When I was thinking about starting a sustainable business one of the things I looked into fairly early on was certification standards. In the clothing business there are a growing number of standards and certification programmes that need to be considered.

Standards in the textile industry

In the industry that I’m entering with Arketype, there are a number of potentially applicable standards – to name just a few:

• Fairtrade Cotton – Fairtrade certification for the raw fibre and textiles production
• Certified organic cotton schemes, such as USDA National Organic Program or EU 834/2007 (which takes effect in Jan 2009) – covering raw fibre production using methods that are much less impacting on the environment
• Oeko-Tex – testing and certification to limit use of certain chemicals
• Homeworkers Code of Practice – an Australian programme that accredits garment manufacturing as “No Sweatshop” (which is part of the Fairtrade cotton standard for garments manufactured in Australia)
• NoC0₂ – programme for auditing, reducing and offsetting carbon emissions

Of course there are many standards and logos which can be quite overwhelming for business owners and customers alike. The good folks at Eco-Textile News have produced an excellent guide for the TCF industry that outlines the major standards for that industry.

Even so, businesses can’t carry out all of these certifications, especially so during the start-up phase where capital (and time) are often limited. So the challenge is to be discerning about which programs we engage in.

Of course, we can also incorporate the principles of the various other programs into our practice, even if we’re not in a position to carry out certification against those standards.

Certification counter-acts the tyrrany of distance

I attended a talk recently by a member of a local food co-op and talk turned to “certified organic” produce. Many of the local growers are using organic methods, but not all are seeking certification.

In discussing this, the member explained that one of the aims of the co-op was to connect local growers with their customers directly. In breaking down this distance – creating a direct, personal connection – he argued that the need for certification is greatly reduced as a relationship is built up and trust develops.

If customers can talk directly to the farmer about their methods, perhaps even visit the farm etc., the farmer is less likely to break that trust as their customers are people they know.

In other words, it’s when distance is introduced – when the supply chain gets between the customer and the producer – that certification becomes increasingly important. The longer the supply chain, the more important certification becomes. I find it a thought-provoking alternative “approach” to achieve the same goal as certification.

For example, at a recent event held by my primary supplier, Rise Up Productions, the makers of our products were there at the event, and were introduced to us. Bronwyn Darlington, Rise Up’s founder, often visits the manufacturers and suppliers of our textiles in India – she has a personal connection to the producers – radically reducing the distance between producer and customer.

This builds confidence in me (the customer) that Rise Up are doing the right thing.

Why should we certify?

Interestingly, though, Rise Up are provide certified organic and Fairtrade cotton products, and are accredited under the Homeworkers Code of Practice. So why, given her close connection to producers, is Rise Up going through the certification process?

I can’t speak for Bronwyn and her team, but for me, certification is still important even under this circumstance for one reason: customer confidence.

Thanks to the effects of greenwashing – essentially an abuse of trust by companies who do more talking than walking – certification is essential to build confidence that what we’re doing is not just a marketing pitch and that our claims have been verified by an independent third party.

Without it, we risk being tainted with the same brush as other companies that aren’t as committed to social and environmental outcomes, but are trying to jump on the bandwagon of growing consumer interest in sustainability.

Today I’m heading down to Rise Up to pick up our second fit sample – the dress shirt. The t-shirt fit sample was good, but we’re refining it further and that’s currently with the pattern maker.

I’ve been speaking to Sonny and Biddy at We Buy Your Kids (WBYK) about creating the designs for the initial range of tees. I’ve also been talking further with sustainable fashion designer Timo Rissanen about working together. So far our discussions and the ideas being generated have been very promising.

(As an aside, be sure to head down to Incu at The Galleries Victoria and check out WBYK’s instore displays – v. cool!)

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking on the business plan (especially in light the current economic climate) and have been doing some more market research. I’ve come to a point, though, where I could really use the help of someone with solid retail management experience involved in the project.

