The Problem
The fashion industry is known for modern slavery, toxic dyes in rivers, a huge amount of waste and poor wages for garment workers.
Nobody wants that.
But £80 for a sustainable T-shirt?! Nobody wants that either.
And not buying clothes isn't an option either (nobody wants to see that).
So we started Yes Friends to make ethical clothing affordable and transform the fashion industry.
What we're doing differently
We run a pioneering bonus scheme for garment workers, to ensure they receive a good wage. It's why we do what we do.
We work with ethical factories certified by leading bodies such as GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) to ensure our ethical credentials. We have also received the highest rating from ethical brand directory Good On You.
All our cotton is organic. Better for farmers, the planet and your skin.
We work with Fairtrade and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) to trace our supply chain.
Our primary factory in India where Yes Friends knit, cut & sew production takes place processes and recycles 100% of their water.
We do not use animal products in the making of Yes Friends clothing.
Both our partner factories are solar power assisted, reducing the use of CO2 during production.
We work with Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified factories and dyes to avoid the use of toxic chemicals in production.
We make premium clothing without the price tag. We go direct to ethical factories and direct to you, missing out the middle man and passing on the savings.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Our factories recycle their offcuts from production.
We run a pioneering living wage scheme for garment workers, to ensure they receive a good wage. It's why we do what we do.
For Yes Friends garments, we pay an additional premium directly to the garment workers at our tier 1 suppliers. This means they are paid a good wage for every Yes Friends product the make.
Did you know? Adding as little as 10p to the price of a T-shirt can increase workers wages by a whopping 50%. Sounds like magic, but it's just maths. Magic Maths.
The bigger we get, the bigger impact we can have.
Read about the impact the Yes Friends bonus is having here.
Our goal is that every garment worker across the fashion industry is paid a living wage.
Currently, the vast majority of factories do not pay a living wage (even the good ones who have industry leading ethical certifications like Fair Trade USA and GOTS!). Therefore, in order to ensure that our garment workers receive a good wage, we've set-up a pioneering wage scheme at our tier 1 factories where we pay a bonus for every item we make, which goes directly to garment workers.
Here's how the scheme works and how we calculate the bonus for workers.
First, we find out what the lowest paid workers wage is. We then calculate how long it takes a worker to make each of our garments. We then look at a range of living wage calculations, including what trade unions are asking for and reports from the Global Living Wage Coalition. We adjust these figures for inflation and cost of living differences between the location of the reports and the areas where we are producing, to determine the living wage for that area.
Using all this information, we look at the difference between the lowest paid workers wage and the living wage and work out how much extra per garment we will need to pay, to pay our part towards a living wage. We then send this premium to our factories (alongside any customer tips!) and they are distributed evenly among the workers at our cut & sew factories.
So far, we've raised over £56,000 directly for garment workers. The bigger we get, the bigger impact we can have. We're small right now, but our goal is to gain enough buying power to ensure that all workers receive a living wage.
We are the first UK brand to allow customers to tip their garment workers directly! 100% of your tips go directly to garment workers.
Here's how it works with each of our manufacturers:
Tips at Fabstract are distributed equally among the workforce who have worked on Yes Friends products. They are paid via payroll and we receive all the payslips as well as testimonials from garment worker to verify these have been paid.
Tips at SARP are distributed equally among the workforce earning below a living wage. They are paid via grocery gift cards (as this is how the garment workers asked to be paid, as this provides a tax benefit). We receive signatures from each garment worker to ensure these gift cards have been received.
If you order multiple products, we distribute tips based on the value of the products you ordered from each of our manufacturers.
Both our partner factories are solar power assisted, reducing the use of CO2 during production.
Our primary factory in India gets 50% of its energy from solar power and the rest from non-polluting natural gas. They also have a humongous battery so that during power cuts they aren't reliant on polluting diesel generators.
We only use organic cotton. It's a win, win, win, win.
One. Our Indian organic cotton is primarily rain-fed, reducing the need for water irrigation.
Two. Most of our organic cotton is grown, spun, knitted, cut & sewn in India. So it's not trekking around the world from one factory to another racking up carbon miles.
Three. We don't use pesky pesticides or toxic chemicals which means happy soil, happy farmers and happy skin.
Four. Oh, and did we mention it feels like you're wearing a cloud? ⛅️
Where we can we work with Fairtrade cotton to improve the lives of cotton farmers. Look out for the FAIRTRADE Cotton Mark on our product pages.
