One of the UK's leading school uniform manufacturers, School Colours, has today released the results of textile tests showing that their recently developed ECOSMART® blazer is the most durable school blazer in the UK.
As the debate rages about cheap blazers supplied by supermarket chains and rivals, School Colours head Mark Southcott believes that parents are looking for quality and durability so that in the end, they spend less and are more sustainable in the process.
He intends to get this message across to new and existing clients.
Southcott said today: "In July this year we purchased a wide range of blazers from multiple retailers, local retailers and directly from schools. We are already confident that the cut and finish of our blazers are the best to be found in the UK, but we wanted to establish the relative wear & tear performance of our standard blazer and our new ECOSMART® Blazer."
He explained: "We used an independent textile testing company that undertakes British Standard textile tests for most large UK clothing companies. We were advised on which tests would be the most significant when looking at the wear and tear a typical teenage boy can exert on a blazer."
The research stressed that the ECOSMART® range have better quality, durability, weight and snag resistance.
Southcott added: "We can confidently claim that our ECOSMART® Blazer is the most durable school blazer in the UK."
The research also revealed several aspects of the range which will result in some tweaking to further improve the quality.
| Blazers Summer 2009 | Fabric Weight | Fusible Weight | Fabric Thread Count | Seam Strength | Snagging Resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School Colours Standard | 213 | 110.5 | 27 | 15.2 | 3.5 |
| School Colours Ecosmart* | 15% | -58% | 93% | -26% | 14% |
| Large Clothing Retailer Eco | 1% | -66% | 54% | -44% | 14% |
| Large Super- market | -22% | -75% | -22% | -9% | -14% |
| Direct Competitor 1 | -12% | -62% | -11% | 32% | 4% |
| Direct Competitor 2 | -2% | -80% | -3% | -4% | 14% |
| Direct Competitor 3 | -1% | -70% | -3% | 1% | -29% |
| Direct Competitor 4 | -2% | -39% | -1% | -7% | -29% |
* Lightweight ECO-FUSIBLE used, this is optional, heavyweight non-eco fusible can be substituted.
The above data is all relative changes to our standard school blazer.