Boden - Wool Travel Suit

I am thinking about buying a wool travel suit from Boden (http://www.boden.co.uk). My wife regularly buys my clothes from them, but I have no idea where they come from. The suit I am thinking about is quite expensive, and I feel compelled to find out as much as I can about it before I buy it, so via the Boden website I have asked the following question:

Sent: 10:45am ish on 16th Feb 2006 via Boden contact form on their website

Hello, I am a big fan of your clothes (owning many items which get worn everyday!). I am considering buying one of your Men’s wool travel suits. I wonder if you can tell me a few things about the product before I decide whether or not to buy one.

I would like to know where the wool and other fibre in the suit is from, and to what farming standards the sheep (I assume it’s sheeps wool?) were raised. Can you also tell me more about the supply chain involved, i.e. where all the processing was carried out, and to what environmental and employment standards?

I regularly ask such questions of the people I buy products from, and have recently started publishing the responses or lack of response at http://trulyresponsible.org.

Thanks very much for your help.

Best regards

Simon

I’ve had a very quick and courteous response from Boden. So I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get some more information. They asked me to remove the image of the suit from the site which I’ve done and have now provided a link to it from the comment on the post on the front page. Here follows their initial response and my response to them.

From: Customer Services [mailto:cservices@boden.co.uk]
Sent: 16 February 2006 11:51
To: simon@trulyresponsible.org
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Dear Simon Warrick

Thank you for your email.

I have passed your query on to our garment tech department and I will forward their response as soon as it is received. I have checked your website and it is very interesting. However, I’m afraid that I must ask you to remove the picture from our website. I’m afraid that the model images and pictures are our copyright and, cannot not be used without first seeking our permission.

If we can be of any more help, please let us know.

Yours sincerely

Jared Briggs

Customer Services
Boden

www.Boden.co.uk

In order for us to help - please include either your Postal Code or Boden Customer Account Number in all email communications to us.

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And my response

To: cservices@boden.co.uk
Sent: Thu 16/02/2006 11:56
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hello Jared,

Thanks very much for getting back to me so quickly. I look forward to the response from your tech department.

I’ll remove the image and just provide a link to the suit page instead.

I am glad you found the site interesting. I am hoping it will provide very useful information to consumers as I accumulate more information over time.

All the best

Simon

Latest response from Boden received on Friday 24th Feb 2006

From: Customer Services [mailto:cservices@boden.co.uk]
Sent: 24 February 2006 08:22
To: simon@trulyresponsible.org
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Dear Simon Warrick

Further to your enquiry with regards to the origins and supply of the wool from our Wool Travel suit we can provide you with the following information:

The wool is clipped from Merino sheep which graze on the plains of Australia. The wool is then scoured (cleaned), carefully ensuring that all effluents are removed from the water prior to the clean water being discharged through the drains. The yarns are dyed and spun either in Germany or Romania in reputable dyehouses who adhere to good ecological standards and all local legislation.

The actual weaving takes place in the UK through an established and well recognised mill. Throughout all stages of production they comply with the relevant ethical and legal standards.

Neither the dyehouses or the weaver have any environmental certification however they adhere to all local environmental laws and legislation.

We hope that this information answers your enquiry and that you are happy with this product upon purchase.

If we can be of any more help, please let us know.

Yours sincerely

Jared Briggs

Customer Services
Boden

www.Boden.co.uk

In order for us to help - please include either your Postal Code or Boden Customer Account Number in all email communications to us.

I’ve had a bit of a think about this response and there are some obvious further questions to ask…

From: Simon Warrick [mailto:simon@trulyresponsible.org]
Sent: 26 February 2006 17:41
To: ‘cservices@boden.co.uk’
Subject: RE: General Enquiry

Hello Jared,

Thanks very much for your response. I really had no idea that the wool would have come from Australian Merinos.

You email has prompted several other questions in my mind.

1. Can you tell me why Australian Merino wool is used rather than UK produced wool?

2. Given the controversial practice of Mulesing in Australian Merino sheep - can you assure me that this practice was not carried out on the sheep that provide the wool for these suits? More information can be found at http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/mulesing/mules.shtml - and plenty more is available from the Australian Wool Growers Association.

3. Can you provide me more details of the dyeing and weaving organisations? I note that you say that they conform to local standards - but I’d like to follow that up some more.

Many thanks for your help.

Best regards

Simon

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Simon Warrick
trulyresponsible.org