The Wind Beneath My Feet

These socks showed up in today’s mail. Supercute, right? Plus, they have an intriguing little sticker that reads “Made with 100% Wind Power.”

San Francisco–based Pact makes women’s and men’s socks, undies and T-shirts, made from mostly organic cotton in a factory in Turkey that generates all its power from wind turbines.

Pact was founded by Jason Kibbey and Jeff Denby and the socks, undies and tees are designed by Yves Behar, founder of San Francisco-based design studio fuseproject.

The collection is sold on Pact’s website and at Nordstrom nationwide, and at specialty stores across the country including Blues Jean Bar, Convert Style, Future Standard and Nomads in California, and ID Menswear, Jeffrey NY, Kaight, Story and Sustainable NYC in New York.

Pact underwear comes with a tag bearing the company’s motto: “Change Starts With Your Underwear.” And the company puts its money where its motto is by encouraging its customers to support social causes. According to the Pact website, “when you buy Pact underwear, you are supporting and encouraging organic cotton farmers, responsible labor practices, and businesses that form partnerships with nonprofit organizations dedicated to positive change in our world.”

Plus, sales from certain Pact collections benefit several nonprofit organizations, including The Sierra Club, the Creative GrowthArt Center, Citizen Effect and Architecture for Humanity.

Pact for Japan styles benefit Architecture for Humanity’s effort to design and built a work-house for fishermen in the town of Shizugawa. (Photo by Chloe Aftel)

Pact products are dyed and printed with low-impact dyes without heavy metals that “meet or exceed GOTS and EKO standards.” Pact says the factory that manufactures its products—Egedeniz Tekstil—is certified by GOTS, NOP USDA and the Fair Labor Association (FLA). The manufacturing process from cotton farm to spinning to weaving, dyeing, cutting and sewing is done within a 100-mile radius in Turkey, to cut down on the carbon footprint.

Everything comes shipped in eco-friendly packaging—the underwear is shipped in “rapid-biodegradable” plastic bags, the shipping bags are 100 percent compostable and even the shipping label and its adhesive are compostable, according to the company.

The company will even take back an old pair socks or underwear or a T-shirt to be recycled—the consumer just needs to send it back in a Pact biodegradable mailer and the company will take it to a recycling center where it will be given to people in need or shredded and turned into other products such as insulation.