03
IMPACT

MADE IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY?

MANY PEOPLE HAVE ASKED US WHY OUR CLOTHING IS NOT ENTIRELY MADE LOCALLY. WHY ARE SOME GARMENTS PRODUCED IN INDIA OR EVEN CHINA?

Let’s take a deep dive into the local vs. global debate.

Born on music festivals as a t-shirts brand, SKFK-Skunkfunk’s mission remains to bring about change and make sustainable and edgy clothing accesible to all.

Back in 1999, we produced everything on a local scale. Moving fabrics and trims around ourselves, we priviledged cooperatives and confection was happening right before our eyes. Localism at its best. Or so we though.

It wasn’t before we started digging behind what was really happening upstream in the fabrication of our materials, that we saw that even if our t-shirts were locally produced, cotton was imported at some point, trims also, and dye-stuffs as well.

THE FACT IS THAT THE ENTIRE PRODUCTIVE ECONOMY IS LINKED. LOCALISM UNDERSTOOD AS PROCURING IN A SPECIFIC AREA 100% OF ALL THE STEPS OF THE PRODUCTION OF A GARMENT IS A BIT UTOPIC.

So is there an ideal, optimal solution? No. It comes down to a question of trade-offs and political choice.

Let’s take the case of a garment we produce in India with the Chetna organic farming cooperative: we contribute to a powerful social transformation and transition to regenerative agriculture, but the trade-off is that it is not locally sourced. In the case of a woolen garment locally produced, we create employment in the Basque Country but transparence to raw materials might not be there and the cost might make clothing unaffordable to many.

We believe local and global should complement each other. What matters is the emotion, the impact we bring about. And that might happen locally, making our culture and community stronger, or globally, regenerating soils and alleviating poverty where it is mot needed.

Our mission remains to mainstream sustainable fashion. For that, keeping products affordable matters.

BUT, WHERE DOES THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF OUR GARMENTS ACTUALLY GO TO?

Selling mostly through multibrand partners, our economic impact lies most and formemost locally in Europe. As a matter of fact, even produced in India, more than 85% of the economic value of producing our garments remains in Europe, creating jobs and local value, through local shops and taxes.

Our choice is for connecting or re-connecting consumers with nature, and with the places and communities where clothes are made.

Practicing sustainability and circularity is always a trade-off. That can happen locally, or globally, through the identity of the products we co-create: Who made our garments? Where were they made? What was our impact on living ecosystems?

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