Questions about our production

You will find direct Information concerning cut and size with all of our products. If a product turns out to be particularly big or small, this is noted in the features and product description. If you are unsure, you can measure again; all of our styles have a size table on the product page. There you will also find information on the sizes of the models shown, and how to get the right fit as well.

Men's tailoring
Our men's sizes are generally somewhat larger. They are all cut slightly longer. If you are in between two sizes, it is better for you to choose the smaller size, unless you prefer products cut wide and long.

Women's tailoring
Our women's sizes are generally such that, if you are in between two sizes, or would like a little more, you should choose the larger size instead.

As long as you wash our products according to the washing instructions and do not put them in the drier, our products may shrink up to 1 cm in length maximum.

Our flannel products are the only exception. Flannel fabrics regularly have a significant shrinkage value. Conventional industry prevents this by using chemical fixers. However, since we do not want to use these, we recommend buying a product that is always one size bigger. This means that the shirt will fit properly after the first wash. After the shirt has been washed once, no further shrinkage should be expected (unless it is washed too hot or put in the drier).

We promote different types of jacket for different uses. All functional jackets possess a water-resistant coating called Bionic Finish® Eco. It is environmentally friendly, since it does not contain any components thought to be carcinogenic / harmful to health / harmful to nature, and is also completely free of fluorocarbons.

This impregnation can make a jacket water-resistant but it does not make it waterproof. A jacket is only made waterproof by incorporating a membrane (which in our case is always made from 100% recycled polyester and comes from Sympatex) and by taping the seams.

All of our new Sympatex models are waterproof. Products such as the Guerilla Parka have water-resistant impregnation but no membrane. So they will keep you nice and dry during light rain showers or light snowfall, but they are not suitable for heavy rainfall.

We want to offer functional products that stand up to sports and everyday use. Therefore, in a few products, we have decided to use elastane, even though this does not exactly meet our claims for purity. Nevertheless, we have kept this to a minimum. The following products, for various reasons, contain elastane:

Jeans:
Our jeans have a minimal 2% elastane content. The incorporation of elastane ensures the necessary freedom of movement, which you need for sport and activity. Whether this is skating, cycling or running about in the park. The trousers do not limit you and always move with you.

Functional clothing:
We also have a small amount of elastane in leggins and some tops. A certain degree of elasticity in the fabric is especially necessary for products that are fitted close to the body (otherwise you will not be able to move very well and can hardly get in or out of the garment).

Swimwear:
Have you already tried to put on a bathing suit made from 100% organic cotton or 100% nylon? Probably not. Swimwear needs to sit well, should not slip, and must be elastic. When the fabric is wet, it should not suddenly become twice as big and it always needs to hold its shape. For this reason, an elastane component is extremely important. We use a particularly durable material for this purpose, called LYCRA® Extra Life™, so that you will be able to enjoy your new bleed product for a really long time. This is because quality and durability are important aspects of sustainability.

Socks and hats:
Socks and hats have to put up with a lot; they need to fit our feet and heads, but they need to remain firmly in place despite being constantly taken on and off and in daily use. So that they do not become baggy, the rebound is very, very important. The elastane component makes sure of this.

We are currently on the look-out for a biodegradable and/or recyclable alternative to elastane. So you can be excited about that!

This starts during product development with material selection, carries on through the selected finishing technologies, through manufacture, to delivery into our warehouse and finally to despatch to the final customer. We pay attention to material selection and material combination right from the development stage and specify the finish. This specification includes information for the producers, as to which materials may be used and which may not. For production, we have chosen trustworthy, family-run businesses that we know personally. We have specific contracts with these firms that oblige them to keep to our specifications. In addition, we personally visit these businesses several times a year, and also give some of our products afterwards to independent testing authorities to test. 88% of our production takes place in Europe. The other 12% is manufactured by a small company in China that is Fairwear and GOTS certified. All companies are visited and evaluated directly by ourselves or by independent testing commissions.

We produce mainly in Portugal and Poland, but also in China, Tunisia, Croatia and Germany.

In percentage terms, this breaks down as:

80% Portugal (jeans, sweat, jersey, shoes, accessoires)
12% China (jackets, shirts, dresses, blouses)
4% Tunisia (pants)
2% Croatia (swimwear)
2% Germany (jeans, accessoires, blankets)

The figures refer to annual production, i.e. they represent an average value from the spring/summer and autumn/winter collections.

