At Chadwick Teamwear, we believe business should be about more than just profit, it should be about purpose. That’s why we’re proud to launch “Our little guide to making a big impact”, a new communication piece that sets out our commitments to ethical trading, sustainability and social responsibility.

For schoolwear and teamwear retailers, as well as growing brands who want to build their reputation on trust, this guide is more than just a document. It’s transparent look at how we can operate and what we stand for.

A Philosophy That Puts People, Planet and Profit on Equal Footing

Our philosophy is simple: do the right thing. As an independent British business with over 60 years of experience, we’ve seen the industry change and we’re evolving with it. Our “Three Ps” approach – People, Planet, Profit – is the backbone of every decision we make.

Whether it’s our ethical sourcing practices, the durability of our products, or our approach to shipping and packaging, we are building a business that supports long term sustainability for everyone in the supply chain, including our retail partners.

What You’ll Find Inside the Guide

Here are just a few highlights from our guide:

• Sustainability in Action: From sourcing fabric and trims from OEKO-TEX® approved suppliers to packaging every garment in biodegradable bags, we’re reducing environmental impact without compromising product quality.
• Ethical Sourcing: All our factories, under the stewardship of our team in China, are audited to amfori BSCI standards and we also make use of amfori BEPI, ensuring safe working conditions, fair pay and environmental care throughout our supply chain.
• Carbon Footprint Reduction: From container optimisation in shipping to switching to electric vehicles in our UK fleet, we’re taking action to lower emissions across the board.
• Reforestation Initiatives: We’ve helped plant over 400,000 trees through long-term partnerships in the UK and Tanzania, offsetting some of our carbon footprint while making a tangible difference.
• Premium Products That Last: Our teamwear isn’t fast fashion. It’s designed for durability and longevity, with many of our bestselling products still going strong over a decade later.
• People First: From weekly fitness classes and employee coaching to mental health support, we champion our people just as passionately as we support our partners.

Why This Matters to You

As a retailer or brand partner, your reputation is tied to the products you sell. Working with a supplier that’s transparent, ethical and forward thinking isn’t just nice to have, it’s a competitive advantage.

Consumers, schools and sports organisations are becoming increasingly aware of sustainability and social responsibility. By partnering with Chadwick Teamwear, you’re aligning with a supplier whose values add long term value to your business.

Join Us on the Journey

We know we’re not perfect. But we are committed. And we’re proud to be open about where we are on our journey and where we’re going.

Download “Our little guide to making a big impact”

Let’s build a more ethical, sustainable future together. Chadwick Teamwear – An Ethical Business

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Our team in China

Our China office team, established over 20 years ago, is fundamentally crucial to our business. It makes us truly unique and sets us apart from other importers and brands. Looking out for the best interests of Chadwick Teamwear and our customers, they are specifically hand-picked and recruited by us. Unlike our competitors who work through third parties, we are proud to have our own dedicated team.

“As our range of products continues to grow and our stock levels increase, we continue to grow our team of sportswear specialists in China and will continually invest in our infrastructure over there to complement our UK headquarters. The new office is a major testament to this ongoing commitment” explains Managing Director Joel Chadwick.

Our supply chain

As an established importer, ensuring a reliable high quality supply chain and manufacturing process has been key to our success, especially given often turbulent times globally. All products are designed and developed in-house at our 40,000 sq. ft UK warehouse, office and showroom in Altrincham. We listen carefully to our wide customer base and seek to develop highly functional multi-purpose teamwear products of premium quality. Our complete development and production process is fully managed by a dedicated and highly knowledgeable team in the UK and supported by the experienced team in China.

Joel explains further “ We combine our 50+ years knowledge as a fabric supplier with our considerable experience of manufacturing sportswear garments offshore with specialist partners. We’ve travelled extensively throughout the Far East and Asia over the years, we’ve done ‘the hard yards’ when it comes to sourcing the right suppliers. Both our UK and very own China team also have a wealth of experience in our industry. When combined with our proven testing and inspection procedures, quality is rigorously controlled at every stage. This enables us to deliver consistent market leading products to our customers. ‘Fit for purpose’ products time after time, season after season.”

Quality control and ethical training

Our China team provide the eyes and ears on the ground, it’s an invaluable part of our operation – communicating, managing our expectations as well as understanding the local cultures and working practices. But they offer much more than that. Having our own dedicated and specialised quality control team on the ground has many, many benefits. It enables quick decision-making during time-critical production while also ensuring that bulk production accurately replicates the original approved garment samples and specifications time after time. Importantly, our China team help us manage that all manufacturers and factories associated with the production of Chadwick Teamwear’s products subscribe to a range of recognised ethical trading initiatives and understand their social and corporate responsibilities to their employees, buyers, and end users.

