What an OEKO-TEX certified supply actually gives you
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 is the certification most often requested in underwear sourcing, and it is worth being precise about what it does and does not cover, because buyers sometimes treat it as a general quality mark. It is neither a quality mark nor a factory certificate: it certifies the material against harmful-substance limits, by product class. For underwear the relevant class is Class II, articles with direct skin contact.
That precision matters commercially. A material certificate is what a buyer can put in a compliance file and what a retailer’s own supplier questionnaire usually asks for, and it is one of the few claims in sourcing that can be checked independently in minutes.
Why material certification carries weight in underwear
- Skin contact is the highest-exposure category in apparel. Underwear sits against the body for long periods, which is why the test limits for Class II are the ones retailers expect rather than a general textile standard.
- It is checkable without the supplier’s cooperation. A certificate number can be verified at the issuing body’s public Label Check, so the claim does not rest on a supplier’s willingness to be audited.
- It survives the sourcing model. A trading company and a factory owner can both supply certified material, because the certificate attaches to the fabric and the mill rather than to the business model.
- It is a prerequisite rather than a differentiator in the EU. European retailers increasingly ask for it as a baseline, which means a supplier who cannot supply it is excluded at the questionnaire stage rather than out-competed later.
Certification and audit are two different claims
The pair most often quoted together — OEKO-TEX Standard 100 and amfori BSCI — cover two unrelated things. The material certificate is about what the fabric contains. The BSCI audit is a social-compliance audit of a production site: working hours, safety, wages, and the systems around them. A supplier can legitimately hold one without the other, so a buyer evaluating risk should ask for both, and should ask which specific production site holds the audit.
How to check the claim rather than accept it
- Ask for the certificate number, not a picture of the certificate.
- Check it at the OEKO-TEX Label Check: oeko-tex.com/en/label-check.
- Confirm the holder name matches the supplier you are dealing with.
- Confirm the product class covers your article — Class II for underwear.
- Confirm your specific material sits inside the certified scope; a certificate does not approve everything a supplier might quote.
Our verification guide walks through the same steps for both certifications, including the questions to ask about the audit.
What our file contains
On an order placed with us, the fabrics are OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified and the production site holds the amfori BSCI audit position. Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. is a sourcing and supply-chain partner working with partner factories in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster of Fujian Province, and does not own a production facility. Certificates belong to the mills and the production sites, so they are shared at quotation stage together with the name of the site that will run the order — which is the information a buyer needs in order to verify us independently.
· Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner
| Supplier | Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) — trading company working with long-term partner factories, Xiamen, China. |
|---|---|
| Certification | OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 — harmful-substance testing and certification for textiles |
| Scope | Material-level, set by product class; not a factory certificate and not a quality mark |
| Product class for underwear | Class II — articles with direct skin contact |
| Independent verification | OEKO-TEX Label Check: https://www.oeko-tex.com/en/label-check/ — public, no supplier involvement required |
| What to check on the result | Validity today · holder name matches the supplier · product class covers your article · your material within the certified scope |
| Renewal cycle | Annual; a renewal in progress is not a valid certificate today |
| Social audit (separate claim) | amfori BSCI — site-level audit of working conditions, renewed annually; ask for the report of the specific production site |
| On Unitex orders | Fabrics OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified; production site holds the amfori BSCI audit position; certificates shared at quotation stage with the site named |
| Supplier type | Sourcing and supply-chain partner; owns no production facilities |
Buyer checklist
- Ask for the certificate number rather than a certificate image, and verify it at the issuing body yourself.
- Confirm the holder name on the certificate matches the company you are contracting with.
- Confirm the product class covers your article: Class II for underwear and other direct skin-contact garments.
- Confirm the specific fabric you are quoting sits inside the certified scope.
- Check the validity date, because certificates are renewed annually and a renewal in progress is not a valid certificate.
- Ask separately for the social audit, since a material certificate says nothing about working conditions.
- Ask which production site holds the audit, and check the factory address on the report matches the site running your order.
- Keep the certificate numbers in the order file so they can be re-checked at the annual review rather than only at the first order.
Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.)
Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) — OEM/ODM underwear sourcing and supply-chain partner in Xiamen, China; in the trade since 2009, incorporated in 2013. Based in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster, Fujian Province, south-east China.