Reflecting on 2025: Why this work matters

Beautiful image of cotton field of the farmer who grows our cottong

Last year has underscored just how fragile the US apparel industry has become. Domestic manufacturers continue to face mounting pressure, while cotton farmers are navigating uncertainty driven by pricing, policy, and global competition. These challenges don’t exist in isolation, rather they affect every step of how clothing is grown, made, and brought to market. At TS Designs, this reality has shaped much of our work over the past year, reinforcing why keeping apparel production closer to home matters now more than ever.

Dye House of the Future

image of our new sampling dye equipment

Garment Dye on Demand

Garment dyeing creates apparel that never shrinks with a super-soft vintage feel that is already broken in. We have been garment dyeing our 100% cotton t-shirts for over two decades. With the ability to go from white to custom dye colors on demand, our model reduces the need to keep and forecast colored inventory. We recently invested in a new garment dye technology, called the ColorBox.

This equipment along with a fabric treatment we have developed, Affinity™, absorbs dye faster and eliminates the need for chemicals and creates dramatic environmental resource savings in the dyeing process (90% heat, 61% CO2, 72% water, and 67% energy!).

We believe garment dyeing is a powerful path forward for manufacturing in the USA. Not only does it produce beautiful depth of colors on apparel, but it also gives customers greater flexibility by allowing color to be chosen later in the process. With this approach, we are proving that clothing made domestically with natural fibers can successfully compete in the global apparel industry.

Where Your Clothing Re-Launch

Image of a cotton harvester in a cotton field with the words Radically Transparent Clothing overlayed

Building a More Resilient & Equitable Apparel Industry

We believe that knowing where your clothing comes from is a step toward building a fairer, more sustainable apparel industry. It’s not just about curiosity, it’s about accountability.

In May, we launched our upgraded, interactive tool, WhereYourClothing.com, that lets you trace every step of your TS Designs t-shirt’s journey. It shows you where your garments were grown and made, reinforcing our commitment to radical transparency throughout the entire production process. We supply an image of the contact person, their phone number, email, and a physical address for the manufacturers in our supply chains..

Collaborations

Caffe Inc. Spent Coffee Grounds Natural Dye Collaboration

These organic cotton t-shirts are dyed with spent coffee grounds. This is in collaboration with Caffe Inc., a business that recovers resources from coffee by-products. Their ambition is to sustainably process 10% of centralized used coffee grounds in the Netherlands. 

Purchase a coffee dyed t-shirt here. Available in three beautiful solid colors, Cream, Pistachio, and Dark Roast, and two tie-dye colors, Macchiato and Mocha Swirl (check to see if you size is still available). Read more about this collaboration on the Solid State Clothing blog.

BioBlack by Nature Coatings Collaboration

These organic cotton t-shirts are dyed with spent coffee grounds. This is in collaboration with Caffe Inc., a business that recovers resources from coffee by-products. Their ambition is to sustainably process 10% of centralized used coffee grounds in the Netherlands.

Purchase a coffee dyed t-shirt here. Available in three beautiful solid colors, Cream, Pistachio, and Dark Roast, and two tie-dye colors, Macchiato and Mocha Swirl (check to see if you size is still available). Read more about this collaboration and how we came up with the print design on the Solid State Clothing blog or read the white paper.

This is our first step in transitioning away from carbon black to using only bio black inks.

Cotton Harvest Visit

In November we visited the farmer who grows the cotton for our Cotton of the Carolinas t-shirts, Andrew Burleson, of Thurman Burleson and Sons Farm in Richfield, NC around 75 miles from the TS Designs facility. 

It was made clear just how fragile our “dirt to shirt” supply chain has become. For the third year in a row, North Carolina cotton farmers are facing major losses that amount to nearly $80 million this year alone. Cotton is selling for about $0.65/lb on the marketplace, but it costs farmers $0.95/lb to grow it. The math simply doesn’t work.

Add in the loss of regional spinning and finishing facilities, the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, and the growing dominance of synthetic, fossil-fuel-based fibers, the entire Carolina supply chain hangs in the balance. TS Designs has always believed in collaboration and in investing locally instead of outsourcing overseas. And right now, we are close to losing the very systems that make truly local, transparent clothing possible.

UNCG Virtual Reality Collaboration

We are collaborating with University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Consumer, Apparel, & Retail Studies Department. They have received a grant to develop a virtual reality app that will give students immersive access to apparel supply chains, without needing to visit each site in person… encouraging those with an affinity for this industry to follow the career path with a greater understanding.

To kick off the project, we experienced the cotton harvest first hand and visited Rolling Hills Gin, with director Wes Morgan. Melanie Carrico, in charge of the project took 360˚ video and says, “We are uniquely positioned in the Carolinas with a complete apparel supply chain right here at home. Partnering with TS Designs to document this process is an opportunity we truly value.” See a short video of our visit. We cannot wait to see the final virtual reality product!

Shown above at Rolling Hills Gin L-R: Ilsa Spaan with TS Designs, Jin Su & Melanie from UNCG, Wes Morgan with Rolling Hills Gin, and our CEO Eric Henry

Solid State Clothing

image of our new sampling dye equipment

Product Launches

Solid State Clothing is our retail brand, and it’s our way to bring our meticulously crafted, locally grown, and made shirts directly to your wardrobe. Solid State releases small batches of premium-quality t-shirts that are durable and versatile for work, play, and everything in between. It’s also our platform for experimenting with new materials like natural dyes and creative collaborations with regional artists and makers. 

In addition to the Caffe Inc. and the Nature Coatings BioBlack collaborations above, this year we released several new products.

Women’s NC Ribbed Cotton Relaxed and Long Sleeve T-Shirt

Women’s Overdyed Black Lounge Pants

Wool Scarf – Moss, Maroon, or Overdyed Black

Natural Dye Wool Scarf – Marigold or Walnut

On Stage & In the Media

Image of Eric Henry on stage with Rollie Williams and Matt Nelsen from Climate Town and some other folks at ThreadX in Sundance, Utah

Speaking Engagements

Yes, these lists are long, and for good reason. Eric Henry is a sought-after speaker and thought leader, regularly invited to share insights on domestic manufacturing, circularity, and transparent supply chains. Interested in having Eric speak at your next event? Contact us to start the conversation.

“Eric’s insights and extensive experience offered several valuable insights to my students. Many of my students are interested in not only textiles and sustainability but in opening their own ethical and sustainable buisnesses in the US. His breadth of experience navigating this space was critical to these students being able to apply what they have learned in our textile science course to their future goals.” — Jennifer Harmon, PhD Associate Professor Design, Merchandising and Textiles Program, University of Wyoming

Featured in Publications

Moving Forward

Despite the challenges, we remain optimistic. We’ve seen firsthand that when people understand how their clothing is made, they choose more thoughtfully, and that choice makes a difference. As we look ahead, we’ll continue investing in domestic supply chains, natural fibers, and transparent processes that support farmers, workers, and communities. Thank you for standing with us this past year. Your support and your t-shirt orders help make it possible to keep doing the work and to keep moving forward together.

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Always made in the USA, TS Designs produces premium printed apparel through a transparent, domestic supply chain. On our journey toward circularity, we champion natural fibers and dyes to help reduce microplastics in the environment.