Progoti is a Toronto-based social enterprise brand with a difference. We deliver smart, casual designs to dress up or down while helping improve the lives of garment workers in Bangladesh.
We source our garments ethically by partnering directly with factories that uphold safe working conditions, maintain standard wages, and treat their workers with dignity. Although our partner factories maintain better labour practices in the region, the industry itself does not grant provide a safety net with retirement benefits. Through our unique business model, we give customers the opportunity to make a voluntary contribution to retirement policies for workers making their clothes. But we don’t just want to change individual lives; we want to slowly but surely improve the industry itself. Over time we hope our approach can become a reference for how other entrepreneurs can implement progressive business models.
The Bangladeshi garment industry has become well-known for both the immensity of its production (as the world’s second-largest clothing manufacturer) and the low standards of its working conditions. The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Dhaka, claimed the lives of over 1,100 people and brought global attention to the dangerous conditions endured by workers. We are confident that through small but mighty acts of collaboration, we can advance the necessary systemic improvements that will allow workers to look to the future with hope and security.
Unlike most businesses, our bottom line does not hold us hostage. We prioritize a different bottom line—the well-being of workers in our industry. The human dimension of fashion production cannot be sidelined any longer, so we are building a safety net for each worker, woven by our customer base. But we can’t reform the fashion industry on our own. Our fashion is global. We believe our compassion must be too.
