[Anti]

Well, they're not identical so presumably a copy of their design in an effort to avoid paying more? And if it is all above board and not a copy it's flippin' lazy and a bit of a cheek!

This is the company who did a photoshoot a year or so ago on wet grit isn't it? 

[YorkshireTea]

Mean to embed the image but failed so https://www.flickr.com/photos/143679324@N05/51141208752/

I don't really care about climbing comps or clothing but cripes if that were a big brand I'd expect to see a lawsuit.

It wouldn't be if they're just printing a logo on the other sweatshirt as thats the business plan of the other company.

They sell wholesale blanks for other companies to print on and sell, theyve just expanded into tie dye from plain colours. Legally its A ok and not really any different from buying a blank tshirt, printing a graphic on it and selling it, just seems lazier. The selling point isn't the logo on the sleeve, it's the 'unique' tie dye.

[Anti]

I was assuming they have some low paid, freshly graduated designer who saw a cool tie die and did something similar. Giving them slightly more credit than buying stock stuff and bunging a logo on it! Almost hope for their sales pitch it's the first!

[YorkshireTea]

And if it is all above board and not a copy it's flippin' lazy and a bit of a cheek!

I'm assuming the slight difference is down to each item being slightly different and photo editing so above board but a bit if cheek is what I thought. Its the £60 that gets me, a healthy margin when only printing a logo if they get them at the price I could, when they certainly get them for a lot less

[erm, sam]

Don't forget- you are free to set your own brand and make some tees and sweats and sell them for what ever price you think reasonable. You can literally do that when ever you want. You can also not buy the 3rd Rock ones if you think they are too expensive or not very good. Thats totally ok.

[YorkshireTea]

Don't forget- you are free to set your own brand and make some tees and sweats and sell them for what ever price you think reasonable.

Funnily enough, I do exactly that. Certainly won't deny that's probably why it annoyed me a bit as I take the (quite long) time to tie dye and print sweatshirts and sell them for less. One (in my eyes) bad product doesn't make a bad company and like I said in my first message, I don't have a big issue with 3rd rock, they're definitely ethically better than 90% of clothing brands. I don't have experience with them but people seem to think they have good quality products and I buy from the same wholesale brand as these sweatshirts because of quality and ethics

[erm, sam]

Touche!
Maybe you should be selling them for more...

[jwi]

Not to be that guy, but is there a single outdoor brand who design their own patterns for t-shirts and sweatshirts? I just assumed that they all buy low-cost generics from a sweatshop in Bangladesh or Ethiopia and have some aftermarket factory attach their logotype, unless the volumes are so low that it is cheaper to do the aftermarket attachment of logotype in house. The difference in price being explained by how much money is spent on creating a brand image?

It would be cool to hear if some brands actually create their own patterns and have complete control over the entire supply chain from cotton to stitching.

[erm, sam]

I work for a UK outdoor brand. For our graphic tees, the graphics are designed by me or a freelance designer and the supplier puts them on the tees. The tees are made to our design, eg the sizing, shape of armhole, shoulder drop etc and colours are dyed to our spec.
We buy a "standard" quality of Organic cotton jersey. We don't sell enough to develop our own quality of fabric, even if we wanted to.
I think this is pretty common. Stock colours you can buy in small quanities are pretty limited so for any non tiny brand you have to start making them yourself, so to speak.

You might be interested to follow the "Homespun Homemade" project from Community Clothing, they are growing flax and wode in the UK to make Linen and Indigo to make an entirely UK sourced pair of jeans... Cant find a link just now but they have just planted the flax...

[jwi]

nice! I'm a bit surprised tbh!

[erm, sam]

And we use a Fairwear Audited factory with certified Organic Cotton. Easy to assume everything is made overseas in sweatshops but if you choose to buy from brands working with Fairwear you can sleep easy at night.

https://www.fairwear.org/

[YorkshireTea]

I think it's hard as small outdoor brands are more likely to care but also have less funds to have control over such large supply chains. Brands like me and who Sam works for show that well.

I do buy generic white stock but only from fairwear audited factories and made with organic cotton. Its not perfect but its what I can do given my current size. I dye, design and screenprint (waterbased ink) everything myself and donate some of the profits