Fairtrade cotton ensures that all cotton farmers receive the Fairtrade Minimum Price and the Fairtrade Premium (an additional sum of money which goes into a communal fund for workers and farmers to use – as they see fit – to improve their social, economic and environmental conditions).
All Yes Friends products are made to the GOTS standard and the majority of our organic cotton products are certified by GOTS (look out for the GOTS logo on the product pages!). Occasionally, we are unable to get certification e.g. if we're using deadstock fabrics and therefore don't have a transaction certificate, but we aim to get certification wherever possible.
We work with certified factories to ensure good labour practices, you can read all about our visit to our primary factory (and the wedding of the factory owner's son!) here.
We also have a Supplier Code of Conduct based on the Ethical Trading Intiative's Base Code which you can read here.
Our founder, Sam Mabley, is our designated responsible person for oversight of the Yes Friends supply chain and policies that address human rights and environmental sustainability. Please do reach out at hello@yesfriends.co.uk if you have any questions.
Our primary factory in India where Yes Friends cut & sew production takes place is water positive: 100% of water used is processed and recycled through either a reserve osmosis process or at the Effluent Treatment Plant onsite.
They also have a rainwater harvesting system that recharges groundwater.
Fairtrade organic farmers also use 14% less water than conventional farmers.¹
¹https://www.fairtrade.net/en/get-involved/news/new-research-reveals-significant-sustainability-benefits-of-fair.html
All of our collection is dyed using GOTS certified dyes (Global Organic Textile Standard). We work with organic cotton and GOTS certified factories to avoid the use of toxic chemicals in production.
We go direct to ethical factories and direct to you, mission out the middle man and passing on the savings. So you get premium quality ethical clothing, at unbelievable prices.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.
Our primary factory recycle their offcuts from production processes and also use advanced software to make sure there is minimal waste when cutting garments.
Our denim factory recycle their offcuts and is working with their partners to take leftover fabrics and turn them into new products.
We do not use animal products in the making of Yes Friends clothing.
We work with a range of industry leading certifications to ensure our ethical credentials. We have also received the highest "Great" rating from independent ethical brand directory Good On You.
Here's some of the certifications and organisations we and our suppliers work with:
Fairtrade cotton ensures that all cotton farmers receive the Fairtrade Minimum Price and the Fairtrade Premium (an additional sum of money which goes into a communal fund for workers and farmers to use – as they see fit – to improve their social, economic and environmental conditions). Find out more here.
Our Fairtrade cotton is labelled under the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO), licence no: FFLC0862
Fair Trade USA audits ensure that working conditions are safe, the environment is protected and workers receive fair pay.
The world leading textile processing standard for organic fibres and ecological impact. This ensures all fibres are grown without any synthetic pesticides and are sustainably produced from farming, harvest, and textile processing. Find out more here.
SMETA is the world’s most widely used social audit. It helps businesses understand the standards of labour, health and safety, environmental performance, and ethics at suppliers.
We are currently working with Fairtrade and GOTS to help trace our supply chain.
If you'd like to know more details about the full supply chain for products, then do reach out. We'll either have the information to hand or we can find out what you'd like to know about our mills, screen printers, yarn suppliers etc!
Over the next year we're working on finding a good way of communicating this information with all of you, so you can see the full Yes Friends supply chain when buying from us.
The majority of our polybags are compostable and biodegradable and keep your clothing safe and sound at our warehouse.
We are currently in the process of switching all our mailing bags to paper, made from a mix of recycled and responsibly sourced FSC® certified materials.
Some of our older mailing bags are made from 30% recycled materials and are 100% biodegradable using the additive Polymateria which leaves no microplastics.
Royal Mail delivers all our parcels within the UK and has the lowest reported carbon footprint per delivery of the major UK delivery services.
We ship by sea or road wherever possible to keep our carbon footprint as low as possible.
Location: Sector 140A, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201304, India
No. of employees: 436
Certifications: Fair Trade USA, GOTS, FLO-CERT
Products: T-shirts, Tank Tops, Fleeces, Sweatshirts, Beanies & Underwear
Yes Friends Partner Since: 2022
Factory Location: Kemalpaşa Mah. 7415 Sok. No:1 35060 Pınarbaşı, İzmir, Turkey
No. of employees: 117
Certifications & Audits: GOTS, Sedex SMETA
Products: Jeans
Yes Friends Partner Since: 2025