RESPONSIBLE DESIGN

UNDERSTANDING OUR APPROACH

Building Blurry Recreation sustainably and ethically will continuously represent both a challenge and trademark for our brand. We understand that social responsibility is a huge topic, and that there will always be ways that we can improve our operations. It's our hope that continuously outlining our philosophy, and the strategies we've implemented to drive impact, provides a feeling of collaboration and transparency with our customers. We will continuously make an effort to share the details around where we are currently, where we're headed, and how you may be able to help. 

See below for more information on the decisions we made in founding our brand.

UTILIZING ECO FRIENDLY FABRICS WHERE POSSIBLE

We've spent a significant amount of time sourcing superior blank products for our collections that utilize organic and recyclable materials. All of our products in our collections utilize the following base materials. For specific material composition please look under each product's description for more information and read more about our decision making process below:

(NEW) SUPIMA Cotton

U.S. grown Supima cotton is the Rolls-Royce in cotton production on many dimensions. Supima cotton makes up 1% of the cotton fabric grown globally and is one of the most durable cotton fibers available. Grown with maximal water-use efficiency and thoughtful soil conservation, Supima production has stringent regulations for quality control, growth and integrity.

Why we like it: The use of Supima Cotton directly supports our mission to provide consumers with access to the highest quality, environmentally conscious fabrics. There are extremely high standards for the production of the cotton and its durability allows our team to design garments that will last a lifetime.

What we don't: Supima cotton is rare and costs significantly more compared to traditional cotton. Generally, Supima can be three times more expensive compared to traditional cotton which means resources are limited. We'd love to produce as much clothing as our consumers desire to buy, but the availability of Supima cotton is one of the challenges of our design process.

How we made our decision: In this instance, the decision to use Supima cotton was easy to make. Using Supima in our t-shirt production, allows us to design from a high quality, durable, eco-friendly foundation for one of most frequently worn garments. We're ecstatic to offer our customers access to this new material and hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.

Organic Cotton

Why we like it: Organic cotton is grown without the use of harmful pesticides and chemicals during production. Avoiding these chemicals in harvesting the cotton can help protect the environment where the cotton is grown and the workers who participate in its production.

What we don't: Organic cotton is not a perfect solution. A cost of using organic cotton is that it can contribute to more farming. Cotton grown organically is more resource intensive and typically leads to greater resource extraction as it generally has smaller yields. 

How we made our decision: Organic cotton by several measures is a thoughtful alternative to traditional cotton production. In ensuring we design our collections with raw materials that have not utilized pesticides or toxic chemicals in their production, we can more stringently meet our commitment to producing environmentally responsible materials.

Recyclable Polyester

Why we like it: Recyclable polyester gives plastic a second life through recycling the plastic into fibers to be used in garments. By reusing plastic, we can hopefully alleviate some of the demand for new plastic production and reduce the amount of plastic destined for landfills.

What we don't: We use recyclable polyester and blend it with organic cotton for some of our garments. Using the polyester in this way and mixing it into our process can sometimes make it more difficult to recycle after the lifespan of the garment. 

How we made our decision: We ordered product samples of our garments to ensure product quality and longevity were components of the production. We also design our collections to be versatile and hope that in combination with a well made product, you'll have a recycled item in your closet for a long time that you can style with both new and old outfits.

Plant Based Polyester

Why we like it: Plant-based polyester significantly reduces greenhouse-gas emissions because of the CO₂ produced at the end of the product’s life. If it is burned – it is balanced out by CO₂ absorbed by the original plant source while it was growing as a result of photosynthesis.

What we don't: A lot of plant based polyesters are still not 100% plant based. Petroleum is still being used in the production process to some degree as researchers experiment with the technology.

How we made our decision: Though the production of plant based polyester is not 100% eco friendly, it's a much better alternative to a lot of what's available through today's current experimentation. We thought a step in the right direction towards a more eco friendly solution, was better than settling for the worst of what exists today. 

RESPECTING THE LIVELIHOODS OF THE PEOPLE BEHIND BLURRY

Our production team is an integral part of what we're building here at Blurry. We're not looking to create jobs that don't allow the people working them to maintain basic necessities. With that goal in mind, we've spent time to look for partners that pay a living wage, subject themselves to independent evaluations and audits, have sought respected certifications (GOTS, OEKO TEX, WARP) and share our philosophy and vision for ethical labor practices.

*We will continue to update the information on our manufacturing partners as our partnerships grow

ENCOURAGING VERSATILITY & DIFFERENT STYLING COMBINATIONS 

One of the things we want to advocate for the most, may seem counterintuitive to running a fashion brand...getting more use out of your closet and purchasing LESS. We design small collections with the hope that our consumers will look for versatile and unique ways to wear our pieces. Our clothing and apparel is designed with longevity in mind - we encourage re-creation, re imagining and styling challenges to get more from the same items. We believe that adopting this approach can both help to curb the environmental problems that the fashion industry too often contributes towards, and encourage our creative consumers to express THEIR unique interpretation of our clothing. 

STORYTELLING & SMALL CAPSULE DESIGN

Each of our capsules are designed as "drops". What this means in practice, is that capsules are live for a pre determined period of time until we sell out of that capsule's inventory. We typically have limited restocks and minimize the number of products that are live on our website for purchase to encourage thoughtful consumption. The designs of each of our capsule's typically have an accompanying story which we believe bolsters our model of momentary drops. As we expand as a brand, we're committed to thinking about our inventory needs thoughtfully and minimizing the amount of waste generated from over ordering, mass consumption, frequent discounting.

DISPOSING OF CLOTHING & PACKAGING RESPONSIBLY

All of our packaging is made from 100% recycled Ocean Bound Plastic and can be re-recycled after receipt. We include instructions on our FAQ page for locating a recycling center closest to you and have an instructional video on our tiktok.

All of our misprints, old inventory or t-shirts we're unable to sell are donated to Marine Layer's respun program. The threads of the t shirts are broken down and recycled into fabric to be used in the creation of other tee's. We're exploring developing a program of our own, but are partnering with larger brands for the time being until we build out this capability.

HOW YOU FIT IN

Our ultimate mission in creating Blurry is to build our supply chain in a way that honors both the integrity of the workers who are a part of the process, and the planet that provides the resources and canvases for our designs.

We use a number of partners to this end and have tried our best to vet the legitimacy and credibility of the claims they make about their production process.

That being said, we invite criticism, feedback and collaboration. If there are ways you feel as a customer we could be better serving this goal, or if you'd like to partner with us to its end, please feel free to contact us, tag us in a post or shoot us an email. If you landed on the Blurry website or have made a purchase from us, then we're here for the same reason - because we love good clothing, but we also want to be good people to the society and environment where we put it on display.