N.C. Organic Cotton T-shirt Headlines Farm Aid's Merchandise Table This Year

BURLINGTON, N.C. - Sept. 5, 2014 - PRLog -- Burlington, N.C. – TS Designs (http://www.tsdesigns.com) (www.tsdesigns.com), a Burlington, N.C. based screen printer offering a 100% organic cotton, Carolina grown and made Cotton of the Carolinas (http://www.whereyourclothing.com) (www.whereyourclothing.com) t-shirt, is behind the premium t-shirts available at this year’s Farm Aid (http://www.farmaid.org) (www.farmaid.org) concert. Seeking to find the most sustainable cotton t-shirt, Farm Aid connected with TS Designs’ President Eric Henry to discuss a premium t-shirt option for this year’s event. Farm Aid partnered with Henry and TS Designs to produce 2200 shirts, available at the concert merchandise table next Saturday in Raleigh.

The Cotton of the Carolinas brand, created by TS Designs, offers a fully transparent supply chain (www.whereyourclothing.com), meaning that customers can track their product, dirt to shirt. Wearers of Farm Aid’s premium shirt can see each step of the process via an interactive map available at nc.farmaid.org. The supply chain took place within 750 miles across the Carolinas and supported more than 500 jobs. The Cotton of the Carolinas’ brand is proudly “Made in the USA” and is constantly working to make its supply chain more sustainable.

As the only product of its kind in the country, Cotton of the Carolinas’ North Carolina organic t-shirts are a perfect match for Farm Aid, as the event heads to North Carolina for the first time next week. Farm Aid supports the farm to table movement, which naturally translates with the dirt to shirt model of Cotton of the Carolinas.

Farm Aid’s shirts are also printed with TS Designs’ unique REHANCE (http://tsdesigns.com/rehance-printing/) (http://tsdesigns.com/rehance-printing/) printing process. This water-based print then dye process is unlike the industry standard plastisol ink that contains PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and phthalates.  No one else in the apparel industry is printing t-shirts this way.  Not only is it more environmentally friendly, but the prints will not crack, fade, or peel over time, and are also completely breathable.  Plus you get a shirt that’s not going to shrink; they guarantee it!

“We are so excited to be a part of Farm Aid this year and bring Cotton of the Carolinas to the big stage.  Creating local textile supply chains will go a long way to create job opportunities in our state and grow our local economy”, Eric Henry said. They can attest to Farm Aid’s desire to support local, sustainable farming and apparel in North Carolina and across our country. They are proud of their Cotton of the Carolinas story, and are looking forward to sharing it with fellow Farm Aid concertgoers this year.

About TS Designs’ Cotton of the Carolinas

Cotton of the Carolinas (CotC) is a brand developed by TS Designs stakeholders that involves a network of farmers and manufacturers from the region dedicated to a local market that grows, manufactures and sells its shirts in the Carolinas.

The CotC program focuses on three main objectives:

Supporting Local Economies – the farmers and manufacturers involved in CotC’s products employ over 500 people in North Carolina.
Low Transportation Footprint – CotC’s production travels less than 750 miles from cotton field to printed/dyed shirt.  A globally sourced shirt can travel more than 17,000 miles before becoming a finished shirt.
Transparency – maps, images, and paperwork track each year’s production on a dedicated website: whereyourlothing.com (http://whereyourclothing.com). The website publishes names, locations, and contact information of each member of the supply chain for each year’s harvest.