“Doing things the right way”: Step One now Australia’s first clothing brand with FSC certification

Step One has become the first clothing and garment company in Australia to achieve end-to-end FSC™ certification. By partnering with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Step One is making a commitment to zero deforestation, fair wage and work environments, plant and animal species protection and supporting local communities when producing its bamboo viscose underwear.

Step One’s commitment to sustainability is at the core of everything they do, and this certification is a testament to the company’s dedication to creating a better future for our planet. By choosing to produce its garments out of bamboo viscose, a naturally irrigated source, production does not use gazillions of gallons of extra water (unlike cotton).

The fabric is naturally antibacterial, sweat-resistant and super soft in its properties.

And like any good startup – and Step One is both a good and now phenomenally successful startup, with profits rising 44% to $12.4 million in the 12 months ended June 30, while total sales jumped nearly 30% to $84.5 million – it got started with a founder’s desire to solve a problem.

Greg Taylor experienced some unpleasant chafing – ouch, relatable – while hiking in New Zealand. The core range’s point of difference lies in its “UltraGlyde” panel technology, which Greg developed to minimise the chance of painful friction.

1.2 million pairs of undies later

Four years after its launch, Step One has captured 60% of the Australian men’s underwear market. It now sells a pair every eight seconds in Australia, the UK, and the US. Step One is also one of the few sole stakeholders to launch on the ASX without outside investment. The brand has sold over 1,200,000 pairs!

While it started as a men’s brand designed to keep chafing at bay, the company has a fast-expanding women’s line that is taking off.

Founder Greg Taylor joined SmartCompany on an early morning call from London to talk through Step One’s trajectory. We started by discussing where he’d realised he wanted to create an ethical business.

“When I started the business, I went myself over to the factories in China. I knew nothing about textiles. I turned up in Guangzhou and had 10 pairs of this and 10 pairs of that and the factory owners were like ‘what’s your MOQ?’ [minimum order quantity] and you know, they’re like 50,000 is the minimum.

“And I’m like, no, I’m just looking for 5,000 and they’re like ‘for which size?’”

“Then I found a factory that said they’d help me develop a product and get it off the ground. So I went up to the Fujian province where there are lots of underwear manufacturers.”

It was while exploring this supply chain that Taylor had the realisation that China’s labour market was pretty exploitative: “I saw some really horrible stuff. I saw child labor, forced labor. I was walking through this factory and there were rows and rows of workers.

“Some of them do like 13 days on a one-off. In their culture, it’s sort of normal, but you know, it’s like forced labour because a lot of them will live on campus. There were a couple of workers missing.

I felt the machine and it was warm and I felt the seat and it was warm. I asked where the workers were and they said they’re in the bathroom.

“And I was like, okay, we’ll wait for them to come back. I had an interpreter and I said make sure you understand what they’re saying here. They were getting nervous so I said, ‘oh, let’s go to the bathroom and wait for them’. Then I saw this big storeroom, and I was like, oh my, I don’t really want to see what I’m going to see, but I opened the door and there were two kids in there working.

“And I’ve still got the picture today and I presented it at an FSC conference. I blurred the faces, but it’s just to show that it is real. It does happen. Once you’ve seen that – and I’m a new dad – it tears your heart out, it mortifies you.”

This was the moment Taylor decided that Step One needed to be a genuinely ethical business.

Making ethical undies

“When I started thinking about manufacturing, I wanted the products to be ethically made. Then I thought, ‘What about sustainability?’ People often confuse the two. I noticed some brands engaged in greenwashing, which I don’t want to be part of.”

There’s a misunderstanding between ethical and sustainable sourcing, and Taylor wanted to make that clear.

“For example, I discovered the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), which certifies factories to ensure no child labor and ethical practices. I wanted to be proud of the product, and I also thought about where the fabric came from. I visited the fabric mills and dyeing factories to make sure everything was ethically sourced. I even found that some factories had FSC certification. I’d seen FSC on paper products, but it never clicked for me until then — paper comes from trees, and bamboo, cotton, and other fibers come from plants too.”

“I realised I could buy FSC-certified bamboo. That meant the bamboo was grown in a forest managed responsibly—no deforestation, no loss of natural habitat. Bamboo was a great choice because it grows naturally and can be harvested multiple times a year, unlike cotton, which requires replanting and uses a lot of herbicides and pesticides. Bamboo is naturally antimicrobial, so it doesn’t need chemicals to grow.”

But, getting certified fabric was expensive.

“At first, it seemed like just 10 cents extra per pair, but when you sell millions of pairs, that adds up. Even so, I thought it was worth it to create a product I could be proud of. We eventually became the first clothing company in Australia and the UK to get fully certified by FSC. It took about three years to achieve the Chain of Custody (COC) certification, which tracks the material from the forest to the final product.”

The certification process wasn’t easy.

“We had to convince all our suppliers to go through the FSC audit process. Without enough volume, suppliers were hesitant because they didn’t want to pay for the certification. And at that point, I didn’t have the resources to cover it either. I was starting the business while sleeping on a couch, investing everything back into stock.”

But Taylor knew it was something he wanted Step One to do.

“By 2019, we had enough money to pursue full COC certification. It’s a lengthy and expensive process, but we got there. When we finally received the certification, we learned we were the first in our category to achieve it. That was a surprise. But I thought, ‘everyone should be doing this’.”

Achieving this standard cost Step One over $1 million when you factor in audits and the time invested.

“I don’t want to discourage others from doing it, though, because it’s the right thing to do. And, it has commercial benefits. Consumers, especially younger generations, care more and more about sustainability. Some major retailers like John Lewis in the UK and Amazon are now requiring FSC certification from their suppliers.”

“We even raised money in collaboration with a major charity because they trusted our sustainability credentials.

“This trust has opened many doors for us, and more brands and influencers want to be associated with our product because of our ethical and sustainable practices. It’s about doing things the right way, and it’s a journey I’m proud of.”

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