Tag Archives: cotton

Norwood's Fashionable 100% Organic Shoper

6 Mar

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

I have written about Norwood before, they are one of the lions in our industry in terms of size, product line and experience. In 2009 Norwood is continuing to expand their line of promotional items with green and eco-friendly credentials, including several new organic cotton totes.

Finding the right tote is always a bit of a hassle for marketing teams, and with convention season and indeed Earth Day right around the corner, many Ecopreneurists want to make sure their bags stand out in the crowds.

Well, Norwood’s new Organic Wide Handle Tote is a great example of a fashionable yet practical tote bag that does stand out, and that most Ecopreneurist would be proud to brand with their company or organization name.

Made from 7 oz. 100% certified organic cotton duck the bag boasts a modern, streamlined design, spacious main compartment and extra large imprint area. Norwood even offers a 24hr turn on this bag, so it is available for last minute projects.

According to Norwood, the majority of the organic cotton fabric they use comes from Indian growers with the fabric being produced by certified raw material suppliers in that country. The cotton is certified organic under the scheme of GOTS and the Organic Exchange by the Control Union (formerly known as SKAL) which is internationally accepted. All organic cotton used by Norwood is certified by the Control Union, regardless of the source of the material. Continue reading →

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Debco: Is All Cotton Organic?

1 Dec

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Debco is now producing color versions of the econo natural 4oz shopping tote. The colors available are black, red, green, lime green, navy, and pink.

The econo tote is very popular with Econpreneurist as the price of these units -$2.11- for the natural color tote places them in range of the popular non-woven shopping bags that are becoming ubiquitous in grocery stores.

Why the popularity? Because organic cotton – any cotton – is biodegradable while most non-woven poly bags are not.

So this post was going to be about me being so excited that Debco is now offering their econo natural 4oz shopping tote in colors, wonderful colors.

According to Debco their overseas supplier uses Azo free dyes on all their bags color bags.  This dye is supposedly eco-friendly and non-hazardous, but they have not conducted any lab tests to confirm this 100%.  However Debco has volunteered to have it done for any client that requests it.

But that is not what I am going to write about.

Apparently – and I don’t know if it is because these guys are based in Canada – Debco is making a distinction between bags made from 100% natural cotton and their organic cotton bags. A distinction I have not seen before. Continue reading →

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Debco Offering 3 Organic Cotton Totes to Meet All Budgets

23 Nov

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

At the end of September Debco bag introduced the E4827 10oz Organic Cotton Shopper to round out their other offerings in this area of the 6oz and Econo 4oz Organic Cotton Shopping bags. It is good timing considering the end of the year Fall festiva Continue reading →

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100% Organic Caps with Eco-Friendly Screen Printing

10 Nov

Organic cotton cap

Proforma Green got our samples in today of the new 8650 V Natural™ Organic Cap by Vitronic Promotional Group, one of our manufacturers.

These caps are great. The 8650 V is a casual unstructured cap made from 100% organic cotton with a Velcro closure and a 3.25″ crown.

The bonus is that they come in multiple colors – Green, Natural (as shown), Soft Blue, Soft Pink and Soft Yellow – and Vitronic can use a sustainable process for dyeing and finishing on these 100% organic cotton caps, so you can show your commitment to the environment.

The best part is the cap with one color imprint runs as low as $3.97 per unit.

For any Ecopreneurist out there buying caps for resale, for employees or for events, these are certainly a good product to consider.

If you are in the promotional items business contact Norma Garza at Vitronic for more information on these caps or to order samples (mentioning Proforma Green might help). Her email is NormaG@vitronicpromotional.com.

If you are a business or other organization interested in these caps, please contact us at www.proformagreen.com or info@proformagreen.com. We will be happy to send you a sample.

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No Dye = Natural Fade

27 Sep

Brian Base, the creator of RideSearch.com, was at the Green Dallas event held this last weekend here in Dallas, Texas. Proforma Green runs the t-shirts for RideSearch.com and both RideSearch.com and Proforma Green had been asked to participate in the event by the City of Dallas.

Well Brian was wearing a shirt we ran for him for the 2008 Plano Green Living Expo back in April (another event we both attended as vendors) and I noticed something.

The RideSearch.com shirts are natural cotton shirts. This means they have no dye in them, they are the color of untreated, undyed cotton.

