What’s Sustainable, Fair, and Greener than ever? Our New Merchandise!

It’s no secret that we’ve been working on brand-new merchandise, our designs can be found displayed in the Admissions Office and on our Instagram but why are we so excited by our latest release of hoodies, tees, and beanies? Well, we teamed up with eco-friendly supplier MerchYOU to create awesome garments that are sustainable, fair to workers, and green!

MerchYOU is the first Slovak company (and at the same time the only one in Slovakia and the Czech Republic) that offers GOTS certified printing. They have been distributing various textiles and printing on textile products for more than ten years. Working towards being as environmentally friendly as possible, they care about where your textiles come from, how they were produced and what impact it has on our environment. This is why they offer a wide variety of organic, sweatshop-free, and fair trade textiles. For us at AAU, this means designing high-quality products that are also better for the environment and support those working in the textiles industry. 

Our hoodies and T-shirts are part of the Stanley/Stella range. This brand uses certified organic cotton and other natural or recycled materials exclusively. Most of the Stanley/Stella clothing is made from 100% organic cotton (like our t-shirts and hoodies!). In using artificial fibers, the recycled materials used (polyester or cotton) are Global Recycled Standard (GRS) and therefore guarantees compliance with social and environmental criteria!

Why are GOTS and Fairwear certifications important?

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is recognized as the world’s leading processing standard for textiles made from organic fibers. It puts manufacturers through a process of high-level environmental criteria throughout the organic textiles supply chain including printing (GOTS also requires compliance with social criteria related to improving working conditions). GOTS-certified inks do not contain harmful or toxic chemicals, making them safe for humans and the environment! This means that the prints on our hoodies and tee’s are eco-friendly inks that meet strict GOTS criteria as well as other environmental standards (oh, and they’re still wash-resistant!) 

The Fair Wear Foundation (of which Stanley/Stella is a recognized member) is a Dutch independent association whose members are committed to improving the working conditions in the textile industry. They engage directly with factories, trade unions, NGOs, and governments to find solutions across the supply chain to make the fashion industry fairer.

How to buy: 

We can’t wait to grow our collection of comfy clothing especially since we’re expanding towards better, sustainable, staple uni’ pieces! With the release of our new merchandise, we are working on creating an E-shop (launch date to be confirmed) so that anyone from anywhere can order a piece of the sustainable AAU Spirit! However, for the time being, our physical point of sale is currently located in the Admissions Office of our campus.