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Santa Rosa company makes origin of clothing more transparent ... Indigenous Designs worked with Worldways Social Marketing, a Rhode Island company, to develop the Fair Trace Tool app.

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Santa Rosa company makes origin of clothing more transparent

Indigenous Designs founders Matt Reynolds, left and Scott Leonard, right, are offering to share the company's “Fair Trace Tool.” The mobile phone application uses QR codes that direct consumers to a website, where they can learn where a garment was made, and what living conditions are like for the textile workers in that region. JOHN BURGESS/Press Democrat

Jesusa Mamani Pilco, 19, is a garment worker in Callale, a small town nestled in the Andes Mountains in Peru. Her wages help support her family, and she aspires to have her own shop one day.

“My job is to help out my brothers and my mom who's in the mountains so that they can have some money,” Pilco said. “My dream is that in a couple of years, I can be ... a great knitter, and also to have my own workshop.”

American consumers often know very little about the people who make the clothes they wear every day.

But Pilco's story, told in a video interview, is one of a dozen such tales available to any shopper with a smartphone that comes across garments made by Indigenous Designs.

The Santa Rosa clothing company has developed the “Fair Trace Tool,” a mobile phone application that consumers can use to learn where a garment was made, and what living conditions are like for the textile workers in that region. Knitters' stories are told through videos and photos, along with maps and data about the poverty level of a community.

“I just hope that people in some way are moved toward thinking more about how they choose their wardrobe,” said Scott Leonard, CEO of Indigenous Designs.

Earlier this year, Indigenous embedded its price tags with QR codes, which can be scanned by a smartphone and direct shoppers to a website with information about the origin of the clothes. But last week, in the wake of the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that killed hundreds of workers, Leonard and Indigenous co-founder Matt Reynolds offered to share their proprietary technology with other companies that are committed to the principles of fair trade.

Leonard called on the garment industry to share in his pledge that “no one should have to suffer and die to produce the clothes we wear,” and then posted his company's offer on LinkedIn and other social networks.

“I've gotten hundreds of emails coming back so far, all with positive responses,” Leonard said mid-week. “People were asking, 'How can I take the pledge and be part of the industry challenge, and how can you help me with making this platform and this tool readily available?'”

Indigenous Designs worked with Worldways Social Marketing, a Rhode Island company, to develop the Fair Trace Tool app. Indigenous wanted to introduce consumers to the people behind those garments, said Mark Marosits, co-founder of Worldways.

“It was those action verbs, 'meet' and 'see,' that drove our application design,” Marosits said. “For anyone that wants to take the next step in transparency, we're going to make it easier by sharing this tool.”

To help track the working conditions of its 1,500 artisans working in 200 groups throughout Peru, Indigenous polls them using text messages on cellphones to find out whether they feel safe on the job, and to gauge the state of each worker's financial condition.

The questions, such as 'do you own a refrigerator,' are modeled after the “Progress out of Poverty Index” developed by Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to help impoverished people.

Then Indigenous collaborates with partners to compile that data and assess whether the workers are in a good environment.

“We're able to go to that individual worker and ... they can answer the question without their supervisor looking over their shoulder,” Leonard said.

While consumer interest in the source of their goods is growing, particularly in the food industry, the rich data made available through the Fair Trace Tool is rare.

Another company working in the space is Sourcemap, a startup launched out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that combines supply chain information with maps to teach customers about the source of Chicken of the Sea tuna, among other things.

McDonald's customers in Australia can find out about where the chicken in their McNuggets came from by using “TrackMyMacca,” an iPhone app that uses GPS data and image recognition software to tell diners the source of some of their ingredients. There are no known plans to launch such an application in the U.S., said Becca Hary, spokeswoman for McDonald's.

Indigenous is in discussions with several companies to share the Fair Trace Tool, including Alter Eco, a San Francisco company that works with small-scale farmers in 20 countries to grow the quinoa, rice, sugar and chocolate the company sells.

“I like the storytelling capability of the tool,” said Edouard Rollet, co-founder of Alter Eco, which has annual revenues of $10 million. “There are several companies in the Bay that work together to change the way that business is conducted, and I think this tool is a very good example of that.”

Founded in 1994, Indigenous designs and then commissions artisan cooperatives in South America to create natural fiber clothing. The company, which employs 12 people in Santa Rosa, generates around $10 million in an annual sales, Leonard said. Its garments can be found in more than 500 stores in the United States, Canada and Japan, including Dressers in Sebastopol and Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station, Leonard said.

As Indigenous prepares to collaborate with like-minded companies, it also is spreading petitions to pressure major retailers like Walmart and Gap to sign on to the legally-binding Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement, which has been approved by many European retailers. The National Retail Federation did not respond to a request for comment.

Gap supports the goals of the accord, but is hoping to reach an agreement over dispute resolutions, said Bill Chandler, vice president of global corporate affairs. Last year Gap committed $22 million to assist workers and to improve fire safety in factories that produce its products, Chandler said.

Meanwhile, Indigenous plans to continue making videos until it has produced 200, or one for each of its artisan communities.

“It's not about what we do, it's about what we all can do to shape the apparel industry,” Leonard said. “There is a lot of potential. When we start to add other brands and take on other challenges, that's going to be great.”

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