So if you happen to know someone (in Australia, pref. Sydney) who’s working in fashion retail as a manager (or store owner) – i.e. someone who has managed a store or perhaps is interested in starting their own fashion retail business, who has experience in the area and knowledge about volumes etc. – that you think might be interested in engaging on the project, please feel free to pass on my details or let me know.

Recently the designer that has been working on the project became unavailable due to other work commitments. While we’ve made significant progress on the designs, there is still a lot to do – selecting fabrics and finalising the patterns among them.

My initial response was one of disappointment. This possibly (probably?) means that I won’t have a range ready for the Summer 09/10 selling season in February.

Although it’s a fair way away, the combination of this being the label’s first collection, ethical manufacturing lead times, and just generally the fact that I’m not on the project full time, mean that the delay in finding and engaging a new designer, and pattern maker (as the pattern maker was of close relation to Susan) means that we just won’t be ready in time.

However, after that initial sense of disappointment, I’ve come to realise that perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise.

In stepping back, outside the forest as it were, and re-assessing things I’ve realised that, in my rush to meet a deadline, I’ve lost sight of some of the initial vision that I had for the business.

I was, to an extent, falling into the trap of doing things because “it’s the way it’s done” rather than being true to my original vision for the label. I was also trying, I think, to force some things, rather than letting them unfold in a more authentic and organic way.

So I’ve decided to “ship when it’s ready” rather than trying to meet some arbitrary deadline. Of course, I’ll still need to take into consideration the realities of selling into a wholesale market, but I want to do things differently, and I’ll need to learn to be patient (not one of my strong points, I must admit) and let it unfold, rather than pushing things through for the sake of it.

Anyways… I’m currently working on doing a merchandising project for Mars Hill Cafe, and I’m catching up with Timo Rissanen, a PhD candidate at UTS who’s sustainable menswear exhibition “Bad Dogs” I caught last week, to see if there’s some way we might be able to work together.

So, in other words, keeping busy and keeping moving things along

Rise Up is trying to aggregate demand for such fabrics to enable smaller labels, such as myself, to be able to access such fabrics more affordably, and in smaller quantities.

I spotted this press release in a trade publication the other day, but couldn’t find it online, so I’m reproducing it here to help “spread the word”.

Opportunity to collaboratively purchase eco-friendly fabrics

Rise Up Productions is looking for designers interested in working collaboratively to source eco-friendly fabrics from around the globe.

Managing director Bronwyn Darlington said she hoped designers would collectively purchase eco-friendly fabrics to secure more reasonable pricepoints.

“By buying collectively, we might be able to introduce these fabrics into the market,” she said.

And she stressed the fabric sources she used offered a high quality that could easily be sought by after by local designers.

“We don’t deal with people who are working with experimental handicrafts, we are working with those who have been supplying Europe for years,” she said.

“The fabrics perform excellently and offer exceptional printability. We are also able to specify exactly the make-up of the fabric and we look at every step in the production process.”

She stressed volume buying was essential to secure an affordable price.

“Sustainable fabrics are not the cheapest,” she said.

Darlington is also determined to build a profit-for-purpose business creating clothing labels that have a minimal environmental footprint.

For example, pyjamas in the Rise Up range are made in Australia from Fair Trade certified cotton from India and any profit from their sale will be put towards an Oxfam donation. Similarly, sales of hoodies in the collection will lead to profits going to Opportunity International.

“The concept is eco-sustainability and a minimum footprint and that we give all our profit away,” Darlington said.

She plans to soon launch a second higher end fashion label called Ayoka.

Darlington suggested the significant consumer spending dollar was larger than funds competed for by charities.

“The consumer dollar is much bigger and we need to think more creatively to channel those funds into worthy projects,” she said.

That picture probably doesn’t look like much (esp. given the crappy quality courtesy of my mobile phone’s camera), but it represents a mini-milestone that I thought was worth celebrating – with blog post at least. It’s elements of the first pattern of the first range for the label – for the dress shirt.

