Know Who Made It | KKI

#KnowWhoMadeIt from Krochet Kids intl. on Vimeo.

Last year, we helped our good friends at KKI with their #KnowWhoMadeIt campaign video.  I use the word "help" loosely, we pretty much just agreed let them film Griffin.  But I loved the heart behind the #KnowWhoMadeIt campaign, because it is about real people adding value to the world through the work they do.  

KKI CEO Kohl Crecelius recently wrote a piece for their blog entitled "Cage Free Clothing" that I felt was appropriate to share here. 

I love chickens. I want the best for them. I hope they are able to lead happy lives and that they are treated in a humane manner. If you have been to a grocery store in the last 5 years, you will know that many people share this sentiment for the wellbeing of chickens. Words like “organic”, “free range”, and “cage free” grace the packaging of nearly every poultry product because of the demand to know more about the products we eat. But, what if we extended this same care to all the products we consume? What if we took this same thoughtful approach to the clothing we wear?

What is fascinating about this phenomenon is to see the momentum gained by this movement within the food industry. The level of messaging and visibility of the intentional care placed into the food harvesting process has grown exponentially in recent years. The best part? It has been driven by consumer demand. Those labels exist because people like you said they needed to be there. I can’t say this with any certainty whatsoever, but I like to think that there are a few more chickens out there roaming free and basking in the sunlight because you demanded to know more.

The reality is that there are industries that exist today where individuals are being treated unfairly. The global apparel market is one of the most problematic of all of them, and we are not demanding to know more about the people, policies, and processes behind every article of clothing made.

What would our world look like if we demanded the same level of insight and knowledge about our clothing production, as we did for the food we consume?

I am encouraged by the increasing number of voices in the fight for ethical apparel manufacturing and those who are paving a new path forward. Events like Fashion Revolution Day, documentaries like True Cost, and brands like Nisolo, Joyn, Sseko, and our own are helping to re-imagine a new future for how this industry can exist. Will you join us?

If anything, the “cage free movement” has given me hope for the possibilities of the future. It’s shown that when our voices are in unison and we use our power as consumers to send a message, we can make amazing things happen. Let’s do the same for the global apparel industry.

– Kohl Crecelius
CEO & Co-founder