What are Pantees?
Pantee is the first underwear brand made from dead stock tee-shirts. It takes 2,700 litres of water to produce just one cotton tee-shirt, and over 2 billions are produced each year. Yet, due to overproduction, 30% of garments are never sold. Pantee is more than just a brand, itâs a solution.
Who are you? How did you come up with the idea?
Pantee was co-founded by myself, Katie McCourt, and my sister Amanda. We have raised Pantee from different sides of the world during the pandemic (Amanda lives in London, and I currently live in Vancouver). We started working on Pantee after learning about the huge amount of unsold clothing that goes to waste each year. We knew we wanted to do something about it, and after conducting a lot of research Amanda called me with an idea â âWhy not turn deadstock t-shirts into underwear? And letâs call it Pantee!â. A year later, we are about to launch our Kickstarter campaign.
How difficult was it to find a factory able to turn tee-shirts into underwear? Where are Pantees made?
Finding the right manufacturing partner was a difficult process! We had a lot of noes along the way but after nearly a year of searching, we met Erdem, owner of a buying house in Dhaka in Bangladesh. Erdem understood our vision and wanted to help us bring it to life, so he made space in his sampling room and the rest is history. Our ethical production process meets strict labour standards, ensures pay above the living wage, management positions for women and yearly bonuses.
Read the full interview on Medium.
