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problem we exist to solve

Fashion's sustainability strategies are failing because they were not co-created with meaningful input from the entities tasked with delivering them: manufacturers.

Most sustainability strategies are designed without the people expected to deliver them.

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Producers are handed roadmaps and plans they had no role in shaping, filtered through systems that rarely reflect their reality.

vision, mission, & theory of change

FPC exists to change that.

  • We believe that real change happens when people choose to follow, not when they are forced.

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    We believe that as a sector we’ll achieve our collective sustainability goals when those who implement solutions also have a voice in shaping them. 

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    We believe this requires expanded access to decision-making. 

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    Not by representing producers, but by creating the structure for them to collaborate, engage, and act on their own terms.

  • We imagine a world where producers are co-creators of sustainability, not just its implementers.

  • ​Our mission is to build manufacturers’ power and influence over sustainability strategies in a way that inspires, not compels. Leaning on the work of Priya Parker, we define power as the ability to decide.

Our history

FPC grew from quiet conversations and shared frustrations.

For years, manufacturers have gathered in back rooms, hotel lobbies, and WhatsApp threads asking the same questions. 

Why do we keep being asked to implement strategies that do not reflect our reality?

 

Why are we implementing the sector's sustainability strategies alone?

 

Where is the space for us to create solutions together?

What was missing was not ideas.
It was infrastructure.

The kind of space where producers could come together to collaborate and amplify their collective voices safely. A way to share knowledge, test ideas, and move collectively. 

In 2020, a podcast and a set of articles sharing supplier perspectives began to circulate. Manufacturers started reaching out. One connection led to another, forming a quiet but growing producer network across regions. Off-the-record supplier meet-ups supported by GIZ FABRIC followed. So did proposals, concept notes, and new collaborations.
 
Over time, that informal producer network sparked work that shaped the public conversation.

Together, we brought together the partners involved in developing the Apparel Supplier’s Guide to Sustainability Legislation, now in its second edition. Together, we brought together the partners for a supplier-led whitepaper on financing decarbonization, highlighting the need for shared responsibility. Together, we contributed to industry reports on climate strategy and multi-stakeholder initiatives. Together, we helped launch the Manufacturer Hub, supporting aligned engagement within Cascale on FEM tool governance.

Fashion Producer Collective logo

None of this work started from a central plan. It started from shared frustrations, the realization that we’re more effective together, and the desire to build something better. In November 2024, we decided to step back and ask: if we were going to design an organization to support our work, what would that look like?

 

This process is what led us to formally incorporate the Fashion Producer Collective as a non-profit in May 2025. 

Our Ecosystem

We are a collective. Not a hierarchy.

  • ​Our Co-Founders include but are not limited to:

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    • EPIC GROUP

    • PACTICS 

    • SHAHI EXPORTS

    • TAL APPAREL

  • This refers to the individuals who have consistently helped design FPC as an organization and shepherd it from informal network to organizational prototype that’s safe enough to try over the last several years: 

     

    • ANETT SOTTI

    • ARJEN LAAN

    • CHRISTIAN KOCH

    • CONSTANTIA CHIRNSIDE

    • GAURI SHARMA

    • ILISHIO LOVEJOY

    • JESSIE LI

    • KIM VAN DER WEERD

    • KRITIKA CHAUHAN

    • MARTIN SU

    • MATTHEW GUENTHER

    • SAQIB SHAHAZAD

    • SAQIB SOHAIL

    • VIDHURA RALAPANAWE

    • Tamar Hoek

    • Krishna Manda 

    • Sven Sielhorst

  • ​Led by Kim van der Weerd, our organization prioritizes functional needs over fixed job titles. To strengthen collaboration, many functions are currently supported through manufacturer secondments and contractors, enabling flexible contributions both to our core work and member-led initiatives.

  • We extend our heartfelt thanks to the many individuals from the manufacturing community who, alongside our co-creators, have generously shared their time, insights, and words of encouragement to support the Fashion Producer Collective’s organizational prototyping process. We are deeply grateful to those individuals who know who they are and without whom the Fashion Producer Collective would not exist as it does today.

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    Beyond the invaluable support from the manufacturing community, we are profoundly indebted to GIZ FABRIC for their historical and ongoing support—without which the Fashion Producer Collective would not have emerged. 

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    We also want to express our gratitude to Transformers Foundation. Their support and pioneering advocacy on behalf of the denim supply chain created an important space for us and helped bring many of our ideas to life. We look forward to many future collaborations together. 

     

    We are also deeply grateful to Janet Mensink for generously and openly sharing her practical knowledge of incorporating in the Netherlands, and for the trust she extended to us.

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