There are several reasons. Firstly, the raw material for these products is produced in Asia. For us, it makes no sense to send these materials from Asia to our production facilities in Portugal to have them made into clothing there and then have the final products sent on to us. We produce the products where the materials are made to avoid unnecessary transportation. Secondly, we have been working together with an exemplary small business in Asia for a long time. We believe it is also important to establish fair, eco-friendly standards there, as they are not already a given. The business has been FairWear and GOTS certified and has been recognised as a role model organisation. We know the workers personally and a good friend of ours is on site several times a year to ensure standards continue to be adhered to. Thirdly, it is not that easy to find good coat makers. Coats are a very complex and elaborate product. We are very satisfied with the quality of the products from Asia and, since quality is an important aspect of sustainability for us, we have decided to continue getting our coats produced there for the time being. We are currently involved in compensating all transportation routes together with a specialised organisation by calculating the CO2 emissions generated by production and transportation and compensating them with donations to a project for environmental protection.

The PrimaLoft® filling works like artificial down and keeps you warm and snug by trapping air in between the recycled hollow polyester fibres. The material we use is PrimaLoft® Black insulation, which is made from 100% recycled PES. PrimaLoft® have to provide us with evidence that the material comes from responsible sources and is produced in an environmentally friendly manner. The padding is 133g/sqm.

Carbon neutral refers to businesses, processes and products, whose CO2 emissions are calculated and then offset by supporting internationally recognised climate conservation projects. The offsetting of CO2 emissions, alongside prevention and reduction, is a further important step towards comprehensive climate action. Greenhouse gases like CO2 are dispersed equally throughout the atmosphere, so the concentration of greenhouse gases around the Earth is about the same. So, for global greenhouse gas concentration and the greenhouse effect, it is therefore irrelevant where on the Earth the emissions are generated or prevented. This means that emissions that cannot be prevented locally can be mathematically offset elsewhere through climate action measures. This offsetting is done through climate action projects.

We make our functional jackets in such a way that the 100% recycled polyester that they are made from can be recycled again after use. To do so, contact our team at info@bleed-clothing.com with "Sympatex Return System" in the subject line, and we will send you a returns label free of charge. We collect them together and bring them to Sympatex in Munich. Sympatex then put the returned functional textiles back into the wear2wear programme, which was founded in 2017. Five competent partners in Europe have come together and cover the whole recycling cycle. In the future, using state-of-the-art production facilities, textile fibres from used clothing will be used again to make new functional textiles.

Even though it is not obvious at first glance, many conventional garments use animal products, or animals suffer from the consequences of textile production.

We are proud to be "toxin free" since we were founded. This means that, from the very beginning, we have excluded the use of finishing technologies that are harmful to health or the environment. This ought to go without saying, but unfortunately this has not been the case in the clothing industry for a long time. Every dyeing process, and also impregnation, involves the use of certain chemicals. In doing so, it is important that these critical substances do not come into contact with people or the environment, or that critical substances are replaced with alternatives. There are biological treatment facilities for waste water, with closed loop systems, which prepare used water and chemicals for re-use. Due to GOTS certification, AZO dyes and heavy metals are excluded as standard. Even the metal components used, e.g. belt buckles and zips, are completely free of chrome and nickel.

Every product leaves behind a carbon footprint on the Earth. This includes the carbon dioxide released. We try to keep emissions as low as possible, and for this reason we pursue a holistic approach, and take all the influencing factors arising from textile production into consideration.
With all transportation, to keep CO2 emissions as low as possible, we try to avoid long distances between production stages. When long-distance transport is involved, e.g. for our functional jackets, which come from China, we completely offset the CO2 emissions resulting from transportation with ClimatePartner. For land transport over shorter distances, we never ask a transport company to carry our consignments alone, but join forces with other producers to avoid sending out half-empty lorries. In addition, we save transport mileage and reduce CO2 emissions where possible, by producing clothing in the same country where the fibres and fabrics are made. 88% of our products are manufactured in Europe, to avoid long-distance deliveries.

By abstaining from the use of new crude oil, we also reduce energy consumption and the CO2 emissions that come with it.
Bit by bit, we will also compensate for the complete production of all products. At the moment, our functional jackets are already offset; other products will follow soon. Our Sympatex jacket from the 2017/18 autumn/winter collection was the first functional jacket on the market to be carbon-offset through ClimatePartner. We are very proud of this!
We use DHL GoGreen, who guarantee carbon-neutral carriage, to despatch to all our end customers.
Furthermore, amongst the team, we try to avoid long car journeys and unnecessary flights. Since not everything can be avoided, we also offset the emissions that our business generates, through tours and flights to visit production sites, via climate action projects.

We also only do photo shoots at locations that can be reached by car in less than a day. Even the emissions arising from this are offset.