The Making of Mainio
Behind the Scenes
We have published our new sustainability review! Who made your Mainios? Who made the clothes – and who made the fabrics? Who dyed them and who printed them? What are they made of and why? Where do the fibres come from? We want to be open about how our clothes are made, so we put together a lot of detailed information about our partner factories, our supply chain, the materials we work with and the principles behind the way we work. Read our sustainability review here.
Mainio is GOTS certified
Mainio is a GOTS-certified company, and our own GOTS licence number is GOTS-10278. GOTS covers the production chain of our organic cotton garments from fibre processing to the finished product, setting requirements for materials, chemical use, environmental impact and working conditions. Each of our organic cotton garments carries the GOTS licence number of the factory where it was made, so you can check the factory’s certification details.
We Know Who Makes Our Clothes
From the very beginning, we’ve chosen to work only with production partners we know and who are committed to following Mainio’s Code of Conduct. We also require our production partners to hold the relevant certifications. We build long-term partnerships, and over the years we have come to know our partners, their ways of working and their production processes well. Long-term collaboration also allows us to develop production and product quality together with the people who make our clothes.
Standards and guidelines
Are you curious about the standards and guidelines that we adhere to? Read more about the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and the SA8000 certification.
Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the world’s leading certification standard for organic textiles. GOTS sets requirements for the entire textile production chain, from fibre processing to the finished product. These requirements cover, among other things, materials and chemicals, environmental impacts and working conditions.
The organic cotton used in GOTS-certified products must be certified according to an approved organic standard. Organic cotton is grown without genetically modified seeds or synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. GOTS also sets strict requirements for the chemicals used in dyeing and other stages of textile production.
The People Behind Our Clothes
How our clothes are made matters to us, and so does the way the people who make them are treated. All our production partners are committed to Mainio’s Code of Conduct. Working conditions and workers’ rights are also assessed through independent third-party audits and our production partners are either SA8000 certified or BSCI audited.
SA8000-Certified Production
Our partner factory in India is SA8000 certified. Our production partner Thai Exports in India is SA8000 certified. Developed by Social Accountability International (SAI), SA8000 is an international standard for working conditions and workers’ rights. Its requirements cover, among other things, the prohibition of child and forced labour, health and safety, discrimination, freedom of association and collective bargaining, as well as working hours and wages. Compliance with the standard is assessed through independent third-party audits.
A living wage is an essential part of the SA8000 standard. It must be sufficient to cover the basic needs of workers and their families, including food, housing, clothing, healthcare, education and transportation. The wages paid at our production partner in India meet the living wage requirements of the SA8000 standard and exceed the local statutory minimum wage.BSCI-Audited Production
Our production partner HRT Textiles in Ukraine is BSCI audited. As part of an amfori BSCI audit, an independent third party assesses working conditions and workers’ rights at the factory. The assessment covers, among other things, occupational health and safety, working hours and wages, as well as the prohibition of child and forced labour.
Our Production 2025
In 2025, 64% of our collection was produced in Ukraine and 36% in India.
All our production partners are committed to the requirements set out in Mainio’s Code of Conduct regarding environmental practices, working conditions and workers’ rights.
Long-term partnerships built on mutual respect and trust are important to us, and our goal is always to build lasting, equal relationships.
Have you thought about how long the supply chain in the fashion industry can be? Many factories specialize in certain production phases, e.g. pattern-making, cutting and sewing, or printing or dyeing. Often only the biggest factories produce everything in-house.
You can read about our supply chain in detail in our sustainability review.
Thai Exports
Without Thai Exports, there wouldn’t be Mainio. With their help, we turned Mainio from sketches and ideas into real, tangible clothes. Our founders have known and worked with Thai Exports for almost three decades and we are proud to have grown a friendship with this family-owned factory located in Tirupur, a textile hub known as the knitwear capital of India. We are proud of how Mainio has grown since our first collection made in collaboration with Thai Exports.
Since then, our world has expanded, and over the years we have worked with talented professionals in Finland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia and Turkey.
We take responsibility for how we produce.
We believe companies have a responsibility for working conditions and environmental impacts throughout their production, especially when manufacturing takes place in high-risk countries.
The textile industry provides jobs and livelihoods for many people in these countries. That’s why we believe in building long-term partnerships with factories where compliance with requirements for working conditions and workers’ rights is monitored. Long-term production can help sustain jobs and livelihoods while providing continuity for workers and their families.
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India has a 5000-year-old heritage and culture and our language is equally as old, structured with grammar written down 5000 years ago. Our culture is based on family. Family ties have the highest priority in life – we value families over individualism. We all bonded by blood relationship of family. Our lives are guided and enhanced by our relatives and family members. When we are together and united, we are happy.
The highest, most revered and most-loved person in the world for every Indian is their mother. Here, mothers are like gods. They bear all pains and live for their children. India itself is described as Bharath Matha, which means ‘mother’. Other nations call their countries Fathers, but ours is our Mother. For us, mother is not a person, but a feeling that we all share. That’s why our factory is named Thai Exports – in our language, ’Thai’ means mother, the loveliest creature in the world.
NALLASIVAM SUBBARAYAN
THE DIRECTOR OF THAI EXPORTS
Our partners 2025/2026