We are delighted to have invested in the long-term success of Chadwick Teamwear with our new China office.

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We are pleased to announce, we have now integrated 100% recycled polyester fabric into our iconic 4 piece iGEN PE and Games Kit range. As of January 1^st All new production of styles 801 ladies polo / 803 short  /804 skort  / 806 unisex polo will be made from yarns using recycled plastics and at no extra cost. Of course, we still need to sell through our current stock levels so you may well still see some garments which don’t carry the recycled label but we have now made a clear commitment to make these products more environmentally friendly.

Our versatile iGEN Games Kit is available in mix-and-match 12 stocked colour combinations, available from stock in all primary and secondary school sizes. Using a full dull, high count microdot fabric with a quick drying function, truly Brand Quality without the Brand!

Great stock levels, unrivalled quality, superior fabric/trims, technical fit and an assurance the range will remain in stock for very many years to come. Find out why more and more Schoolwear resellers are choosing the 8 pc iGEN range to form the nucleus of their PE offering.

All factories involved in the manufacturing and production of our garments strictly adhere to the guidelines established by AMFORI in the BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative). In addition, they are visited in person by the UK based buying team on a regular basis.

Key Benefits:

Easy Identification and prioritisation of key risk areas

Alignment with internationally recognised and common principles

Continuous updates or systems to be fit for the future

Efficient monitoring and reporting thanks to visual dashboards

Where possible, Chadwick Teamwear incorporates Oeko-Tex into the supply chain. This comprehensive testing process examines a diverse array of regulated and non-regulated substances, taking into consideration possible threats to human health.

A shift towards sustainability was initiated with the introduction of recycled packaging, specifically in the form of biodegradable bags for all new garment production.

Samples of all the iGEN styles are now available upon request and we are able to create presentation visuals personalised to your schools and clubs.

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Key Benefits

• Easy identification and prioritisation of key risk areas
• Alignment with internationally recognised and common principles
• Continuous updates of our system so it remains fit for the future
• Efficient monitoring and reporting thanks to a visual dashboard

We are able to monitor 12 Social Performances which allow us to conduct high-quality social audits and monitoring of the factories in our supply chain. This helps Chadwick Teamwear to identify, prevent, mitigate, account for and remediate labour risks as well as adverse human rights impacts in our valued chain.

The 12 Social Performance amfori BSCI allows us to measure;

• Social management and Cascade effect
• Workers Involvement and Protection
• The Rights of Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
• No Discrimination, Violence or Harassment
• Fair Remuneration
• Decent Working Hours
• Occupational Health and Safety
• No Child Labour
• Special Protection for Young Workers
• No Bonded, Forced Labour or Human Trafficking
• Protection of the Environment
• Ethical Business Behaviour

About amfori

amfori believe in a world where all trade delivers social, environmental and economic benefits for everyone. They call this Trade with Purpose.

As the leading business association for open and sustainable trade, amfori bring together over 2,000 retailers, importers, brands and national associations from over 40 countries. Their membership reflects organisations of all sizes from a diverse range of sectors, representing a combined turnover of more than one trillion euros.

Headquartered in Brussels since 1977, they have a strong network of representatives based across 14 countries. They offer their members a practical framework and world-class tools to manage the social and environmental performance of their supply chains and anticipate trends. They also advocate for progressive policy and collaboration with high-level stakeholders to achieve social, environmental and economic progress.

Their work enables organisations to enhance human prosperity, use natural resources responsibly and drive open trade globally. These are major challenges across the world which require a collaborative effort to tackle. So, while their members can’t solve them on their own, together we can influence and drive positive change at scale.

Ultimately, amfori’s ambition is to leverage their unique position – their insight, influence and expertise – to drive open and sustainable trade, which contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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Why do we travel to China?

The team headed back west from Shanghai, inland by high-speed train for the first of more than a dozen meetings during the 12-day trip. This followed by a short plane ride back to the coast in the industrial southeast of China where the weather is generally warm or simply just hot year-round interspersed with the annual monsoon season. The number one priority of the 2023 trip was putting the final touches and signing off our eagerly awaited new range ‘Kinetic’. Kinetic has taken more than 2 ½ years to develop, which is twice as long as other ranges historically. Kinetic is collectively the most premium and technical range we have developed to date, the combination of new performance fabrics, prints and specialised trims utilised in this range has really taken Kinetic to a new level.

