Our Mission

Conventional cotton farming is one of agriculture's most environmentally destructive activities. The simple act of growing and harvesting the one pound of cotton fiber needed to make a T-shirt takes an enormous toll on the earth’s air, water, and soil, and significantly affects the health of people living in cotton growing areas. Over the past decade, a small number of farmers and manufacturers have pioneered the market for organically grown cotton, producing fibers and clothing while significantly reducing toxic chemicals. We strive to support this movement and therefore only offer T’s which are made out from 100% certified organically grown cotton.

The cotton is cultivated completely without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, in “Living Soil” that has been free from toxic substances for at least 3 years and enriched by organic compost and other organic matter. This means that the soil and water supply are cleaner, which in turn protects the local population and wildlife. The resulting cotton fibre is processed into fabrics without the use of harmful chemicals or bleach. We at 500GODZ feel that we have a responsibility to both the environment and the community; we view this as being important on a local, national and global level. It is possible to manufacture textiles without exploiting and polluting the environment and we have chosen to take this path for the production of our products.

We don’t intend to insult anyone with the artwork we display on our Shirts but if it does happen you are welcome to send death threats and Jihad proclaims to the Godz and we will take care of you!

Berlin is the homebase of 500Godz.com. We are sitting here right at the heart of Europes most intense Party Capital. Well what else is there to say about Berlin besides it’s high density of eastern European Hookers and vastly increasing amount of seemingly normal looking people searching through garbage cans? OK, Berlin has more bridges than Venice and talking about bridges Berlin is an Artist Mecca and the right place to be launching an organic T-Shirt Empire.

All of our Manufacturers are members in the Fear Wear Foundation. This Dutch based foundation aims to promote humane labour conditions in the garment industry. The Fair Wear Foundation (not to be confused with the Fairtrade Certificate which applys only for products manufactured in third world countrys) works with the Code of Labour Practices which contains provisions such as:

• No forced labour
• No discrimination
• No child labour
• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
• Payment of a living wage
• No excessive overtime
• A safe and healthy workplace
• A legally-binding labour contract

Member companies endorse this code. In doing so, they commit themselves to auditing labour conditions in their factories against the provisions of the code and to implementing improvements, where necessary. The Fair Wear Foundation verifies whether member companies actually implement the code of labour practices.
Having seen and witnessed harsh working conditions in China even in work places that are not regarded as sweatshops we felt the need and urgency to support companies that endorse the codes manifested by the Fair Wear Foundation. The idea was to not only produce environmental friendly clothing but also make sure that the working conditions meet western standards.

Most of our Designers come from the various Street Art Scenes. We like the directness but ambiguity of this Art Movement. However we are also open to any other approaches and concepts for T-Shirt Artwork, so contact us if you have something fresh in mind.

Sustainable Printing: All Prints are water based. This means that no PVC, Formaldehyde or any other harmful chemicals are used in the printing process. In fact our partner the printing company T-Shirt and Sons became the first UK printing company to be awarded accreditation from the ECO ‘Ethical Company Organisation’. In June of 2006, T Shirt and Sons was accredited by The Soil Association as the first UK textile printer to gain organic status and is now licenced  as the sole supplier of authentic organic print in the UK. In November of 2006 T Shirt and Sons gained further recognition by becoming a registerd supplier for the Fairtrade Foundation.

We insure you catz out there that we will use the best organic cotton available in europe for 500GODZ Ts. Of course there are not as many organic qualitys available on the market as their are conventional cotton qualitys. However we are witnessing a growing development towards the increase of organically grown cotton. This will definetly have a positive effect on the quality and the variety of fabrics in the near future.

Each T-Shirt Design is limited to a maximum number of 500 Shirts (usually 300 – 400), sometimes less. You can find a handwritten Serial Number of a Design written on the Label Tag of each shirt. If you do however receive a shirt with a serial like 522 then someone really fucked up.

Promise to the environment and to our customers: We will incorporate any changes in technology that will improve the quality and sustainability of our products. So we are keeping up to date with the latest development. At the moment there are still some environmental issues that need to be resolved. For example the washing instruction tag is made out of polyester. At the moment the SOIL ASSOCIATION is cool with it, we hope that an alternative will be found soon.