Sustainability
Zero-Waste Production
Zero waste isn’t just a philosophy at Aplat—it’s a nonnegotiable ingrained into our daily operations.
Zero-waste design principles have been the foundation for our collections from day one. Since we don’t rely on elastic, metal, or plastic, our products are creatively folded and sewn to achieve optimal functionality. We carefully engineer every pattern to reduce the waste of cotton materials in the manufacturing process.
A Circular Design Model
We’re committed to a circular economy model–which means reducing pre-consumer waste in our cut-sew factories and creating zero-waste designed products that are plastic-free, elastic-free, and metal-free. We believe that soft goods, textile in nature, should be designed to be repaired and reused.
For over seven years, we’ve been using 100% GOT-certified organic cotton and locally sourced surplus fabric that otherwise would have ended up in landfills. We operate by small batch to avoid overproduction, keep quality high, ensure zero-waste manufacturing, and engineer products to last.
We use all of our production offcuts to create upcycled products and salvage edges from fabric rolls for gift wrapping, packaging, and shipping. We send anything we can’t use to Pheonix Fibers or donate them to fiber artists nationwide.
Local Manufacturing
We upcycle surplus denim from local cut-sew factories. We’re committed to supporting local resources, labor, and manufacturing. Our manufacturing facility is just across the street from our headquarters in San Francisco, and we’re incredibly invested in staying close to our manufacturing processes. The partnership we have with our factory is unprecedented–it’s what sets us apart and truly allows us to achieve the careful process of zero waste.
We design with empathy and care deeply about our factory sewers–they are a part of the Aplat family. These talented women–who have been sewing for over 30 years–are the best in the Bay Area. They care deeply about the quality of our products and we collaborate almost daily to improve and evolve our products at every stage of production. Every stitch has high-quality single needle sewing and reinforced industrial stitches.