This trip has highlighted you really can’t replace being in front of suppliers, building knowledge and ensuring you have your finger on the pulse. The partnerships we have built with our trusted suppliers prior to the covid period has been invaluable – for Chadwick’s as a business the importance of always working directly with specialised factories is vital to our success.

Quality assured 

At Chadwick, we pride ourselves on the quality and consistency of our products. Our proven quality procedures is integral to delivering garments with the correct fit and function according to their intended use to give our customers confidence when offering Chadwick Teamwear over more famous name brands.

Quality is rigorously controlled at every stage of manufacturing with the help of our own full time ‘Chadwick’ QCs (not third parties) employees based in our China office. 1 or more of our 8 strong team will visit the factories on an almost weekly basis reporting back to the UK regularly. This enables us to make informed decisions quickly or solve an issue much faster than just waiting for samples to arrive at our UK office to make a decision. Travelling to China and spending time with our staff allows us to offer them invaluable training, product updates, problem solving sessions and continue to build their awareness of our expectations and business operations. It’s hard for us to imagine that many Chinese have never travelled outside China, their perception of ‘The Western world’ is a little different from the reality and helping them to understand why we insist on high quality is an education. That said, Chinese people are without doubt some of the most hardworking, honest, and clever people you will find in the world, their naturally respectful and gentle culture means they are happy to listen and learn.

Environmental impact and sustainability

Environmental impact and sustainability factors are now becoming just as important to china as it is in Europe and the rest of the world and in some respects, China has overtaken us in terms of implementation. A key part of our development here at Chadwick’s is to ensure we and our suppliers follow a sustainable code of practice, this was a key discussion point whilst in China with all suppliers. OEKOTEX is an independent testing certification for fabrics and trims is specified by Chadwick’s wherever possible and we have recently carried out full independent factory assessments in conjunction with ITS Intertek. In addition, all our vendors adhere to the Amfori / BSCI (business social compliance initiative) and we encourage all suppliers to follow a positive working culture for all workers and seek to continuously improve.

The addition of recycled packaging has recently been achieved and we are seeking to convert fabrics to recycled polyester step by step as long as the science is telling us this is the right thing to do. There is still much to do, but, we have already planned the next trip later this year by which time many of our new exciting new products will have arrived into UK stock. We are already looking at what next as well as looking forward to sampling yet more of that famous Chinese cuisine.

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This includes the need to have sustainable and ethical supply chains as well as considering the ongoing impact of climate change on day-to-day lives created by the consumer products we buy. There is now a tangible momentum gathering pace to encourage consumers to stop and consider where the products they buy are coming from and how they were made and the people who made them. This will undoubtedly continue to drive changes in demand and trends as well as cost.

The subject of ‘sustainability’ is now a hot topic, particularly in the clothing industry and the need for companies to demonstrate they have a sustainable trading policy and a future-proof plan in place is vital.

The sustainability market is expected to grow from $6.35 billion to $8.25 billion in 2023. Rising conscious consumerism is driving this growth – 83% of consumers want to see brands acting sustainably.

Many of our customers are increasingly asking about the sustainability credentials of our supply chain. As a company, we attach great importance to ensuring that our business can demonstrate we also share the same values as consumers. We have already taken considerable steps to offset our carbon footprint and environmental impact with the introduction of biodegradable bags for all new garment production. Additionally, we have funded restoration projects in both Tanzania and the UK, planting over 400,000 trees over the past five years. However, activities form only part of our plans to trade ethically, and sustainably whilst taking positive action against climate change /wastage.

Sustainability covers a wide variety of topics, it’s not just about the products we make and buy but is also about our production and sourcing, through to delivery in the UK. As a company, we are looking at how we and our suppliers can mitigate our impact -both ethically and environmentally. To make this effective it’s important we have a credible plan in place to enable both customers and suppliers alike to recognise we are progressive in this regard.

The first phase of work we have commissioned relates to: 

C.S.R – Corporate and Social Responsibility – we are undertaking an extensive review of all our suppliers in China in the first instance to ensure they follow a strict code of working practices, these will be done in conjunction with an independent 3^rd party inspection/auditing company which will add credibility to our actions and claims, this will also include a review of factory facilities to ensure they are doing all they can to reduce their carbon footprint and unnecessary wastage.

Following this, we will implement phase 2, which will be looking at individual products and how we ensure they are meeting environmental needs.

Sustainability is an ongoing process, not just a momentary ‘box ticking’ exercise. We believe that by putting measures in place now we will be in a strong position to build a sustainable business for the future.

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