Overproduction is one of the biggest environmental challenges facing the fashion industry. Studies have shown that between 20% and 30% of all clothing that’s manufactured is earmarked as waste by fast fashion brands, meaning it’s never even worn.
Here at TWOTHIRDS we’ve always been horrified by such a terrible waste of precious natural resources. It’s for this reason that we pioneered our PRE-ORDER system. In a nutshell, the system allows customers to pre-order the sustainable clothing they want in advance, allowing us to plan better, and only order the raw materials and recycled fabrics we need. In return, those customers are rewarded. But more on that later.
Read on for all the nuts and bolts of how our famous PRE-ORDER system works, courtesy of answers to the sort of questions we often field from our slow fashion, ocean-loving community.
1. When Are Garments Available to PRE-ORDER?
All our new eco fashion collections start life as being available to PRE-ORDER. This means that for the first two weeks that sustainable garments are online, our customers can order new eco styles, knowing that they’ve bought them in the most sustainable way possible. Once this two week period ends, we begin ordering the eco-friendly fabrics and materials we need, and work as quickly as possible to handcraft beautiful, eco-friendly dresses, trousers and knits, to get them delivered on time.
2. How Long Do PRE-ORDER Pieces Take To Arrive?
Good question! Because PRE-ORDER means we don’t have thousands of pieces of sustainable clothing getting dusty on warehouse shelves, it does take time for such made-to-order garments to arrive.
On the product page of each PRE-ORDER item there is a dispatch date highlighted in green. Customers should take that date and add the delivery time for their respective country. And voila! You’ll know exactly when to expect your eco-friendly clothing delivery (sustainably wrapped in recycled paper packaging, of course).
3. Why Should I Use PRE-ORDER?
There are two parts to this answer. The first is that by using PRE-ORDER you help us eliminate overproduction almost entirely. This is confirmed in our yearly Eco Report, which tells the story of how PRE-ORDER enables us to cut overproduction right down to between 1%-4%. The second is that for ordering in the most sustainable way possible, and helping us meet our eco goals, we give PRE-ORDER customers a 20% discount. We feel it’s the least we can do for customers being patient enough to shop eco-friendly fashion, in the most sustainable way possible.
4. What Happens When PRE-ORDER Ends?
Once a piece ends its two week PRE-ORDER time period (this timeframe can vary) it is then either sold at full price or put on sale. These sale and full price sustainable fashion pieces are of exactly the same high quality as the pieces that were sold via PRE-ORDER. In this way, every last piece of sustainable clothing we produce is sold, with nothing going to waste. Sales also ensure that slow fashion remains accessible and inclusive.
5. How Do I Know When A New Collection Will Launch?
The key to being able to order your favourite eco-friendly outfits via PRE-ORDER is to keep yourself in the loop about when a new eco collection launches or sustainable capsule drops. The best way to do this is to join our community of ocean lovers. This is done by following us on our social media feeds, such as Insta and TikTok, as well as by signing up to our newsletters, which are broken down into the following categories, so you only receive information that’s relevant to you: Women, Men, Kids, and All (just in case you can’t get enough TWOTHIRDS sustainable fashion in your life!).
6. Are There Garments That Never Go On PRE-ORDER?
We do everything possible to ensure that our loyal sustainable fashion customers can PRE-ORDER their favourite eco-friendly t-shirts, ocean-friendly jumpsuits, and recycled skirts. However, there are some exceptions. Good examples of this are our Limited Edition collections – made from 100% deadstock materials.
Pieces in these collections are made from high-quality rolls of fabric that were deemed to be excess waste by other fashion brands. This means that in some cases we make less than 10 of each sustainable shirt, knit or sweater style. Because production runs for such exclusive eco-friendly fashion collections are limited by the amount of deadstock fabric available, we are unable to put them on PRE-ORDER. But you should still check them out!
7. Did PRE-ORDER Help You Become B Corp Certified?
Interestingly enough, no! TWOTHIRDS actually became B Corp Certified without PRE-ORDER’s many sustainability benefits being taken into account. This is because there was no adequate impact model for the system in the B Corp Assessment process. In other words, PRE-ORDER is so ahead of the game that even sustainable communities like B Corp are yet to fully recognise its benefits. You can read more about this interesting topic in our newly released 2022 Eco Report.
8. Why Don’t All Brands Use PRE-ORDER Systems?
We won’t pretend that we’re the only sustainable fashion brand out there trying to do things differently. Others in the field have certainly made huge strides in finding their own ways to cut waste and environmentally harmful overproduction.
That said, fast fashion brands are tied to the business benefits of production processes that depend on harmful waste and overproduction. The idea of a fast fashion brand asking their customers to wait weeks for a new piece of clothing is unthinkable for them. The only way this will change is when consumers start taking their custom to brands whose eco-conscious approach they trust. Governments and policy makers must also do more to demand that fast fashion cleans up its act, both for the sake of humanity and our ocean.
Don’t wait to make the change. PRE-ORDER high-quality, sustainable clothing today!
