Brooklyn Tweed stands against bigotry, prejudice and discrimination, including racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, and sizeism. As a company, we pledge to engage in anti-bias and anti-racist learning and to implement this work in our business operations.
In our spaces as a business, and in the broader making community, we have no tolerance for racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, or ideologies that seek to deny equal rights to all human beings.
While we are a queer-owned company made up of people holding various marginalized identities, our small team is predominantly white. We acknowledge the privilege that this gives us in our business relationships and daily work, and recognize our responsibility to leverage our privilege to move our industry towards equitability by hiring, promoting, working with, and supporting Black, Indigenous, and people of color, along with members of other marginalized groups in our community.
We acknowledge that as a business operating in Portland, Oregon, we are working and living on the unceded lands of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and other forcibly displaced Indigenous and immigrant peoples, and on land historically barred to Black businesses and inhabitants. We recognize, and pledge to learn how we can help to alleviate, the continuing effects of these injustices.
As we navigate our privilege and socialization, we recognize that we are not immune to making mistakes or committing harm. We center impact over intent, and hold ourselves responsible for our actions and emotions. We pledge to be accountable, to be open to feedback and critique, and to accept opportunities to learn and to do better, with gratitude and humility.
We recognize that our actions speak louder than our words – below are the action items that we are currently working to achieve.
View our annual Impact Report
GENERAL
We will ensure that our spaces, both physical and virtual – including social media pages, online communities, office headquarters, and event spaces – are safe and welcoming for marginalized people.
We will not allow behavior or words that compromise the safety of any person. We take responsibility for maintaining vigilance against intolerance and taking appropriate action to call out and prevent it.
INTENTIONALITY IN PARTNERSHIP
We seek to conduct business with partners at the highest level of ethical standards. When building new working relationships, we commit to sharing our values and code of ethics as stated here to establish accountability.
We pledge to seek out, maintain, and nurture relationships with businesses owned by women, non-binary people, trans people, Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and people of other marginalized identities.
We commit to encouraging applicants from marginalized groups to apply for positions on our team when hiring.
We continue to seek opportunities to work with historically underrepresented and/or marginalized groups when hiring outside contractors, such as tech editors, designers, sample knitters, photographers, models, hair and makeup artists, and other skilled professionals.
We pledge to increase outreach to Black, Indigenous, and designers of color for yarn support, cross-promotion, and independently-published pattern development.
We continue to work with domestic fiber growers and manufacturing partners to help support American textile workers and to help ensure fair labor standards and sustainable environmental practices.
We are committed to donating 3% of the profits from sales of Dapple yarn in perpetuity to the National Black Farmers Association, to aid Black American farmers who have historically been denied access to land ownership and financial support.
PATTERN PRODUCTION
We pledge to publish knitting and crochet patterns that are inclusive of skill level, size, body shape, and gender expression, and that provide diverse instruction styles, including accessible video and web tutorials demonstrating the techniques used in our patterns.
In accordance with our commitment to offer inclusive sizing in our patterns, we have developed proprietary grading blocks that align with traditional “men’s” sizing, traditional “women’s” sizing, and unisex sizing, to provide better fitting patterns for all bodies.
As of Fall 2020, we grade all garment patterns to fit chest circumferences from 30–70” / 76–178 cm. We list chest, not bust, circumference when referring to body or garment dimensions, as we recognize that all bodies have chests, but that not all bodies have busts.
We no longer refer to “intended ease” in garment patterns, leaving this to be determined by the wearer’s preference. We list the finished garment dimensions for each pattern size, sample size shown, and ease as photographed on a particular model.
When it is technically feasible for a design, we pledge to include instructions for customization to accommodate varying body shapes, sizes, and gender expressions.
We continue to work with a range of models (both professional and amateur) to photograph new designs on models of diverse races, skin tones, sizes, ages, abilities, and gender expressions.
We encourage designers to submit and create work that is mindful of the diversity of people that make and wear handcrafted garments and accessories.
In all design submission calls we will continue to include language that specifically invites designers from marginalized groups to participate, and provide web resource materials that support designers in creating design submissions.
ACCESSIBILITY
We include ADA accessible features, such as alt-text and closed captioning, in our electronic communications via email newsletters, videos and web pages.
We continue to explore initiatives to increase accessibility to our patterns for people of different income and skill levels, such as our BT by Brooklyn Tweed pattern series.
EVENTS
At fiber events, we pledge to showcase images in our booth that highlight models representing a range of diversity including race, skin tone, size, age, ability, and gender.
We pledge to design event display layouts for increased accessibility.
We will create and display a wide range of sizes for our sample garments at fiber events and trunk shows.
We pledge to use our physical space to host local knitting events that welcome and celebrate marginalized members of our fiber community and that are ADA accessible.
When being invited to host a booth or participate on a panel, we pledge to query fiber event organizers about their commitment to diversity and inclusion before agreeing to participate.
Please feel welcome to contact us with suggestions, feedback, or to hold us accountable to the pledges we have made here. You can reach us via email at info@brooklyntweed.com.
(This is a living document that we are committed to reviewing as a team at least once per year. This page was last updated December 5, 2023.)