Jeans: Boyish Jeans (The Brady) | Top: Reformation | Shoes: Vans
“The only impact we’ll leave on the planet is good jeans”
As someone with quite the denim collection in her closet, learning about how water-intensive and dirty the denim manufacturing process is shocked me quite a bit. I have since been on the lookout for high-quality jeans made with people & the planet in mind through my Sustainable Denim Diaries series.
Boyish Jeans is one of those “Instagram brands” that I’ve seen tons of influencers (especially Youtubers) wear and promote. I loved their stuff and thought it was cute and unique, but it wasn’t until I listened to a Conscious Chatter podcast interview with the founder of Boyish that I learned that they are a sustainable brand. After listening to the podcast I immediately signed up for Boyish’s email newsletter and jumped at the opportunity of buying some of their products when they announced a mid-summer sale.
There are so many different areas of denim production that cause harm to the environment. Everything from growing the cotton to dyeing the material to the distance it travels from the farm to the mill to the factory can contribute to increased carbon emissions, polluted waterways, and a drain on our planet’s precious natural resources. Most sustainable brands focus on tackling one major issue – like water use or pollution or the ethics of production. As I scrolled through Boyish’s sustainability page on their website I was pleasantly surprised (and equally shocked and impressed) to see that Boyish is trying to cover all the bases.
Boyish breaks down their initiatives into five main categories: factory, fabric, materials, wash process, and social change.
Boyish’s sustainability page (which is conveniently located on the main menu on the front page of their website) goes really in-depth into each of these categories, but there are a few areas I wanted to highlight in this post that are different from anything I’ve seen (so far) in the sustainble denim industry.
As a supply chain student, I have become hyper-aware about the distances products will travel along its supply chain – from the mill to the factory to the warehouse and to the customer. All of Boyish’s yarn, fabric, and manufacturing facilities are within thirty miles of each other. That’s a win for reducing carbon emissions and increasing efficiency throughout their supply chain. This is also hard to do in an increasingly global economy and global industry, so I commend Boyish for making this a priority.
Beyond just having good environmental and ethical manufacturing and design practices, I always appreciate a brand that goes through the extra effort to get certifications and audits done. Though not all certifications and audits are created equal, going the extra mile to get a certification shows that a brand is not greenwashing. Boyish has nine different certifications. Some key callouts include Bluesign, Global Recycled Standard, and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). Additionally, not only does Boyish have high standards for ethical manufacturing and materials safety, but Boyish also gets all of their factories audited by Intertek to ensure their standards are met.
Lots of brands are now talking about the ways in which they reduce water during their wash processes – especially denim brands – but Boyish’s wash process category on their sustainability page had information and processes and technology that I had never heard of before. Instead of stone-washing their jeans with pumice stones, Boyish uses cold water enzymes to reduce their use of natural resources and reduce the waste that enters the water stream. They also use another enzyme to replace the use of PP (potassium permanganate) to distress jeans and give them a more vintage feel. Boyish also use a machine that creates 03 from Ozone (02) to bleach their jeans instead of using a hypo-chloride bleach.
To further prove that people and planet are > profit to Boyish, they are a part of 1% For The Planet and plant one tree with every purchase through OneTreePlanted.
To say I’m impressed with Boyish would be an understatement. There were many more initiatives that they discuss on their sustainability page, and that the founder talked about in his Conscious Chatter interview, that I did not even touch on in this post, and I think what I shared is already incredibly impressive. Though I love that sustainability and promoting more conscious and educated consumers central to their business, I also love that Boyish products are damn good, too. I wore my jean jacket every single day to work one week (and there are pics to prove it in my Instagram “work ‘fits” highlight). The fit of these is UNREAL and perfectly true to size. There is nothing better than a brand who can talk the talk in terms of knowing their stuff about sustainable production AND walk the walk and design and deliver great products as well.
If you’re interested in reading more about brands that are doing their part in reducing the environmental impact of their denim products read my posts about Reformation Jeans, Everlane Denim and DSTLD.
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