GOTS

GOTS - NIKIN joins in!

Global Organic Textile Standard, or GOTS, is an internationally recognised certification with the vision that organic textiles become an essential part of everyday life, improving people's lives and benefiting the environment. Since 2019, NIKIN is also certified by GOTS, but what is GOTS actually?

Global Organic Textile Standard, GOTS for short, is an internationally recognised certification with the vision that organic textiles become an essential part of everyday life, improving people's lives and benefiting the environment. Since 2019, NIKIN is also certified by GOTS, but what is GOTS actually?

GOTS

NIKIN aims to bring sustainable and fair products to the people at affordable prices. Of course, this was not possible from day one (end of 2016) - because fair and sustainable production simply costs more than a cheap product made in Asia. It was important to us from the beginning to constantly improve and become even more sustainable and fair.

Meanwhile, we produce almost exclusively in Europe - our textiles come from European Turkey. Our producer is certified by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) - which assures fair and sustainable production.

In January, we also had ourselves audited by GOTS - after a very thorough inspection, we received our certification with success and much praise. So we are GOTS certified since 2019, which makes us very proud and brings us even closer to our goals.

So we are now GOTS certified, but what is GOTS?

The abbreviation GOTS stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard. The internationally recognised standard vouches for ecologically produced fabrics and was introduced in 2006. In the meantime, the standard has made a name for itself worldwide and is increasingly a quality benchmark in trade and industry, but also among customers. GOTS certification includes raw material sowing and harvesting as well as environmentally friendly production. This includes not only processing and manufacturing, but also packaging, labelling and trade and distribution of textiles containing natural fibres - and these fibres must be 70% ecologically certified or certifiable. This does not only include garments, but also yarns and fabrics or home textiles. In addition to environmental compatibility, ethically and socially responsible production and processing is an important component of GOTS certification.

What does GOTS stand for?

GOTS was created to make the ecological, health and social quality of natural textiles measurable and is an internationally recognised standard. The special thing about GOTS - the entire production chain is included in this certification. Since really all phases of production are checked, the requirements are high. Because this is the only way to guarantee that a completely sustainable production in accordance with the specifications actually exists.

The standards are also raised by the fact that social standards are high. The renunciation of child labour, adequate wages that secure livelihoods and protective measures at the workplace are also monitored.

What are the requirements for certification?

Certification according to the GOTS standard starts practically from scratch. Let's take cotton as an example - cotton provides the raw material for half of all garments worldwide. GOTS certification begins with the ginning of the cotton. It is required to be organically grown according to agricultural standards, such as the EU Organic Regulation, in order to be acceptable. An on-site inspection involves checking the entire processing and also the trade chain - all, really all companies involved up to the point of issue to the end customer are checked annually and on site in order to be able to obtain and retain the GOTS seal.

Why is it worth getting certified?

The advantage for traders: Once they have obtained the GOTS seal, they can advertise with it, but strictly limited to those products that actually deserve this label. Other articles may also be offered, but the distinction from GOTS-certified products must be clear and obvious.

For the trader, certification is a sign of quality. Customers receive the assurance that they can buy sustainably produced products with a seal of quality. This makes producers and traders who decide to take this step the first point of contact for customers who value verifiable sustainability of their goods.

The standard in turn provides the customer with a selection criterion for purchasing. The certified companies can be viewed in the publicly accessible GOTS database!

Sustainability at NIKIN

So now we also have the white shirt on a green background - and with that we have made another step forward in our efforts to make the world a little bit better through sustainable products.

In addition, with every item purchased at NIKIN , our customers sponsor a Tree - planted by our partner organization OneTreePlanted!

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