Hello, I hope you are all having a nice week, here's a little summary covering some interesting topics in the field of ethical/sustainable fashion. Sit back, relax and get ready for quite a long post this time, but I still hope that I can offer you something interesting.
As I mentioned you in my previous post I attended The Ethical Fashion Source Expo last year and listened to some of the seminars organised. First up for coverage is the seminar on Innovation:
Speaker: Emily Pearce, Project Manager in EFF’s Excellence Ethical Fashion Forum
Panel: Julia Gash, Company Director of Bag it Don’t Bin it
Pieter Theron, founder of Norman Hangers
Ben Ramsden, Founder of Pants to Poverty and PI Foundation
Emily's introduction established the fact that ethical fashion is the fastest growing part of the fashion sector. To have a competitive advantage is vital in any business, and 'primary entrepreneurs in the ethical fashion sourcing sector are using creative thinking to turn challenges into opportunities' by innovation, differentiation to fill a niche in the market by invigorating their product offerings, production processes etc.
So how did the above companies create that competitive advantage to make their business thrive?
It is and ecologically driven manufacturing company based in Yorkshire, in Sheffield; innovation is essential to its existence.
The stylish, design-led, innovative,sustainable clothes hangers. It does sound a bit overwhelming, doesn't it? :)
Let's see what or who is behind this product?
Peter Theron, who previously designed CD cases from paper, decided to start producing hangers from 100% recycled paper. The first problem he faced is that it definitely had to be durable if it wanted to compete with traditional wooden, plastic hangers. once the basic idea was born, they started to think about adding further features such as the marketing tool of print surface. The number of benefits is impressive: reduction of waste, cost and CO2; space saving (flat-pack); natural, recycable, biodegradable; and the big PLUS where the innovative idea lies is the new marketing platform it establishes :)
It is and ecologically driven manufacturing company based in Yorkshire, in Sheffield; innovation is essential to its existence.
They work with eco-friendly inks; they are making bags for a wide variety of customer: retailers, schools, artists, designers etc. for events, fundraising for charities, and it is a great alternative for plastic bags that are great polluters in the planet.
They are pushing boundaries with their screen-printing tehcnique.Julia’s background is in printing as well, started as early as a child in her dad’s printing factory.They train unemployed people in Sheffield to learn the skill of screen printing, so they can become skilled printers.
They also bring design intelligence to other partners such as universities; they work very close with universities in Sheffield.
Their main aim is to engage with the end user! Therefore design is very important: they have stockist in The British Museum; they did Manolo Blahnik design on bags etc.
New Projects:
• Working with university students to design a bag with a safety feature on them. The bag from its own weight when it is packed, seals itself on the top.
• Monthly cooking (innovation not restricted only to product development but other aspects too), employ 12 young people (1st jobbers) from bad social backgrounds; teach them how to cook, take them to the shops, negotiate with the butcher, sit down and eat together
Julia considers design and innovation to be very important to encourage customers in this shift of not using any plastic bags, and switch to eco-friendly bags. Design eco-bags that are useable, the design elements make these bags unique, and can be personalized to customer’s taste too; so they become fashionable, often statement items. Also, it is essential to use their persuasive power to persuade big retailers to change their operations. We can live without them; we just need to find suitable alternatives.
They started selling pants 5 years ago, with the campaign Make Poverty History their aim was to make Nelson Mandela’s message accessible and sustainable for people.
'Underwear is the perfect tool to deliver this message: it is intimate, it is cheeky, if you’re not wearing it you are totally naked, pretty much everyone is engaged in wearing it.' (Ben)
Innovation is core to absolutely everything they do. Innovation is a form of evolution enabling people to raise their ‘underwearness’, to liberate people to Make Poverty History with Fair Trade.
'What so great about it is that fashion as an industry can link the poorest people to the richest people, and it is also the celebration of diversity and independency etc. The wealth generated on the top, often doesn’t not go down all the way to the farmers, workers.' (Ben)
They are working with 5000 farmers in India, they set up charity to support them and their work, and the farmers are in control of their lands and seeds. They are aiming for freedom of association, good living wage, and at the end of the day to make it viable both commercially and socially to reach PROFIT: social, environmental and financial.
Production, distribution and design: being inspirational in design, representing them in recycled waste fair trade cotton, and recycled cardboard boxes, recycled CD cases (children’s range packed in these cases that can be up-cycled into a pencil case)
Marketing:They are launching a campaign to take off pesticides from farms.
Financing in a socially sustainable way: it is an ongoing work, having a good product, proper distribution in 15 countries in the world.
Making customers feel a bit of ownership in their purchased sustainable brands is their important goal.
Maximum poverty is amongst people at the age of 18-25. They work with 3 YMCAs, homeless, unemployed kids, they train them up to set up sales units: they learn sales, marketing, finance, accounting; all with the view of selling their pants. Also, they are collaborating with Big Issue Vendors and 15 restaurants as retail units.Hence they are making profit through the value chain to maximize benefit for all the stakeholders in the chain, also looking at how retail can generate positive social and environmental impact on people living in poverty in this country.
Their innovation also lies in their Finanical Model: as a result of paying upfront they have a negative cash flow. They created crowd founding bonds that they sell @ £2500/bond @ 8.6% APR interest or charity. Through this they established working capital; Innovative new finance tool.
'Innovation is cool, innovation is risky, and innovation is exciting: innovation is the future.' (Ben)
What do you think? Which idea do you find the most innovative and why? What other ideas/companies do you consider innovative?
Thanks for reading this!!
xxx
Kingu
