Levi Strauss & Co. has announced sandblasted product will disappear from Australian shelves from next winter. Erin O'Loughlin investigates why the legendary denim brand is turning its back on this finishing effect.
Somewhere in a textile factory in an 'emerging market', a denim factory worker flips a switch on a sandblaster. He needs two hands to hold onto the machine as it unleashes a blast of air filled with tiny particles of silica – the main component of sand – across the thighs of a pair of dark denim jeans.
The blast obliterates the top layer of indigo fabric, each strategic spray uncovering shades of white. By the end of a 12-hour shift, that worker is likely to have sandblasted over 2000 pairs of jeans.
Fast forward 10 years, maybe 20, and the same man lives with silicosis, a serious disease caused by the accumulation of silica dust in the lungs. His lungs will scar and stiffen, obstructing breathing and causing shortness of breath. He is at greater risk of developing lung cancer. The disease has no medical treatment.
On paper, it's reason enough for any denim producer to pull the plug on sandblasting, the process which results in jeans becoming softer to touch and looking fashionably faded. While textile producers and consumers are not always renowned for prioritising ethical concerns above fashionability or price, this time two of the world's largest brands are taking a stand.
Levi Strauss & Co, along with international value retailer H&M, announced a global ban on sandblasting on September 8, 2010. Levi's vice president of social and environmental sustainability, Michael Kobori, says the move comes after years of implementing the “strictest standards” to protect sandblasting workers.
These include the use of materials that contain less than one per cent silica, as well as thorough ventilation and protective masks and coveralls for all workers.
Yet while the company claims it is “confident in its practices”, Levi's has declared it will have no sandblasting in active production from December 31, 2010. In Australia, this means Levi's seven stores and wholesale clients including Myer, Just Jeans and David Jones will be devoid of sandblasted styles from winter 2011.
“We've decided the best way we can help ensure no worker – in any garment factory – faces the threat associated with exposure to crystalline silica is to move to end sandblasting industry-wide,” Kobori says.
H&M production manager Karl Gunnar Fagerlin agrees with the stance, saying that like all other requirements under the industry’s code of conduct, monitoring of sandblasting practices has been part of the company’s full audit program.
“At the same time, securing that these standards are being observed by all of our suppliers and their subcontractors has proven too difficult,” Fagerlin says.
The move by Levi’s and H&M to ban sandblasting taps into an issue that has been building in the denim textile industry for years. The International Textile Garment & Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), for one, has been pushing for a ban on sandblasting for the past two years.
The ITGLWF reports that in Turkey, a country well regarded in denim manufacturing circles and home to denim brand Mavi – stocked extensively by David Jones and Glue Store – more than 50 workers have died of silicosis since 2005. Turkish media outlets estimate tens of thousands more workers have been affected by the disease, so much so that the Turkish government outlawed the practice in April 2009.
The ITGLWF reports that multiple denim producers – it does not name names – have since moved their production to countries where legislation is less restrictive, such as Egypt, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The producers are unlikely to have weaved their way into Europe, with sandblasting prohibited in many European Union member states. Despite its recent ban, Turkey is still a hotbed of debate, with silicosis-affected denim workers staging a three-day demonstration in the nation's capital in June this year, fighting for government-funded health care and pensions.
All this and more means Levi's wants the whole denim industry to follow its lead.
“We've taken this action because we want to help phase this process out of the industry,” Kobori says. “Right now, we are focused on educating suppliers and other companies about why they should join us in this ban. We hope they do so voluntarily, thereby reflecting an understanding of this issue and resulting in an international enforcement approach that is applied corporate-wide rather than at one factory.”
Kobori says that while Levi's first trialled sandblasting in the early 1990s, today it represents less than one per cent of the company's total global production. Reason, perhaps, for others to claim the company can afford to take a stand on the issue, with minimal impact likely to be felt on its bottom line.
But Kobori says there are alternatives to sandblasting available to all denim companies, including those that rely on it more heavily.
“Our designers work hard to create some of the most innovative finishing techniques in the industry to give consumers the worn-in look they love,” he says. “We'll continue to innovate and produce industry-leading finishes, but we'll use hand-sanding and other techniques to achieve these looks.”