Rishan Cooray
Date Posted:6 November 2025

Why choosing accredited decoration services matters more than you think.
When you’re sourcing uniforms for your team, you’re not just making decisions about fit, function or price. You’re also choosing where your money goes. At Hip Pocket Workwear & Safety Ballarat, that choice has always been local. And now it’s officially recognised.
We are accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia for our in-house embroidery, Direct-to-Film (DTF) printing, and Alteration services conducted at our Wendouree store here in Ballarat. It’s a recognition of the values of fairness, quality and accountability that we’ve built our business on.
Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA) is a national accreditation body that ensures local garment workers are paid correctly, receive their legal entitlements, and work in safe conditions. To become accredited, businesses must undergo an independent audit of their operations. This includes internal employees and any local outworkers.
Although ECA is best known for accrediting garment manufacturers, it also recognises value-adding services like ours, which include embroidery, printing and alterations done onshore, in-house, and under fair conditions.
Our ECA accreditation covers only the embroidery, DTF printing, and alteration services that we conduct in-house at our Wendouree store.
This means if you are ordering uniforms decorated with embroidery or high-resolution DTF prints directly through us, and the work is done here in Ballarat, you can trust it meets Australian standards for ethical production.
Other services, such as sublimation which is not performed in-house, are not covered by this accreditation.
For over 25 years, Hip Pocket Ballarat has supplied workwear, safety gear and decorated uniforms to businesses across Ballarat and regional Victoria. Over that time, we’ve built an experienced in-house decoration team that now handles thousands of garments every year.
Becoming accredited through Ethical Clothing Australia was a natural next step. It confirms what our customers have long supported; local work, ethical values, and trust you can see stitched into every uniform.
When you choose an ECA-accredited decorator, you are supporting local jobs and ethical production. It also helps your business align with procurement policies that favour transparency and fair treatment of workers.
This is especially important for:
By sourcing decorated uniforms locally through an accredited service, you are making a responsible choice that reflects well on your brand and your values.
Looking for embroidery or print work that aligns with ethical production standards? Our in-house production team can help with:
We believe ethical practice and business performance go hand in hand. With our accreditation, you can now choose uniform decoration that is not only local and high quality, but also independently verified.
Your uniforms represent your business. When you decorate them with Hip Pocket Ballarat, they can reflect your values too.
You can learn more about our Garment Decoration options on our website.
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