Kelsey’s Closet Giveaway: Cotton of the Carolinas
To celebrate the release of the new updated and revised edition of Where Am I Wearing? I’m celebrating apparel companies that are making a difference by conducting two weeks of giveaways. Each day I’ll highlight a company and then giveaway an item of theirs at 9PM (ish). To enter, leave a comment in that day’s blog post or on Facebook. Winner will be randomly selected. Wanna see more clothing companies changing the world? Visit Kelsey’s Closet.
Enter a Comment below to win a shirt
They’re bringing cotton back
Farm, gin, spin, knit, finish, cut, sew, print, and dye. That’s what it takes to make a T-shirt. And Cotton of the Carolinas is happy to introduce you to everyone on each of these steps. Cotton of the Carolinas is the most transparent apparel company I’ve ever seen.
Want to talk to the farmer who grew the cotton for your T-shirt? Well, his name is Ronnie Burleson and Cotton of the Carolinas has his phone number and email address on their site. AMAZING! Ronnie lives outside Richfield and is a 3rd generation farmer and one of the first to bring cotton back to the area in 1991. Today he farms alongside his brother Dennis, son Andrew, and nephew Aaron.
Ronnie’s nephew Wes Morgan (New London, NC) does the ginning . Mark Leonard (Thomasville, NC) at Hill Spinning does the spinning. Mortex Apparel a family business run by Brian Morrell (Spring Hope, NC) and Started by his father in 1984 cuts, knits, and sews the shirts. Kenny Hoyle (Statesville, NC) over at MoCaro Dyeing and Finishing oversees the dyeing and finishing. And my buddy Eric Henry and Tom Sineath at TS Designs (Burlington, NC) print the shirts.
You can meet them all on the Harvest ’10 interactive map.
All of these efforts equal the most comfortable organic T-shirt I’ve ever worn. They are amazing! I should email all of the folks involved producing my shirts thank you notes. But as great as the shirts are, I get more excited about the transparency involved in their creation. Also, everyone is from North Carolina, which holds a special place in my heart, since Annie and I lived there for a few years.
The most local T-shirt in the world
A typical T-shirt might travel 17,000 miles on the global supply chain. A Carolina Cotton shirt travels from dirt to shirt in under 750 miles and employees over 700 people. It just might be the most local T-shirt in the world.
Every Fall I get an invitation from Eric Henry at TS Designs to attend their harvest celebration. One of these days I’m going to take him up on the offer. Watch the video below and tell me you don’t want to sit on a front porch with Eric and Ronnie Burleson and throw back a couple of cold ones (beer or iced tea), and talk about farming and cotton and T-shirts with maybe a little blue grass playing in the background!
North Carolina has a long history with the textile industry and it’s great to see folks keeping the tradition alive.
They have a couple of great designs available for purchase. And any group that works with environmental issues or is looking to lessen their carbon footprint can request a quote.
Let your voice be heard!