Modern culture has made your clothing choices limitless. Why would you want to consider shopping made in Canada clothing first? Are there any benefits to Canadian made clothing? Clothing and fashion is often a matter of only personal style and aesthetic. However, in the last decade, as sweat shop fast fashion has become more prevalent in the marketplace many consumers are looking to their local garment manufacturers to offer clothing with more ethical prowess and better quality construction.
What are some of the best reasons to shop made in Canada clothing? Here are 5 great ones that show how shopping local can be great for you and your community.
1. Support Yourself
Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally-owned business, rather than nationally or internationally-owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local companies. This strengthens the entire economic base of the community, providing better and more stable jobs for the business you supported as well as the entire community. You can learn more about the effects of shopping local in these studies shown here.
2. Be Unique
Local Canadian Designers can offer unique styles that you won't find anywhere else. Not only are you allowed to embrace a unique style, the area in which the designer lives is enhanced by their unique presence. One of a kind shops and boutiques offering interesting locally made products are great for tourism.
3. Create Better Jobs
In the clothing industry, the jobs available are not only cutting and sewing positions. Designers need help with marketing, pattern making, production, sourcing materials, sales and distribution. Not to mention their definite need for a book keeper and an accountant. By shopping with your favourite Canadian designer you are not only supporting them directly but all of the companies they use to make their business run.
4. Reduce the Environmental Impact of your Clothing
Canadian made clothing products often have a very transparent production line and if you talk to the designer or studio directly you can often find out where each button and swatch of fabric came from. When shopping with large corporate retailers who outsource overseas it is very unlikely that you will get this information and often it is hard for them to even trace which factory each garment came from. This is because ofter overseas factories will subcontract garments to another factory to make them cheaper or faster. This is prevalent in fast fashion chain stores where the pricing is pushed lower and lower to unsustainable levels by corporate demands.
There is very little done to be able to trace materials and for companies to be accountable. This leads to dye polluting rivers and streams as well as contaminants from making the products being released straight into the environment. Few laws are in place to stop pollution from cloth mills overseas. Salts Clothing for example only sources fabrics with Oeko-Tex certifications, meaning the fabric is third party certified to not contain harmful substances as well as be produced in environmentally friendly facilities.
Locally owned businesses also can make more local purchases requiring less transportation, and generally set up shop in town or city centres as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss, and pollution.
5. Better Service and Personal Attention
Your local designers will take the time to get to know their clients and often offer personal service touches that you won't find anywhere else. They will perhaps hem your pants before shipping, take in a dress to fit you perfectly or use your input to develop future styles. At Salts for example our entire Curvy Line of clothing offered in XXL sizes was designed by customer requests.
Made in Canada clothing is something that offers a special touch to your wardrobe and your local community. There are some great designers to support and in our next blog post I will tell you about a few of my favourite Canadian designers. Please take a moment to sign up for our newsletter and be notified about new blog posts as well as our new Canadian Made clothing styles.
