Our AFFASO brand, ‘The House of African prints’, allows you to distinguish your personality. In this blog we’d like to share with you our story of where our shirts are made.
VALUES
Our choices are based on striving for excellent quality with sustainability. When sourcing, we search for recycled materials where possible, e.g. recycled polyester in labels and recycled paper for packaging. For the printing, only OkoTex approved dyestuffs are used, and if possible we use unbleached cotton. All left over materials are reused or sold to be recycled. We are at the beginning of our journey but be assured that this is always our goal.
WELL-BEING
People matter in our process. We check the values of our partners when choosing suppliers. We don’t visit factories with long checklists, but we evaluate the well-being of workers, ensuring a safe environment. AFFASO shirts are produced in China, where we have selected a small family owned business in the south, near Hong Kong.
A PRODUCT MADE WITH LOVE
Mr. and Mrs. Yan came from North China to work in South China in the late 90’s. Like many other people looking for opportunities in a booming industry. Starting from scratch they learned all about textile manufacturing. After working as supervisors for many years, their dream came true when they were able to start their own business 12 years ago. Their love for the product and their respect for their customers and workers is seen in every stitch.
Mr. and Mrs. Yan employ 50 workers, and recognize the importance of looking after their team as though it was a large family. Providing food and accommodation where needed, maintaining a good and safe working environment and organizing outings to motivate and inspire the workers. The workers are also paid more than the minimum wage and enjoy 29 days holiday per year, plus time off for Chinese New year. Mr. & Mrs Yan also provide training to develop the potential of workers who in turn show their loyalty to the company.
Mrs. and Mr. Yan are proud parents of two boys and work hard to give them a good life. Mr. Yan joked he started a shirt factory to enable him to wear a new shirt everyday!
Mr. Ma has been pattern maker for 15 years. He is very experienced how to best lay the pattern on the fabric to create our shirts. This used to be a manual job, but over the past 3 years Mr. Ma is using the computer.
Mrs. Chin works in the finishing department. She has done this work for over 20 years. She likes working with shirts, they are more of a challenge to pack correctly, but not too heavy to iron.
Mrs. Chan is a very experienced seamstress and understands how to handle the special AFFASO fabrics. After 15 years working in another factory, she joined the Yan family 6 years ago. In this small factory she can develop her skills much more.
CLEAN AND SPACIOUS
The factory is clean and spacious. Workers are paid a fixed salary, so no rushing to earn money by piece. This ensures the AFFASO shirts are made with dedication and of good quality.
Fresh food is prepared in the kitchen and a nice space is available to have lunch and/or dinner. Even the bikes and mopeds find a room indoors in case of rain.
