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BANG FOR THE BITE
If 10,000 Biters choose an organic T-shirt instead of a non-organic one, we'll avert the weight of 22 Biter Tee models in pesticides.
COCKTAIL FACT
In 2006, Australian scientists created a T-shirt that lets air guitarists play real music via motion sensors that relay movements wirelessly to a computer.
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home › tip library › Organic Cotton T-Shirts
Wanna give 'em one more reason to stare at your chest?
The Bite
Wear an eco-message T-shirt. Whether you're a dude or a lady, they're better for the earth than conventional tees and will give oglers something to think about. Besides your bra size.The Benefits
- Tees with substance. These shirts give you one more way to wear your green inclinations on your sleeve (well, chest).
- Fewer pes-tee-cides. The average cotton T-shirt is only 73% cotton fiber - the rest is chemicals and resins.
- Artistic expression. Our picks support artistic entrepreneurs and show off your own sense of style.
Personally Speaking
Our Biter Tee model, Kristin, has been known to take our other Biter Tee model Mike's (relation: hubby) old tees and refashion them into très sexy tops that send a whole different kind of message...Wanna Try?
- Posch Skirty Shirt - ladies, proclaim your love for the Kyoto Protocol; one-of-a-kind skirted tees made from reclaimed fabric ($60).
- Certaintees Relic T-Shirt - incandescent bulbs? So last century. Great-fitting bamboo tees for women ($42).
- Your Conscience Conserve T-Shirt - men's tee with a retro bike print; part of the purchase price goes to the charity of your choice ($30).
- Darwin Design Start Global Cooling T-Shirts - men's and women's tees made from sweat-shop free cotton, featuring small text and an animal graphic ($20-$24).
- Ideal Bite Biter Tees - you know you want one ($20).
- The Perfect T-Shirt - check out the (potential) lifecycle of the world's eco-friendliest tee.
Aug 30,2007
Sponsor
All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.
Shirts and Shockers
The dress code around the Biter offices is casual. Like, casual-casual, not just biz-casual, so I can wear pretty much anything I want to, and most days that means a t-shirt and jeans.
My favorite tee brand is American Apparel, easily. Made sweatshop-free in the U.S.A., they're form-fitting and available in too many colors to count. Plus, they're intro'ing new organic styles all the time. Their founder is...unique, but then again, so are Heather and Jen (in non-sleazy - but just as shocking - ways).
-Toshio...off to write a tell-all book about the behind-the-scenes goings-on at a green start-up biz...
Biter Comments...
Tees for change? I was interested after reading the sayings on the shirts, but when I clicked to order, I found that their idea of XL is a 10-12! How insulting! I'm quite tall and a 14-16 depending on the cut (to fit that special area), and very comfortable with my body. I can't imagine what size they would consider me! Their "small" is 0-4. And a woman is running this? What happened to not conforming to the media stereotypes that cause girls to develop eating disorders so that they can look like models? Was not the positive message I was looking for.
Yesterday's tip about the excessive packaging of take out food was great--exactly the kind of beneficial reminder we can all use. I must admit that today'
s bite seemed very lame, though. The last thing the world needs is for us all to rush out and buy more crap we don't need--hardly environmental. There are a lot better ways to spread the message. Your tip seems more trendy than thoughtful.
I just read the tip about organic t-shirts sent out on Aug. 30. I followed one of the links, the Perfect Tee and was reading through their site and discovered that because of pesticides, 20,000 farmers die a year! I always know pesticides are bad, give me cancer, try to avoid, etc. And I do the best I can afford in my location, but after reading that statistic, it just blew my mind. I know it's kinda cliche, but I wanted to tell you guys, that over these two years or so I've been with the tips, you have changed my life. I hope I'm placing this feedback in the right place.
~Eva
I would also like to recommend Bamboosa. They sell wonderful shirts, socks, and much, much more all made out of bamboo. All pesticide-free, easily renewable, and the fabric is soo soft.
I think you need a feminist copy editor on your team - the term,"jugs" in the email subject line is insulting and demeaning to women. The idea that people stare at a woman's chest anyway promotes a sexist sterotype and seems to tell the women to "enjoy the attention and put a message out there."
when organic gets cheaper I will be able to buy organic clothes. Right now I shop the local thrift stores,and yard sales,unless I'm given a gift certificate to buy new clothes.
Yesterday I went out and bought my "back to school" clothes. I bought 2 organic cotton shirts and two pairs of excellent organic cotton Jeans, all for around $150 Canadian. These items were no more expensive than the non-organic ones in a nearby store. Where did I shop? Cotton Ginny, a chain of stores catering to women of all sizes (I'm a 16-18). They are phasing in organic cotton so that a year or two from now ALL their products will be organic! WooHoo! They've earned a loyal customer!
If you must buy new, check your local stores. Maybe the family owned clothing store on the corner can bring in an organic line if you just ask. Alternatively the larger stores like Walmart and Target sell organic lines of clothes from makers like Hanes now. You will have to pay sales tax but that sales tax goes towards public safety, parks, schools and other needed things in your town. It is also the primary source of income for most towns and cities across the country. Shop locally and invest in your community. At the same time you'll be reducing your impact on the world with less packaging and carbon from shipping.
