HanesBrands, Winston-Salem, N.C., has launched a U.S.-grown cotton initiative to raise sustainability awareness among printers and promotional products distributors.
As part of the launch, the printwear group also announced that its Hanes Beefy-T is now being manufactured from 100% U.S.-grown cotton.
“Sustainability and responsible sourcing are important considerations for customers today,” says Michael Johnson, director of marketing for Hanes activewear. “We want printers and PPDs to know they can trust what they are buying from Hanes, and we want them to be able to talk confidently about sustainability with their customers. We know it matters.”
“Moving the iconic Hanes Beefy-T, which was created for the printwear industry more than 40 ago, to 100% U.S.-grown cotton was a natural next step in our sustainability journey,” Johnson noted. “And coupled with innovations such as our ‘Clean Canvas’ technology, which minimizes pretreatment to produce sharper prints with less bleeding, this also makes our Beefy-T the best choice available.”
According to the National Cotton Council of America U.S. farmers have made significant strides in growing sustainable cotton crops by reducing the amount of land needed to produce cotton yields by almost 50%; diminishing soil erosion by 35%; decreasing water use by more than 50%; cutting energy use by more than 50%; and, lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 40%.
“It’s a matter of visibility and trust to us,” says Chris Fox, chief sustainability officer for HanesBrands. “For decades, the U.S. cotton industry has supported our sustainability objectives, which is why we use U.S.-grown cotton for most of the apparel we sell in our printwear channel.
As part of its campaign, Hanes also will host a virtual summit on U.S.-grown cotton on March 11. Additionally, Hanes developed a digital toolkit to help printers and PPDs inform customers about the benefits of U.S.-grown cotton. The toolkit, available now to download, includes a series of shareable images and videos. — D.S.
