You've probably seen "GOTS certified" written somewhere before, maybe on a t-shirt, maybe on ours, and skimmed straight past it the way you do with most of the little badges brands love to stick on things these days. We don't blame you. Certifications have become a bit like background noise, and it's genuinely hard to tell which ones actually mean something and which ones are just there to make a product feel a bit more trustworthy without doing much of the work behind the scenes.
So we wanted to properly explain this one, because it's the standard our entire swim range is built around, and it deserves more than a little green tick on a label.
GOTS stands for the Global Organic Textile Standard, and it's widely considered the toughest organic textile certification there is. What we love about it is that it doesn't just look at the fibre, it follows the whole journey a piece of fabric goes on before it ever reaches you.
It starts at the farm. For a fabric to carry the GOTS mark, at least 95% of its fibres have to be certified organic, grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilisers or genetically modified seed. That's the part most people already associate with "organic," and it matters enormously, but honestly it's only the beginning.
Where GOTS really sets itself apart is everything that happens after the cotton leaves the field. Processing, dyeing, printing, finishing, all of it is restricted too. No formaldehyde. No heavy metals. No azo dyes, which are still worryingly common in conventional textile dyeing. Every input has to meet strict environmental and toxicological criteria before it's even allowed near the fabric. It's the reason we can say our swim range is PFAS-free and made with non-toxic dyes without a shadow of hesitation, because the certification simply doesn't allow otherwise.
And then there's the part that often gets left out of the conversation entirely, the people. GOTS also sets requirements around fair labour practices at every single stage, from the farm right through to the factory floor. Safe working conditions, fair wages, no forced or child labour. It's not just a fabric standard, it's a standard for how people are treated while making it.
None of this is something a brand can simply claim about itself either. GOTS certification is independently tested and audited, which is really the whole point. It's not a badge we've put on our own packaging because it sounds good, it's a standard we're held to by people entirely outside our business, checking the paperwork and the process, not just taking our word for it.
Every piece of Earthcove swimwear is made with a minimum of 98% organic cotton, GOTS certified. The remaining 2% is lycra, there for stretch and shape, and we'll always be upfront that this means our swimwear isn't plastic-free. What it is, though, is dramatically less plastic against your skin than almost anything else you'll find on a swimwear rail, made the way we believe swimwear should be made in the first place.
We don’t want to spread fear, we want to educate you, and once you know what actually sits behind a label like this one, it's very hard to unknow it.
