we’ve said we would. And you can make informed choices about the clothes you wear – you can see the impact of every item of our clothing on our website.