About Us

About Arkadash

The Legal Bit:
Arkadash Ltd is a company limited by guarantee, company no 05707384. Registered address 103 Manchester Rd, Chorlton, M21 9GA

The Interesting Bit:
Arkadash was started up by Vik Banks in Leeds in Summer 2004. Not long after, Chantelle Scott set up the Kitnkabu design collective in Moss Side, Manchester. We met doing stalls at fairs and markets and at the start of 2006 joined forces to open our first shop in Chorlton, South Manchester. Hopefully a second shop over in Leeds won’t be too far away.

Between us we have a background in call centre resource management, organic food coops, dj-ing, designing, drumming, and development projects helping low-paid homeworkers to stand up for their rights. Vik spent 6 months living in Turkey a few years ago (is 10 years “a few?”), which is how we ended up with a Turkish name for the company.

We started arkadash because we wanted to get people thinking about the issues facing workers in the clothing industry and to introduce them to ethically- produced clothes. Most existing suppliers are based in the south of England and operate mainly through mail-order, so we wanted to make their clothes more accessible, particularly where we live, around Leeds and Manchester.

We sell sweatshop-free clothing, as much of it as possible made from fairtrade and organic cotton and hemp. We’re always on the lookout for new suppliers and hope to manufacture some of our own clothes, too, one day. We’d like to do that by working directly with a small cooperative or family business – in fact we’ve started already with our cotton bags, which are made and printed for us by our friends Esther, David and their mum Mary, in Kangulumira district, Uganda.

Our own designs from the Kitnkabu collective are available in the shop (and soon on the web).

As well as the shop, we do stalls at festivals, events and organic fairs, as well as clothes parties in people’s homes. So if you prefer to see clothes and try them on, rather than just ordering by mail, check out where we'll be in the near future or get in touch.

A bit about why we're doing this...

We are both passionate about workers' rights and fortunately at least one of us, (Chantelle) is interested in fashion, as well.

We want arkadash to be a more-than-profit clothing company. We'll have to make a profit to stay in business and to create new opportunities, but we think business should be more than that:

We have to respect the people who work with and for us, so that work is a positive thing in their lives, which gives them hope for the future.
We have to be good stewards of the environment and natural resources, so that we can enjoy the world long into the future.
We have to look at ways to bring regeneration to our own community, even if we only ever manage to create one job for one person who otherwise wouldn't have one.

In the west, we expect reasonable pay and paid leave. We expect to be treated with respect at work and to have the law on our side if we're bullied or abused. We refuse to work in dangerous conditions, unless we have proper protective equipment. We join unions. It doesn't always work out that way, even for people in "developed" countries, but we're working with suppliers who share our philosophy and we will try to make sure that everyone who works with us has those rights, whatever country they work in.

In the longer term we want to develop the design side and be profitable enough to be able to put money into our own ethical manufacturing and into grassroots and campaigning groups working on these issues. (Oh, and to buy a house in the South of France (for Vik) and a music studio (for Chan)).

We want to have fun, to be creative, to make money for causes we believe in and to give consumers the opportunity to make choices which can change things for the better...

Hopefully you agree with some of that. Whatever you think, have a great, fun, friendly day!

VERY IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE: We’ve only got to where we are because of lots of fabulous people who’ve given us lots of help – you know who you are but we’ve given you your own page so everyone else can see who you are, too… THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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