Responsibility

We own the workshop.

That is the only reason this page can tell you anything specific. Most brands at our size buy from a factory and hope. We employ the people who make the product, in a building we run, in Karachi.

Everything below can be checked. Where it cannot, we have said so.

Marking a pattern onto goat suede. Karachi.

Can leather ever be sustainable?

Not entirely, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Leather comes out of the meat and dairy industry, and no tannery, certificate or clever sentence makes that footprint disappear. Any brand telling you their leather is green is selling you something.

What we can speak to is narrower and actually true: how ours is made, and how long it lasts.

We buy full-grain hides and goat suede, never corrected leather. Full-grain keeps the surface the animal actually had, scars and grain included, which is why no two pieces come out the same. Corrected leather is sanded flat and sprayed to hide all of that. It is cheaper, and it looks like plastic within a year.

We work in small runs. Less stock sitting unsold, less leather cut for pieces nobody ordered.

Who checks that we mean it?

Not us. Two independent bodies audit the workshop and both certificates are current. A third is in progress.

ISO 14001The environmental management standard. Covers how waste, chemicals, water and energy are measured, controlled and reduced. Assessed by an external certification body, not self-declared.
amfori BSCIThe social audit. Wages, working hours, health and safety, freedom of association, and a zero-tolerance position on child labour. Audited by an independent third party.
International Accord In progressThe building and fire safety programme for garment factories in Pakistan. Independent inspection of structure, fire and electrical safety, published findings, and a remediation schedule the factory is held to. We are working through the process now. It is not signed yet, and this card will say exactly this until it is.

Appliqué worked by hand on the machine floor.

Who actually makes it?

People we employ, in one building, from cutting through to finishing. Nothing is subcontracted out to a workshop we have never visited.

Their wages, hours and conditions sit inside the amfori BSCI audit, which means somebody independent checks them on a schedule rather than us writing a warm sentence here about how much we value our team.

And by 2030?

We are targeting 100% solar power at the Karachi workshop by 2030.

It is not done. Saying it was would be the easiest sentence on this page and also a lie. We will update this section as the work happens, including the parts that slip.

If a claim here does not add up, or you want to see a certificate, write to hello@panch.pk and we will answer it.