The notion that these shirts "run small" (under Ideal Bite wear) and the implication that they run too small is rather alarming. It's not so much that they run small as that they don't run large. As a middling sized woman (4'11" but a 32D chest) I appreciate being able to find shirts that don't swim on me, but at the same time, if I'm wearing an XS, what are women my height who are 32As able to find? When will clothing manufactures realize women come in ALL sizes?
I also am a tshirt designer and good luck trying to find an ethical tshirt manufacturer (American Apparel, being anti-union and misogynistic, does NOT count) that carries women's shirts in both small and large sizes.
When I saw today's tip headlined with "Nice Jugs" I was so hoping you were talking about some sort of bottle. How disappointing that you were referring to the female body. We're not in 7th grade anymore, how about using some adult language next time and not insulting or demeaning your readers? Oh, by the way, some of us prefer spreading the words via our brains & intellect, not via our bodies.
BTW - I heard back from Tees for Change and was told that a "2XL (size 12-14)" was available. I guess I'm a 3XL, which is the size my husband, who has 56" shoulders, is!
I just got my daily message from idealbite.com and was excited to learn about the Darwindesign t-shirts - until i realized that they don't offer shirts in organic cotton? I have a shirt from American Apparel and it's organic cotton. I hear i can even get organic cotton t-shirts at Wal-mart (tho i wouldn't) so I am totally disappointed that a company claiming to be eco-conscious, and trying to get an important environmental message across, would undermine that by not by offering organic shirts. What kind of a message are you sending when you are supporting an agricultural process that has such a devastating effect on the earth?
You stated that "The average cotton T-shirt is only 73% cotton fiber - the rest is chemicals and resins," and yet you are linking us to businesses that aren't selling organic? I appreciate that Darwindesigns is "sweatshop-free" but that should be a given. Is there something I don't know about how organic cotton is processed?, that I should reconsider buying shirts made with pesticides?
Sincerely,
Julie Evans
I am a supporter of organic cotton, and have been skeptical of bamboo fibers for a while. If you pay close attention, very rarely will the advertising say "organic," usually just "eco-friendly" because it grows so fast, and has natural antimicrobial properties. As a loyal listener to NPR, I recently heard that the processing that bamboo must undergo to make it into clothing (which is so soft!) requires a lot of solvents and other harmful chemicals. I recently bought a dress of bamboo, but feel a little more skeptical of purchasing more until I hear more investigation on this issue.
Also - my fav organic t-shirt site is Mission Playground. Sweet designs!
I'm on the opposite side of the organic cotton vs. non-organic bamboo, Meggers. From my understanding, cotton, even organic, is a labor and input intensive crop. While pesticides and herbicides may be absent from the field, fertilizers are not, and all fertilizers, even non synthetic, rely on nitrogen. Nitrogen runoff from fields too heavily fertilized can cause the eutrophication (death) of lakes, as well as the formation of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) which is over 300 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than CO2.
Bamboo, on the other hand, appears to be an easy crop to tend to, given the right climate. It's less labor intensive, so the amount of time laborers spend exposed to any possible pollutants in the field would be lower. And I believe it also has higher yields per acre, so less land intensive.
That said, it still remains outside of the price point of my customers, so I continue to use used, cotton, and/or cotton-poly blends. But I think either the detrimental effects of cotton will drive its price up, or the increasing demand and relative ease of growth of bamboo will bring its price down. I'm looking forward to it!
wow! i just read the most amazing comments on the perfect tee website! thanks for the link and although the whole project is extremely educational, I highly recommend that everyone goes to read Damien Sanfilippo's comments: "the perfect t-shirt" site - go to "vote" - go to "Stop press: Read Damien Sanfilippo's in-depth response to our t-shirt suggestions"
I don't always appreciate ideal's bite's "eco-lite" (I know I'm a bit extreme), but I subscribe, because I know from time to time you guys have a great idea, and in this case, an incredible link. Thanks!
While I think it's great to support companies who use sweat-shop-free labor and organic products...we need to support companies who promote and protect all of humanity including women! American Apparel is not one of these companies. They are known for using underage women in porn-like photography shoots. This company exploits young girls and promotes an unhealthy view of sexuality. I will not trade one value for another in order to buy their products. Please be informed before promoting a company.
Just want to agree with the last comment...sustainability is as much about respecting other human beings as it is about choosing organic materials, and American Apparel fails miserably in the first regard. There are many other companies I'd rather see you guys plug than one whose CEO has a record for sexual harassment.
I just looked at American Apparel and was also scared off by the models in their tight see-through 'wet' tee-shirt poses. Sad. and too bad.
I will NEVER purchase a shirt from Your Conscience again. The shirts are not organic, not fair trade (as far as I can tell) and only help the environment by the donation they make - which you can make on your own.
They shipped my shirt through the USPS by using an inside out UPS envelope. That seems quite shady to me!
I got my shirt in today and am shipping it right back. I just wish I had looked more closely at their company before I ordered.
Recently i bought latest trendy shirts from target, Blair.com and kohls at couponalbum.com,there I got good discount also..
DEAR SIR
WE ETS NEW GLORY GROUP OF COMPANY L.T.D
AS U MAY KNOW THAT WE WHAT TO BUY U T-SHIRT
THANKS AS WE ARE WAITING FOR U REPLY
MR JOHN
PHOTO ALBUMS
Posted by: Kristin | August 30, 2007 at 05:41 AM