What I noticed was that these shirts fade, although I am not sure fade is the correct word. As I mentioned the natural shirt, whether organic or regular cotton, are called natural because they have no dye in the shirts. So really there is no color (dye) to fade from the shirt, it is just the natural wear of the cotton.

And it seems that over time these shirts go from a sand tan color to more of a lighter parchment color.

I never really thought of it before but because the shirts have no dye in them they just act like what they are, natural cotton, and the “fading” is a result of their nature.

This caught me totally off guard, I simply was not aware of this fact. Now I am thinking it might be something to make a point out of, for example printing on these shirts under the client’s artwork or logo something like “This shirt is 100% organic non-dyed cotton which will naturally fade over time”.

This could be done small in 12 or 14 point type. The idea is to use this fact as a bona fides of the shirt’s natural nature to which they act accordingly.

The fading of course does not have any bearing on the art printed on the shirts, that holds up perfectly well. Also the material itself – the cotton – holds up as well as their dyed counterparts. Natural cotton shirts are also softer than normal shirts because they have not gone through an industrial dyeing process.

As a second choice we do offer dyed organic shirts like the Anvil Adult 5.0 oz. 100% Organic Cotton Short-Sleeve T-Shirt which comes in BLACK, CHARCOAL, CHOCOLATE, CITY GREEN, NAVY, RED, RIVER BLUE, WHITE and YELLOW HAZE for clients that want to avoid the natural fading.

As for RideSearch.com Brian did not seem to mind at all. He loves the shirts and seems to get a big kick giving them away at events. He always has a fist full of shirts when he walks through the crowds.

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Price Drop For Organic Cotton? Maybe. SanMar Takes Aim at AshCity Green Line

25 Sep

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

SanMar, one of the largest shirt manufacturers in the US, just got into the eco-friendly apparel game in a big way.

The SanMar green site at http://www.sanmar.com/Green.html boasts 27 items, many that are eco-friendly versions of their very popular Port Authority band.

Port Authority is normally ranked #1 or #2 in the promotional market industry for sales. It is the shirt most Proforma offices recommend to clients.

SanMar also is offering bamboo shirts but as yet does not seem to have a product to go up against the e.c.o. Fleece items from AshCity, however I suspect they will come out with something to compete in this area.

AshCity offers in-house embroidery services. SanMar does not (of course Proforma Green can embroider any item from any supplier).

What does all this mean for the Ecopreneurist? Continue reading →

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Organic Cotton Bags Getting Less Expensive

20 Sep

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Non Woven Poly bags are great but many of our clients don’t like non wovens and keep asking when an inexpensive organic cotton tote would be available.

Well the new Econo Tote Bag from Debco seems to fit the bill at 14.75” W x 16.5” with runs under $2 for orders over 1000 units and starts around $3.50 for a small run of 50 units with one color imprint included. These bags are 100% natural organic cotton processed AZO-Free with no hazardous chemicals. Continue reading →

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Vantage Verve: Going for a Super Green Shirt

30 Aug

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

The Verve line of organic cotton promotional t-shirts from Vantage Apparel seems to be going for the title of most green t-shirt available.

Like many other organic shirts in the promotional items industry Vantage starts with a non-bleached t-shirt made from organic cotton (i.e. no pesticides or petroleum fertilizers used to grow the cotton). At this point the shirt is similar to other organic shirts, like the AnvilOrganic line from Anvil Knit Wear (which by the way does come in different colors than just “natural”). Continue reading →

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Organic Spa Tote II from Gemline

9 Aug

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Another example of the speed at which the green promotional products industry is changing is the second generation of the Organic Spa tote from the manufacturer Gemline.

Like many of the wonderful bags from this manufacturer, this tote is made from 100% certified organic cotton fabric and azo-free dyes.

However look at the front of the tote. This material originally was made of bamboo, it is now made from woven jute.

Why? We suspect a few reasons. Jute may be less expensive and it also makes for a more supple bag that is a bit lighter, easier to carry and easier to place embroidery or silk screening on.

The main point I want to make is that the time between Organic Spa Tote I and Organic Spa Tote II was less than 6 months. This normally would not happen with promotional items, but I have seen it in eco-friendly items again and again.

Continue reading →

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