The Cotton Crazies
A cotton row at Ronnie Burleson's farm in New London, NC
If you're the kind of person who occasionally buys things, you've probably noticed those things get a bit more expensive in the past few months. That's because, on average, commodity prices (read, the prices of basic components like metals or food crops) have increased quite a bit over the last year or so.
Unfortunately, cotton is uncommonly volatile. In February 2010, cotton prices were around $0.80/lb, a price that was, at the time, quite high. In fact, prices had only been that high once in the past decade. Fast forward to February 2011, and prices are around $1.72, over double.
Many of the big t-shirt manufacturers - Gildan, Hanes, Anvil - tend to invest in cotton futures on a regular basis in order to insure against short-term price jumps. Unfortunately, this increase isn't short-term. As a result, expect to see clothing prices steadily increase anywhere between 30-100% over the next 6 months.
At TSD, we're no exception. Due to cotton price increases, we are forced to raise the prices of our NC-made certified organic and Cotton of the Carolinas t-shirts.
We hope you'll understand and work with us to find a product that fits your budgetary and sustainability needs; now is the time to be investing in more local, sustainable products!
Posted by: Eric MichelTSD Now Offers Less Expensive Sustainable Options!
TSD is partnering with Anvil Knitwear to offer less expensive t-shirt options that exhibit a wider range of sustainable qualities and prices
To learn more about both our Anvil offerings and our TSD brands, check out our shirt styles page.
We want to support our customers with the right product no matter where they are on the continuum of sustainability. Anvil’s lines of conventional cotton and certified organic cotton t-shirts will help to supplement our own TSD brands for customers who want to start pushing their apparel in a more sustainable direction.
And though most of Anvil’s t-shirts are manufactured in Honduras, we partnered with Anvil specifically because of their comprehensive Corporate Social Responsibility Report.
Posted by: Eric Michel