In the mail last week an expensive looking brochure (by promotional t-shirt manufacturer standards anyway) arrived in the office. It was from a brand called edun LIVE. I must confess to never having heard of it so it could be a new venture or, the fact that the contact address is in Ireland, could mean that it could just be new for the UK market.
According to their site:
“edun LIVE is a B2B solution for anyone who wants ethically produced t-shirt blanks. Launched by Ali Hewson and Bono, our mission is to drive sustainable employment in sub-Saharan Africa through high-volume sales of blank t-shirts”
Whilst we are all for ethical apparel, I am not convinced by the product. Whilst the brochure looks good, the shirt feels a little cheap. Saying that, they never sent a price-list, something that drives me nuts! How can we assess whether the product is right to offer our customers if I don’t have pricing and stock information? Bonkers.
Hi Alex, thanks for posting about us. Perhaps we should be more clear about our pricing when we send the brochure…though that’s challenging due to our pricing structure…maybe you have a suggestion? It works as follows: there are three registration levels (Individual, Business, and Reseller), and three pricing levels within them (Piece, Dozen, Case). So we’re looking at 9 different possible prices for an item depending on those two factors; the most expensive combo would be an Individual buying a single Piece, the least expensive would be a Reseller buying a Case, and everything else falls in between. We provide PDF price lists on our site once a user has registered that cover everything in detail, and a registered user on the site will always be shown the price applicable to them so there’s no confusion.
As far as the quality of the shirt, we use 100% combed ringspun African cotton in a specific weight (145 g) that is not particularly common, but is rising in popularity among fashion blanks…perhaps it’s the fabric weight that makes it feel “cheap”. As an aside, I decided to wear one of our shirts inside out because I wanted the logo on the outside; there was a tiny size tag sewn into the shoulder stitching (we no longer do this) that I thought I could just tear out easily with my hands. It took me about 15 minutes of wrestling to finally do it, so the shirts are definitely built solid! 🙂
Thanks again for taking the time to write about our shirts, and let me know if you have any other questions we can help with.
Best regards,
Erik