Tag Archive: fairtrade clothing

October T-shirt prints tested for wind resistance

The UK Bungee Club (UKBC) was established in 1992 and is the market leader for Bungee Jumping in the UK. As the pioneer of commercial Bungee Jumping in Britain, the UKBC now facilitates all jumps sold by Britain’s leading retailers and gift experience companies such as Boots, WHSmith, Buy a Gift, ExElement and Red Letter Days.

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With permanent venues nationwide the UKBC operates bungee jumps from both fixed structures and cranes. With the UK’s only bridge bungee jump, the UK’s only indoor venue and regular jump heights from 160ft to 400ft, the UK Bungee Club has unparalleled experience in bungee jumping activities.

The professionalism and excellent safety record of the company has led to the UKBC being first choice for television production companies and channels worldwide including Endemol, Tiger Aspect and Outline Productions to name a few, producing shows for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, NBC and ESPN.  Working with over 200 charities both large and small the UKBC has facilitated and organised charity events raising in excess of £3 million for good causes.

During its existence and due to the nature of the work the UKBC has become involved with other activities acting as advisors as well as organising and running events such as abseils, zip wires, drop slides and adventure trips around the world.

In the 1990’s The UK Bungee Club was responsible for running one of the most famous permanent jump facilities in the world, Adrenalin Village, located at Chelsea Bridge in Battersea, London. A permanent feature on the London skyline UKBC’s 300ft tower crane dispatched 11,000 bungee jumpers every year over the Thames. Alongside this a floating hostel housed thrill seekers from all over the globe with a total of 100,000 people visiting the site in its final year of operation. This was also the venue for the qualifying rounds of The World Extreme Games in association with the television company ESPN, which the UKBC facilitated in 1995.

In October 2006 The UK Bungee Club secured the rights to jump from the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge. A milestone for Bungee Jumping in the UK – it was the first time that members of the public had been allowed to jump from a UK Bridge since members of Oxford University performed the first ever bungee jump in its modern form from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol in 1979. On December 17, 2007, the UK Bungee Club bungee jumped American news anchor Anne Curry off the world famous Transporter Bridge to raise money for charity. Her jump was shown on the NBC news Today show at about 8:13 am Eastern time and went out live to 8 million people.

The UK Bungee Club also runs The Abyss @ Magna, the world’s only indoor bungee jump. Located and housed in the 150ft Face of Steel Building at the award winning Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, a £46million Millennium project which opened in 2001. An extensive build project, The Abyss @ Magna opened in 2005 and has received national and international press coverage as well as being a venue for numerous TV and film projects. As a result The Abyss @ Magna was awarded the Best Tourism Experience 2006 by the Yorkshire Tourist board.  Working with the board and management of Magna, The Abyss has continued to progress with the installation of a new 250ft zip wire and a 150ft PowerFan descender, these activities were built alongside a new £2.7 million corporate development project at the centre.

The Hemp Trading Company

The Hemp Trading Company came runner up in the 2006 Observer Ethical Awards for ‘Best Fashion Product’, and was also shortlisted for ‘Environmental company of the year’ at the ‘Re:Fashion Awards

The Hemp Trading Company and bamboo t-shirts

The Hemp Trading Company’s CEO Gavin Lawson was also listed in the ‘Future 100’ social entrepreneurs of 2008.

The Hemp Trading Company is a member of Ethical Junction http://www.ethical-junction.org

The Hemp Trading Company also use Bamboo:

Some of the THTC range is made from 70% bamboo, mixed with 30% organic cotton. The company we source our bamboo fibre from has Oeko Tex 100 certification, which is an internationally recognised standard in sustainability. Bamboo is one of the few plants that grows faster than hemp, and as it comes from an interconnected subterranean root system, the plant is not killed, just the shoots harvested. The supplier is internationally recognised for its sustainable processes regarding not only harvesting but also production of the organic bamboo. The fibre is a bamboo viscose (as is 99% of the bamboo fibre found in the textile industry) meaning that it is an extruded fibre made in the same way as other viscose fibres, so there is a chemical and energy footprint, however the raw material is bamboo cellulose which is very sustainable

The last range of men’s bamboo t-shirts have been sourced from Continental Clothing, a London-based supplier. Continental have full certifications of all their fabrics on their website, which can be found on their website:

(Plain bamboo garment also available from www.october.co.uk)

  • All factories that THTC uses comply with ISO 9000 standards — (international organisation of standardisation) The hemp is trucked to the mill for de-gumming and processing into fibre. No caustic soda is used during this process, keeping it as environmentally sound as possible.
  • The clothing is manufactured by people who receive full safety training, and belong to a labour union. The minimum age of employees is 19, the maximum age being 54. They work 8 hour shifts and have weekends off – (That’s more than us at THTC central!)
  • All our Hemp is grown on small family farms in North Eastern China. It is and always has been grown organically.
  • All our certified organic cotton is also grown in China. This is a fledgling industry that THTC supports and saves the energy and expense of shipping in from Europe or India.
  • The Hemp Trading Company now uses water based inks (comply with GOTS) with a discharge screen printing process for almost all new designs.
  • Eco Paper is used for poster printing, and will soon be used in all THTC flyers, swing tickets and catalogues.

Currently, THTC is working endlessly in order to join forces with the Fair Trade Foundation. Although already doing so, attaining the Fair Trade Mark will signify the THTC products as an independent guarantee that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting a better deal.

For a products from the The Hemp Trading Company to display the FAIRTRADE Mark it must meet international Fairtrade standards.