Ethical Tee Company

Ethical Tee Company is a London print and apparel service that supplies only organic, sustainable and ethically audited garments, and prints them on demand for online stores as well as in screen-printed runs. Its home page opens with "Fairtrade. Fairwear. Organic. Print and apparel service." and lists what it does: "Printing - Embroidery - Print On Demand - Fulfilment" and "Store Integration - Design - eCommerce - Touring." The company, registered as Ethical Tee Company Ltd in London according to its privacy policy, says it partners "with bands, brands, events, festivals, and creatives to develop an apparel identity." For a seller, the relevant offer is a print-on-demand service connected to a Shopify store, with the option of fully managed fulfillment.

What a seller gets

The product range is "Tees, Totes, Vests, Hoods, & Sweatshirts." The print-on-demand page, headed with the company's own line about water-based vegan inks and organic sweatshop-free apparel, sets out the service in three parts: connect a store, print on demand, and, if wanted, a "fully managed fulfilment service, so you can scale without worrying about printing, packing, or shipping." Beyond print, the home page lists add-on services such as posters, swing tags, labels, relabeling, storage and logistics, and the company runs a page showing stores it manages for clients.

Print on demand uses direct-to-garment printing. The artwork guidelines explain that DTG "is a highly versatile form of printing that allows for the printing of almost any artwork, from photographs to drawings," and that as a form of digital printing it produces high quality and accurate results.

The garments

The apparel section is where Ethical Tee Company stands apart, and it describes each range in detail. These are the company's own statements:

• "At Ethical Tee Company we only supply apparel that has been audited by www.fairwear.org."
• "All our apparel is 100% GOTS Certified Organic Cotton or made from sustainable materials like EcoVero or Tencel."
• The Earth Positive and Fair Share ranges are "made in a factory powered by renewable energy as well as being made from 100% GOTS certified organic cotton," and are described as climate neutral with a "leader" rating at Fair Wear. The page claims a single Earth Positive tee "produces 90% less CO2 than a standard tee-shirt."
• Fair Share products "carry a small price premium that is passed directly on to the garment workers in India towards their Living Wage."
• The Salvage range "is made from 60% recycled GOTS certified organic cotton and 40% recycled polyester."
• EcoVero tees are "70% EcoVero & 30% GOTS certified organic cotton," and Tencel products are "50% Tencel and 50% GOTS certified organic cotton."
• No Sweat T-shirts, hoodies and tote bags are "made from 100% organic cotton, certified by GOTS," in a worker-owned factory in Bangladesh called Oporajeo, which the page says was set up by survivors of Rana Plaza.
• The company also carries Stanley Stella, "made from 100% GOTS certified organic cotton."

The page also states a sourcing policy: "We do not supply brands that use WRAP as there audit company," and explains why with a quoted criticism of that audit scheme.

Inks

On inks, the home page says: "All our inks are 100% phthalate free or water based." The print-on-demand page describes water-based vegan inks, and the screen printing section mentions "Phthalate Free Vegan Inks" and "Biodegradable Screen Cleaning." These are the company's own claims.

Connecting a Shopify store

The print-on-demand page gives three steps: go to apps in the Shopify admin and search for DTGUK, install the DTGUK app, then email the company with the store name. The page continues that the team will then switch the store to the Ethical Tee Company system and handle the rest. A separate "Link Shopify" page walks through a longer setup. The seller creates a custom app in Shopify's settings under apps and sales channels, enters print.ethicalteecompany.com and an email address, copies the API access token, notes the original myshopify.com store address, and grants a list of Admin API permissions covering fulfillment orders, fulfillments, inventory, locations, orders and products. The seller then continues in the Ethical Tee Company app.

Once connected, products from the store are pulled into the company's system. The "Mapping" page explains that under "MY products" each imported product shows the message "This Product is Not Fully Mapped" until the seller clicks through and maps it to a garment and print. For sellers not on Shopify, the page says "No problem" and asks them to email so the team can help set them up on their platform. If the seller has no store yet, the Link Shopify page offers help with building one.

Artwork requirements

The DTG/POD artwork guidelines are practical. "A 150 DPI file is usually ok to work with, 300DPI ensures the crispest finish." The checklist asks whether the artwork is sized to print, has a transparent background, is "cropped and centred and ready to print," and has been saved as a PNG. The page also explains alignment: where the artwork sits on the garment depends on how the file is set up, so adding padding to one side can shift a design so that its visual center lines up with the center of the garment. For mockups, the company recommends Placeit and links to it.

Shipping rates

The shipping rates page for print on demand points to the platform: "For PRINT-ON-DEMAND shipping rates go to: https://print.ethicalteecompany.com/postage." Postage for each order is listed there rather than on the main site, and there is a separate page for FAQs and terms.

Screen printing and larger runs

Alongside print on demand, Ethical Tee Company runs screen printing with up to 14 print colors, and says it can print low runs starting from 25 units, as well as much larger runs. Quotes are by email, and the contact page lists what to include: which items, how many, the item color, the number of colors in the design, the shipping location and any extras such as bagging or labeling. This route suits a seller who wants to hold stock of a best seller alongside print-on-demand items.

Who it suits

Ethical Tee Company suits sellers, bands and creative brands for whom the supply chain is part of the product: organic and recycled blanks, Fair Wear audited factories and vegan inks, with a Shopify store feeding orders into DTG print on demand and fulfillment handled for them. Sellers who are comfortable creating a custom Shopify app and mapping products will get the most out of the platform, and those with steady sellers can add screen-printed runs from 25 units.