May 15th, 2009
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Are you aching to put your wardrobe on the green track, but can’t see yourself wearing that pouffie bamboo eco-mini dress by the latest designer to visit the rain forest?
How about a cuddly, Earth-friendly T-shirt in “City Green” or “River Blue” instead?
Anvil Knitwear is making such eco-friendly T-shirts, in 15 styles and a range of colors — all composed of soft, U.S.-grown organic cotton. And while you won’t see them on a catwalk, they’re certain to turn up just about everywhere else you go.
Chances are you already even have an Anvil somewhere in your closet, probably bearing the name of your last sports club, bowling league, garden group or softball team. Anvil, based in New York with facilities in North and South Carolina, Honduras and Nicaragua, specializes in making cotton Ts that are nicely styled, but unadorned and ready to be customized with silk screening or embroidery. The vast majority end up stamped with someone’s group logo or motto.
Anvil, which started out as BVD (but sold the underwear brand decades ago), knows its market well. The textile company has been selling T-shirts, polos, sweatshirts and other clothing for re-branding for nearly 30 years, and was founded 130 years ago.
Its story is one example of how mainline American companies are taking sustainability to heart, and to the masses.
CEO Anthony Corsano and his executive team sensed a shift coming in the T-shirt business about five years ago. The company had been watching smaller companies offering organic T-shirts as specialty items. The shirts were typically fairly pricey and sold in “natural” un-dyed versions. They were catching on, but the price was not scalable for a mass market. The higher price of organic cotton did not fit the business model of selling large quantities — unless, of course, a large company jumped into the market, buying in quantities that could make lower prices feasible. That’s what Anvil decided to do.
“We were able to take six- to seven-dollar Ts and bring them to two- to three- dollar (wholesale) items…And that just shot it (the business) out of the cannon,” Corsano said.
Vice President of Marketing Christopher Levesque, who’d been lobbying for the company to produce a green product, took the lead on the first shirt, which was a unisex T available in 10 colors. It sold 3 million units in its first year.
“It gave us something tangible. Something we could be proud of,” Corsano said. Anvil was helping make organic cotton wear affordable and available.
: Next Page-->Pages: 1 2
