How We Make It

For the team at Repair the World,® the way we manufacture our clothing is really important to us. We’re all about processes that are environmentally friendly, sweatshop free, and that create fair labor.

Shared Vision

Our manufacturing process initially began with the search for manufacturing partners that shared our vision and philosophy. This process took us much longer than expected and our search took us through many layers in order to achieve the transparency that we require.

At long last we have developed the materials, processes, and partners that are consistent with our model and philosophy of creating comfortable, functional, cool and sustainable clothing. This gives us the opportunity to exercise our triple bottom line approach to our business.

Most of our raw materials are made in close proximity to our spinning, knitting, finishing, and cut & sew facilities, sort of like using that which grows in your backyard garden versus having to ship in components from far distances. We currently perform all of this manufacturing in Central America. Once complete, the finished product is shipped by boat and by rail or truck to our order fulfillment center in Ohio.

Positive Outcomes

Our current yarn spinner uses state of the art equipment, generates their own energy, provides housing for their employees, free medical services for employees and their families and school supplies for the children. Our knitter and finisher provide energy and environmental efficiencies via heat recapture and water treatment technologies. Our cutting and sewing facilities are socially and quality compliant as certified by independent third party certifiers. Waste and by-products of the manufacturing processes are recycled and reused to minimize impact.

Raw Material

Our Reparel™ recycled apparel line of Repair The World® brand products utilize two major raw material components, recycled colored cotton and recycled polyester (rPET).

The recycled colored cotton process
Recycled pre-sorted colored cotton scrap and textile waste are collected from cutting rooms and textile manufacturing facilities in our manufacturing “neighborhood.”

How is this scrap generated? In commercial apparel production, layers, or plies of fabric are spread on long cutting tables. The patterns or markers for each item that contain all of the component parts (i.e. garment front, back, sleeves, collars etc.) are positioned on the layers, and the parts are cut out. Generally, these pattern “markers” are only 80-85% efficient, meaning that 15-20% of this raw material is considered waste. Other waste comes from the textile supply chain, such as in spinning, weaving and knitting. What we do is sort this material by color and put it into bales…this becomes our “cotton field”, without the need for land, cultivation, chemicals, irrigation and new dyes!