media. The more people heard the
story, the more they were asking for
the products and the more retailers
started calling. They would see us in
Whole Foods and want to partner with
us to develop and launch this type of
concept into their stores. Soon we
found ourselves working with Target,
Macy’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sears, JC
Penney and many others. One of the
early adopters was Aveda, who had us
create a line of accessories. So then we
were working with two of the biggest
environmental leaders in the marketplace—Aveda and Whole Foods. It was
a seal of approval and authenticity. I
think one of the reasons that we’ve
been very successful launching into so
many of the conventional retailers is
because none of those retailers want to
become the poster child for making
claims that aren’t authentic. Organic
fiber and sustainable textiles manufac-
turing is a very complicated model— 35 percent of the cotton being grown in
India today and sold as organic is not certified. If it’s not certified, it’s not organic. Just because you’re not spraying it doesn’t mean you can call it organic.
There’s a whole system for organic—crop rotation, not using GMOs, etc. Retail-
ers recognize that it would be very risky for
them to just trust anybody who came their
way saying, “Hey I‘m going to give you organic product.” But, we were transparent. I
also was helping drive the development of
the Global Organic Textiles Standards
(GOTS) to help ensure more authenticity.
Certification is critical to our brand’s success. It’s in our DNA. It’s not a marketing
proposition that we’re trying to leverage to
sell our products—it’s who we are.
Q: So why GOTS and not just USDA organic?
Organic sheets have become one of the
Zaroff: Because most of the manufactur-
top selling organic textile categories.
ing of textiles is done outside the United
States, the standard really needed to have a global approach. GOTS was formed
as a collaborative effort among trade organizations from around the world to
create a global, uniform standard that took into account everything from how
the fiber was grown to dyes, finishes, transportation and a code of ethics. This is
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