| Market Campaigns, Toxic-Free Products | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Have you ever noticed how a lot more of our clothes are made of polyester these days? Or wondered if the clothes your kids wear are free from potentially harmful chemicals? We’ve been curious about these things ourselves, and this motivated us to analyze the policies and practices of ten leading kids’ clothing brands. The result is the first annual Defend Our Kids Fashion Scorecard.

The fashion industry uses countless chemicals to make its products, some of them potentially dangerous to human health. Minimal regulation exists to limit what the industry uses. And where it does exist, the limits may be too high for children. Children can be more impacted by toxic exposures than adults because their brains and organs are still developing, they’re exposed to greater relative quantities than adults (due to their smaller size), and because they tend to put their hands in their mouths more than adults. The fashion industry also uses a great deal of plastic. Polyester plastic derived from oil and gas is the most produced textile right now, with more polyester made than cotton textiles, and there are no signs that this will slow down any time soon. Plastic production is a dirty business that’s known to pollute air and water, more often in Black, brown, and low-income communities.

We looked closely at the public commitments, policies, and practices of ten popular fashion brands that sell large volumes of kids’ clothing. We examined efforts around chemical management, with a specific focus on three chemicals of high concern (PFAS, phthalates, and PVC plastic). We also examined efforts to reduce the use of plastics in fabrics, like polyester, and in packaging by the ten companies.

We found significant room for improvement among the ten brands we examined. H&M scored the highest, with a B+, and Janie and Jack scored the lowest, with 0 points and an F grade. The average score among the ten fashion brands was a C grade, with a meager 35.3 points out of 100. 

Overall, all of the companies could be doing a lot more to reduce chemicals of concern and plastics. While most of the companies have taken the laudable step of utilizing a restricted substances list, they don’t always apply to 100% of the products a company makes, and the lists are typically tied to regulations that may lag behind the research on the health harms of chemicals.

Check out the report for more details on the steps each brand we scored is taking, or where they lag on essential benchmarks.