ZOOT was founded for one simple reason: to make people happy. Just because.
Have you also fallen for the online store ZOOT? ZOOT brought a fresh breeze to the Czech fashion shopping. The possibility to buy online, try it on and pay only for what suits you, set out against the impersonal nature of shopping centres. Furthermore, it brought the sustainable fashion concept a little closer to the Czech customer.
ZOOT supports sustainable and small brands and it even designed its very own brand DOBRO. (meaning “good” in Czech) that helps NGOs by selling t-shirts and other accessories with interesting designs. By buying a product in this section, you can help more than 20 different NGOs such as Kokoza, Bez obalu, Auto*Mat, Amnesty International, Pink Bubble, KEEPitClean, Nový Prostor or #prsakoule campaign. All the DOBRO. t-shirts are made from organic cotton, while honouring fair working conditions.
ZOOT highlights the unsustainable manner of current fashion industry and the negative impacts that result from its fast and high volume production. In the section about why you should buy “good” things, they explain in a simple way everything about chemical treatment and hazardous materials that enter into our ecosystem. You can also learn about the impacts on biodiversity and health of all the garment workers or about the huge amounts of energy the fashion industry supply chain consumes. Also, did you know that only 2 pieces of your favourite clothing used up 20 000 of litres of water just during cotton growing and processing?
By supporting innovative technology, it is possible to lower the environmental degradation and by buying fair clothing to strengthen ethical working conditions in garment factories. ZOOT supports Fair Wear Foundation and Global Organic Textile Standard for their designs. T-shirt printing for DOBRO. is carried out by OP Tiger, one of the few certified eco-printing businesses in Europe. All the profit from this collection goes directly to the “good” campaign you decided to support. Your only job is to proudly wear the product and spread the knowledge about the cause it wants to highlight. In words of ZOOT: “And that is GOOD.”
ZOOT also introduced its own fashion brands – Ojju shoes made in fair working conditions and ZOOT Originál clothing, majority of which is made from organic cotton. ZOOT Lokál, on the other hand, supports Czech designers and gives them an opportunity to make themselves visible. ZOOT Buddies offers cosmetic products and scented candles from Czech producers focusing on handmade production, quality materials that are skin friendly and that do not allow any animal testing.
Láďa “the gardener” and the founder of ZOOT says: ‘Sustainability, especially in fashion, is the topic we want to really work on and develop our customers and the market more deeply in this direction.’
In terms of the good projects they support, you can hear about ZOOT in connection with the Social Impact Award Czech Republic. ZOOT is one of the partners who help successful university students aspiring to change the world into a better place by socially responsible entrepreneurship. Some of previous winners, Zachraň jídlo a FOREWEAR, are now part of the DOBRO. section.
They also support good projects and campaigns in their neighbourhood, such as Etincelle, an NGO that gives a chance to those disadvantaged in the job market due to their disability, or a campaign called “Na dřeň” supporting bone marrow donors. If you register and actually donate, ZOOT will give you a superhero T-shirt saying – K NEZAPLACENÍ (Priceless).
The amount of projects and actions ZOOT supports is growing and is simply priceless. Therefore, we hope to see a move towards a tangible sustainable strategy in the near future. This would allow their customers a quick identification of the CSR approach ZOOT is taking. All the best!
More information (only in Czech):