Ensures fair living wage for producers
Discloses the community being impacted
Reduces the environmental impact
Reduces/Reuses/
Recycles resources
Recycles resources
Made out of responsible materials
Avoids use of chemicals or toxic materials
Biodegradable or environment friendly
Uses portion of proceeds to give back to the community
Wear Equal is India’s first upcycled intimate wear brand for women. Made using upcycled textile waste and certified organic raw materials, They are a women-led social enterprise with a mission to provide access to safe and sustainable underwear to rural and urban Indian women and girls.
Purpose
In India, the social taboo of associating shame and the notion of pollution to menstrual blood has been instrumental in distancing women from the concept of sanitary hygiene. Wear Equal was founded in 2019 as a for-profit organization working to improve access to safe & sustainable sanitary wear for women in urban and rural India. With a vision to make an equitable world with a positive social attitude towards women’s sanitary hygiene because for women, underwear is not only an essential need of human dignity but also linked to good menstrual health.
People
Wear Equal is a registered trademark under the company Banasree Sustainables, which also undertakes independent studies in the remotest areas of the country to effectively understand the current perceptions of women towards their own health & hygiene and economic, physical and socio-cultural barriers that operate in the rural landscape for their access. They carried out first independent study in 2020 in three districts of Nagaland where they interviewed 100 women across four tribes and ten villages of the state. They have tied up with Projstree – an NGO operating in the space of menstrual hygiene in rural parts of Gujarat in a collaborative program with other social businesses. In this program, menstrual hygiene kits comprising sanitary napkins, menstrual cups, and underwear (from Wear Equal) are provided to program beneficiaries every quarter.
Planet
All products are made from 100% up-cycled fabrics sourced from various export houses in Kolkata, thereby reducing deadstock going to landfills and also providing affordable yet sustainable products in the market. Being upcycled also means they have a very low carbon footprint as no new resources are utilized in making virgin fabrics and processes. They implement circular sourcing and a closed-loop production.
Wear Equal promotes the use of organic cotton as well as plastic-free packaging. Their products are made using zero waste manufacturing practices, in a GOTS & Fairtrade supply chain, and finished with export quality stitch. They are a plastic-free brand and pack products in reusable cotton pouches and deliver them in paper bags and corrugated boxes.
