Why some of our products now just say "cotton"
The products haven't changed. Only what we're allowed to say about them has.
So we want to explain what is going on, and honestly share what changed, and what didn't.
What are the new rules?
The rules come from the Empowering Consumers Directive (EmpCo), the EU's anti-greenwashing directive. They cover everything a brand communicates, from hangtags to Instagram. In short:
- No more vague terms like "eco-friendly", "green" or "conscious".
- No more sustainability labels that brands make up themselves.
- Every specific claim, such as "organic cotton", must be backed by proof.
On the whole, we think these are good rules. Vague green promises have made it hard to tell which brands are doing the work and which are just doing marketing. Rules that ask for proof protect you as a customer.
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Why "cotton" instead of "organic cotton"?
To call a product organic, every company that handles it needs its own certificate (GOTS or OCS). That means the spinning mill, the fabric mill, the sewing factory, and even the workshop that prints or embroiders it. If one link in that chain is missing, we can't make the claim.
We are a team of 15, and sometimes we order just 100 pieces of a style. For a small supplier, yearly certification doesn't always pay off for orders that size. Some materials, like deadstock fabric that was originally produced as organic, can't be certified anymore. For those products, we now just say "cotton".
What hasn't changed
All the cotton we buy is organic, in conversion to organic, recycled or regenerative. Same materials, same suppliers, same people we've worked with for years. When a Kuyichi product says "cotton", that same policy still applies.
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Where we stand
We support these rules, but certification is easier for big brands than for small ones. The EU recognises this too, and calls for sustainability labels to become more accessible to smaller companies (Directive (EU) 2024/825, recital 7). Until that happens, we'd rather say less than claim something we can't fully prove.
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Questions about a specific product? Just ask us.
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