The story of TeeKee by Stealth began with a simple question that we all ask multiple times a year . . . “what would you like for your birthday?”. 

On hearing this question, sam (co-founder) searched the internet for clothing to add to his birthday wishlist, coming up short with every website he trawled through. The solution to this problem . . . create our own.

As we already have our t-shirt printing business (Stealth Printing) we decided to create TeeKee as a branch of Stealth to supply ourselves and like minded people with comfortable and eco-friendly clothing.

The concept of TeeKee came from Sam’s desire to embrace his Kiwi roots and research the Maori background within New Zealand culture. This began by looking at the different symbols used within Maori culture and the meaning behind them. For us, the Hei Tiki symbol was both the most eye-catching and also conveyed the message we wanted to get across with our brand so it was the perfect choice for our logo.

After years of research and development we are now ready to share our creation with the TeeKee Tribe.

Although the initial concept of TeeKee came from the want for certain garments, the dream of TeeKee is to build a community of people who have a shared love for nature and the outdoors whilst also sharing in our want to be as sustainable and eco-friendly as we can.

As part of the TeeKee Tribe, people will have access to our monthly blogs where we will share insights into camping in the UK, locations where to go, equipment you will need and also educate our tribe about the benefits of sustainable clothing and why it is important.

We will also be sharing hiking routes and information on all our social media platforms to spread the TeeKee message.

A major element of the TeeKee message is the importance of sustainability and being eco-friendly. As part of our research and development we spent a long time researching different suppliers for both our garments and our printing, we researched how to make our packaging eco-friendly and even researched how we can reduce our carbon footprint as a business.

All garments provided by our suppliers are made from sustainably sourced organic cotton and in-conversion cotton supported by the Better Cotton Initiative. Our polyester is also 100% recycled, reducing the impact on the planet.

Our method of printing (DFT) is considered eco friendly as it uses less energy to produce, it reduces waste as precise amounts of materials are used, it uses water based inks which are less harmful to the environment, it produces durable prints so garments last longer and all transfer paper is recyclable.

Where vinyl printing does need to be used, we use a solvent free, water-based polyurethane garment vinyl which is transferred using a paper transfer sheet reducing the use of plastic.

All of our packing materials are sourced with sustainability in mind. Our packing is made from a mix of cornstarch and biopolymers so they can be placed in a compost waste bin and easily dissolve into nutrient rich soil. We also don’t use swing tags on our products as it reduces the amount of paper being used and also the amount of plastic being used to attach the tag to the garment.

As a brand with an eco-friendly focus, we pride ourselves on being different and not following the fast fashion model of garment production and distribution. This is a wasteful strategy resulting in 10-30% of all clothing going unsold and ending up in landfill, therefore our make to order strategy allows us to reduce waste as there is no overproduction and every product is individually packaged to order.

TeeKee isn’t just a brand, we hope to make it a way of life. Come and join us on our journey to make the fashion industry more eco friendly and help us educate others on how we can achieve this.