Marimekko products are designed to stand up to time and use. Timeless product design is the core of our business and the mainstay of our sustainability philosophy as, for example, wearing items twice as long can reduce the industry’s emissions by up to 44 percent. The Jokapoika (every boy) shirt designed by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi in 1956 is an excellent example of genuinely timeless design – it is the longest-running continuously produced classic Marimekko garment. But where is the shirt made in 2020?
The cotton used by Marimekko comes from different parts of the world, and nearly 90% of it is sourced as more sustainable Better Cotton . Due to human rights violations related to cotton production in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, we do not currently accept cotton from these countries in our products and have signed the related cotton pledges maintained by the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN). We require our suppliers to annually provide information about the origin of the cotton materials they source for us.
The Jokapoika shirts are sewn by our long-term partners in Estonia and Lithuania. Our objective is to always find the best manufacturing place for each product category, and currently almost 70% of our products are manufactured in Europe.
Long-term supplier relationships play a key role in developing sustainability and having an open dialogue, as we believe that cooperation is the best way to promote wider adoption of responsible practices and change on a larger scale. Our supplier relationships are, on average, approximately 10 years in length, and with many suppliers we have collaborated for more than 20 years.
Regardless of where our products are made, we want to ensure that they are manufactured in accordance with our values, respecting people and the environment. We choose our suppliers carefully and, in our selection, in addition to commercial terms, we pay close attention to sustainability matters, such as working conditions, safety and remuneration.
We aim to continuously increase transparency in our supply chain. For all our products, we have collected data at least from two tiers before us, but in many cases – including the Jokapoika shirts – we have been able to track our supply chain even further.
Read more:
Our supplier list, in accordance with the international Transparency Pledge
BCI Cotton
Marimekko’s product policies
