Hey friends, behind the scenes, we’ve been working on something new. For over a year. But before I tell you what it is and you rule it out as boring, I'm going to lay out an irrefutable case as to why boring is actually what we all need. Ready?

On average, we check email 74 times a day.

And apparently, to get off this constant hamster wheel of distraction that we’ve become so accustomed to, it takes our minds eight days to calm down. All hail the two-week holiday.

A Canadian named Chris Bailey decided to experiment with boredom, so took on a challenge to be intentionally bored for an hour a day for a month. He asked people for a list of the most boring things he could do and over that month got to experience the deep deep boredom of…

1. Reading the iTunes Terms & Conditions. (Can you imagine?!)
2. Being on hold with Air Canada baggage claims department.
3. Counting the zeros in the first 10,000 digits of pi.

And here’s what he discovered…

His attention span expanded.

He focussed more effortlessly.

He had brand new ideas.

Maybe we should be bored more.

Now, let me tell you what we’ve been working on at Yes Friends.

Certifications.

They go into the nitty-gritty details of ethics to independently verify that we’re looking after both people and planet. So, you’re not just taking our word for it. But external professionals are checking the details too.

At Yes Friends we’re here to set the gold standard in ethics.

And this year, our summer collection is certified by either Fairtrade, the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), or both!

Fairtrade makes sure farmers are getting a fair price for their cotton. And GOTS makes sure Yes Friends is organic and light on the environment.

Beyond certification.

We’re not interested in box ticking exercises though. We’re here to make a real difference to the lives of the people making our clothes. And we found that there was an area in these certifications that was missing.

Despite the many different certifications out there (B-Corp, Fairtrade, GOTS, SA8000 etc.) we found that they didn’t actuallyrequire that brands pay a living wage.

And we weren’t happy with that.

We didn’t just want good working conditions or environmental care. We wanted to make sure garment workers were getting a good wage too.

So we set up the Yes Friends bonus scheme to give garment workers a bonus for every Yes Friends product they make. To ensure they’re getting a good wage for what they do.

And if you want to say an extra big thank you — you can send them a tip too.

At this point, if you’re wondering how on earth it’s possible to do all of this at high-street prices, here's how: big scale, small margins.

So you get a Ferrari for the price of a Fiesta.

Thank you so much for joining us on the journey, we couldn’t do this without you 🧡