Sustainable T-shirts: How can you really spot them?

"Sustainable" is printed on almost every other T-shirt label today. The word has been used so often that it has almost lost its meaning – and that is precisely what makes it difficult to recognize real differences. We will show you how to truly identify sustainable T-shirts and where our own shirts stand.

Why "sustainable" alone means nothing

Sustainability in clothing has at least three dimensions: the material, the production conditions, and how long a garment is actually worn. A shirt can perform well in one dimension and fail completely in another – an organic cotton shirt that falls apart after three washes is ultimately no more sustainable than a durable shirt made from a fabric blend.

How do you recognize sustainable T-shirts? Criterion 1: The material

Sustainability is easiest to judge by the choice of raw materials. Certified organic cotton is the most common and easily verifiable standard. Beyond that, hemp, linen, lyocell (TENCEL™), or recycled fibers are also considered sensible alternatives (carofairliebt.de). Conventional cotton, on the other hand, is one of the most water- and pesticide-intensive crops in existence.

Criterion 2: The seals behind it

A look at credible textile seals helps to separate marketing from genuine standards:

• GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard): requires at least 70% organically grown fibers as well as minimum social standards along the entire supply chain (verbraucherzentrale.de). More on this in our separate article What is GOTS certification?
• Fairtrade Cotton: stands for fairly traded raw cotton with a guaranteed minimum price for the farmers.
• Fair Wear Foundation: focuses on working conditions in garment manufacturing – safe workplaces and living wages for garment workers.
• Grüner Knopf (Green Button): the official German government seal that requires corporate due diligence along the textile supply chain.

None of these seals automatically cover everything – which is why it is worth looking at which seals a brand can actually provide, rather than relying on the word "sustainable" alone. If you are looking for recycled materials, look for the GRS seal.

Criterion 3: How transparent a brand communicates

Good fair fashion labels name their countries of production, the exact material composition, and often their partner factories (Stiftung Warentest). The more clearly a brand discloses this, the better its sustainability can be assessed – vague formulations without evidence are a warning sign.

Criterion 4: How long a shirt lasts

The most sustainable scrap of fabric is the one you wear the longest. A shirt should not only be produced fairly but also continue to fit and last after many washes. Fabric weight, workmanship, and fit are the decisive factors here, not just the raw material.

Criterion 5: Is only what is needed actually produced?

One aspect often overlooked in sustainability discussions: overproduction. The conventional textile industry produces an estimated 30 to 40% more than is ultimately sold each year – a significant portion of which is destroyed. Models like Print-on-Demand address this exact issue by only producing once an order has been placed. We explain how this works in detail in our article "How does Print-on-Demand work?".

Where our shirts stand

At Georg Werner, all our cotton products – T-shirts and some of our sports shirts – consist of GOTS-certified organic cotton, grown without synthetic pesticides and artificial fertilizers, fairly traded and processed in a resource-efficient manner. In addition, we also offer sports jerseys made of breathable polyester mesh, because GOTS only applies to natural fibers and functional clothing requires different properties – the material a product is made of is always stated in the respective product description. You can find more on the choice of materials for sportswear in Sportswear Print on Demand. Everything is printed only when you order, which means we have no stock items and no overproduction. And because we want a shirt to be worn for as long as possible instead of quickly ending up in the clothing donation bin, we even actively ask that returns be used only in exceptional cases and that a shirt that does not fit be passed on to someone else rather than sent back.

If you would like to see for yourself what this looks like in our case: our Retro Shirts collection consists entirely of GOTS-certified organic cotton.

Other terms related to materials and production – from GPSR to all-over print – are explained in our glossary.