Merch.eco

What is Merch.eco?

We are an alliance of organisers, researchers, purchasers and suppliers aiming to normalise informed ethical consumption of ‘stash’ (customised group clothing e.g. a university hoodie or kit for a sports club) and to coordinate improvements in ethical production.

What are we trying to achieve?

Those purchasing clothing for their group (e.g. for their sports team or university college) have a complicated, time-consuming and often unpaid job on their hands. This means that they have little capacity to do extensive research on alternative suppliers, to find one that is best in terms of ethics and sustainability, as well as being low cost, high quality and easily accessible. We are centralising that research process, to save everyone time, whilst improving labour conditions and environmental impact. We’re doing this in the following steps:

• Asking lots of groups (societies, sports teams, businesses etc.) who they use as a stash supplier
• Researching the ethics, sustainability, quality, price, service and product range of each supplier
• Collating this information and communicating with the groups to inform their purchasing decisions
• Using our research to signal to suppliers how they can improve their service, particularly in terms of ethics and sustainability, in order to draw (or prevent loss of) ethically-minded customers

We’ve launched in Cambridge and St Andrews already, and are about to launch in 20 more universities in Europe and the US, then plan to move into corporate spaces e.g. company uniforms, music merchandise.