Ethical Partners had the immense pleasure of meeting with James Bartle, the CEO and founder of Outland Denim earlier this year. Outland Denim is a amazing company that not only makes premium jeans but also provides sustainable employment and training opportunities to women in Cambodia, pays a living wage, and is committed to sourcing the most ethically and environmentally sound raw materials from the pocket linings to the zippers, dyes, leather patches and recycled packaging. They were the only Australian brand to be awarded an A+ in all four areas that are assessed by the Ethical Fashion Guide, which is published by Baptist World Aid, one of Ethical Partner’s NGO Panel, which conducts excellent research in this field. The areas that are assessed by Baptist World Aid, and in which Outland Denim excelled, are policies, transparency and traceability, auditing and supplier relationships and worker empowerment.
Ethical Partners really enjoyed meeting with James, hearing about the inspiration behind Outland Denim, the challenges they have faced and seeing how Outland Denim's philosophy of making sure that no one loses out so you can “win” at fashion can be achieved. We also gained lots of valuable insights into how Ethical Partners can approach discussing these issues and ideas with other fashion companies that we meet with.
