The Under-utilization of Certification Trademarks by the Fashion Industry

A certification trademark is a trademark that is registered by a certification body. The certification body allows manufacturers to apply the certification trademark to their products, provided the manufacturers meet a set of standards laid down by the certification body. These standards might, for example, require that the manufacturers adhere to a particular method of farming, or that the products meet a minimum nutritional criteria.

When a certification trademark is applied to a product, a consumer can surmise that the product meets the standards of the certification body. In this way, a certification trademark acts to convey a great deal of information to the consumer via a simple visual cue.

Manufacturers in the food and beverage industry make good use of certification trademarks, including:

These certification trademarks give a consumer instant assurance that the food or beverage product is, for example: heart healthy, sourced via an ethical system of trade, or carbon neutral (i.e. all of the carbon emissions created during production of the product have been offset by the manufacturer).

With today's emphasis on consumer empowerment and conscious consumption, food and beverage manufacturers have realized that certification trademarks make for great marketing, as they quickly convey positive messages about the product. Consequently, it is not uncommon for a single food or beverage product to be labeled with several certification trademarks.

However, clothing and shoe manufacturers have not been as savvy. Certification trademarks are under-utilized by the fashion industry. This is a missed opportunity for clothing and shoe manufacturers to market their products to consumers based on ideologies, rather than just aesthetics.

It is not possible in this short blog to address all of the possible certification trademarks that could be used more effectively by the fashion industry. Thus, I will focus on two certification trademarks.

1) ANIMAL FREE CERTIFICATION TRADEMARKS

Approximately 1 million people in the United States currently adhere to a vegan diet. While many do so for the health benefits, there are also other reasons for adopting such a diet, including: animal cruelty and environmental sustainability. These other reasons apply equally as justification to shun the wearing of shoes that contain animal products, such as leather.

Approximately 2.3 million people in the United States are Hindu. In the Hindu religion, cows are sacred. Thus, many Hindus avoid eating beef. In some cases, they also avoid wearing shoes that contain cow hide.

Approximately 2.6 million people in the United States are Muslim. In the Islamic religion, pigs are not considered to be clean. Thus, many Muslims avoid eating pork. In some cases, they also avoid wearing suede shoes and other shoes that are lined with pig skin leather.

Even (unrealistically) assuming that the entire vegan population is either Hindu or Muslim, there are still at least 5 million people in the United States who are either Hindu or Muslim (or Hindu or Muslim and vegan) and who therefore have some incentive to avoid shoes that are leather or suede or contain cow hide or pig skin leather. The current United States population is roughly 313 million, so the persons concerned comprise 1.6% of the total United States shoe market. A 1.6% market share is certainly economically relevant. Thus, shoe manufacturers should take note.

It is currently extremely difficult for consumers to find shoes that do not contain leather or suede or cow hide or pig skin leather. Part of the difficulty is supply. There are very few stores, such as the New York botique Moo Shoes that only sell vegan shoes. Other stores such as Steve Madden sell both vegan and leather shoes. The difficulty in these stores is convenience. The consumer must search the shoe for a label (often on the inner lining) indicating whether the shoe is made from leather or synthetic materials. This is a repetitive and arduous process. Moreover, even if the label indicates that the shoe contains leather, it does not specify what type, or combination of types, of leather. This does not resolve the problem for Hindus or Muslims, who might not have a problem with all leather, just cow hide or pig skin leather. They still cannot tell whether the leather shoes contain the offending cow hide or pig skin leather or not.

By applying certification trademarks (such as a VEGAN trademark, COW FREE trademark or PIG FREE trademark) to the soles of shoes, manufacturers could convey a host of relevant information to potential buyers in a predictable and easy way. Consumers looking to avoid cow hide, pig skin, or all leather altogether, could easily pick up the shoe, look for the certification trademark predictably located on part of the sole where the ball of the foot rests, and immediately tell whether the shoe is compatible with their ideological and/or religious beliefs.

2) ENVIRONMENTAL CLOTHING MATERIALS CERTIFICATION TRADEMARKS

Animal sources of clothing materials include fur, leather, wool, and silk. The production of these materials, particularly fur, leather and wool, is damaging to the environment. To raise the animals that will be used for fur, leather and wool, and to treat the leather via tanning:

• Affects the earth's water supply through the use of vast amounts of water (for growing animal feed, hydrating the live animals, and operating the tanning facilities), and through the pollution of water systems (due to run off of waste produced by the live animals, and of chemicals used when growing animal feed, preventing disease amongst the live animals, and operating the tanning facilities);
• Contributes to greenhouse gasses, due to methane emissions by grazing animals;
• Results in waste, such as hair and flesh trimmings and chrome shavings (which are by products of chrome-tanning), that ends up in landfills; and
• Requires land clearing for pastures, which leads to soil salination, erosion, habitat destruction and decreased biodiversity.

Man-made sources of clothing materials (such as nylon and polyester) are not much better. In 2010, worldwide production of man-made fibres amounted to 53 million tonnes, accounting for 68% of fibres used worldwide. With this much material being produced every year, roughly the same must be discarded. Although great efforts are made to recycle discarded textile waste, still 5% of all landfill is textile waste. Of this textile waste, the man-made fibres are not biodegradable. Thus, the man-made fibres will still be around, polluting our planet, for centuries to come. Moreover, even before they are discarded, these man-made fibres cause damage. Just one garment manufactured from man-made fibres releases up to 1,900 microplastic particles per wash in the washing machine. When the washing machine cycle is finished, all the dirty water flows out into sewers before being treated and released out to sea. The microplastic particles are not filtered out by water treatment, so they make it out to sea.
 These microplastic particles are then swallowed by sea animals. It is not yet known what long term effects this may cause for the sea animals.

Sustainable and renewable fabrics such as hemp, cotton, bamboo and linen are now available. By applying an ENVIRONMENTAL CLOTHING MATERIALS certification trademark to clothing labels of garments made from these materials as opposed to animal or man-made materials, clothing manufacturers would arm the consumer with the knowledge required to make environmentally conscious choices. Over 70% of Americans claim to be an active participant in, or sympathetic to, the environmental movement. Thus, in using certification trademarks to promote the environmental consciousness of their goods, clothing manufacturers would be tapping into a considerable marketing advantage.

CONCLUSION

The food and beverage industry understands that consumers want to be able to make informed choices and has evolved accordingly. It is time for the fashion industry to catch up. Just as people don't make their food choices based on taste alone, discerning fashionistas don't want to make their clothing and shoe choices based on aesthetics alone. It is time for the fashion industry to start utilizing certification trademarks to convey ideological information to consumers. The associated marketing potential for clothing and shoe manufacturers is immense.