I’m sure this will become old hat one day – not even worthy of a blog post – but this being the first is a little victory for me, and one that I think should be celebrated in its own little way

There are more designs and patterns to come – we’re planning a February launch to wholesalers (for the summer 09/10 season) of around 6 pieces with a few variations for each – but this is the first off the ranks. It’s also the first “tangible” (i.e. “real world”) artifact that’s resulted from the work I’ve been doing on the label. (It’s also further than I ever got before, so it’s nice to be over the first hurdle.)

We’ll be using it to create a fit sample – that is, testing the basic pattern for the cut etc. – and then we’ll be developing patterns for the variations on the piece.

I’ve been speaking to Bronwyn at RiseUp productions about manufacturing. She has been working for some time to develop a Fairtrade/ethical supply chain for manufacturing clothing and textiles, and has really covered all the bases.

So the first samples (dress shirt and t-shirt) will be coming from RiseUp within the next few weeks, Murphy willing. Hopefully I’ll have more to report soon.

The research project is also complete. The final report provided a lot of clarity on where we should focus. Big props to Nat at Red Rollers for doing such an amazing job, and to the 6 research participants who shared just a little of their lives to help us along.

Big props also to Susan Goodwin (who’s designing the range) for guiding me through the process – her generosity of knowledge has been a tremendous help.

In fact, everyone I’ve dealt with so far – Paula from the Fair Trading Co, Nick at Organic Cotton Advantage, Nat, Susan and Bronwyn have all been extremely generous with their time, knowledge and have each been immensely supportive in their own way. It’s been great so far – I hope the positivity continues (although I am sure there’ll be some challenges on the way)…

I’m learning a lot, which has been great (I love learning – one of my favourite things in the world) – but I’ve still got a way to go. I’m doing a short course with RMIT on textiles in August/September which I hope will help me along as well.

Oh, and during the research period I also decided on a label name (i.e. the “Soko Loko” moniker is no more). I’m speaking to some folks at the moment about developing the visual ID, so I’ll announce the name when I’ve got a nice logo to show y’all

The news this week, of course, is that Nau have called it a day (more here and here).

Check over the fold for my further thoughts on Nau’s farewell.

My first response was disappointment – it’s sad to see a company you admire so much closing it’s doors (a quick review of my del.icio.us feed demonstrates my level of interest).

The Nau website notice of the closure says:

“[Nau] set out to show the world that business can be a force for positive social and environmental change. Although our current financial obstacles have proven to be insurmountable, it does not mean the ideas associated with Nau are unattainable. Nau was merely one attempt to express a larger idea that was around before us and will survive long after. It remains as urgent as ever for businesses to take the lead in creating a sustainable future for humans and the planet. We, as individuals and as members of a grander collective of the change-minded, look forward to continuing that journey.

It certainly inspired me to make am attempt, on the other side of the world. So my second response was “man, it’s even more important that I make this work” because we need more and more examples of successful sustainable businesses to demonstrate that it is feasible, possible and profitable.

No proof

No doubt some will point to Nau’s experience as “proof” that sustainable fashion won’t work. It had some high-profile names and a chunk of cash to get it off the ground, with a vision of becoming a significant player in the retail space.

I think that’s unfair though – I’m fairly confident they would have succeeded too, had the investment environment not been so bleak at the moment due to the “credit crunch”.

Nau’s strategy

As someone that expects to seek investment to get my own ideas off the ground, it’s important for me to look at this event with open eyes – asking what can I learn from Nau’s closure, and how can I demonstrate to potential investors why my venture is different – why it will succeed where an enterprise like Nau has not.

A couple of key points about Nau’s strategy (as I understand it from the public sources I’ve read):

• New sustainable fabrics made from advanced materials, requiring significant design investment, but also increasing the cost of the source materials significantly;
• The “webfront” idea in an effort to reduce retail overheads etc. with über-sustainable fitout (down to custom made recycled cardboard mannequins!)
• Nau eschewed wholesaling instead focusing on a pure retail play (something that I’m still considering, but certainly food for thought)
• Plans for rapid retail expansion, requiring significant investment, to counter the low gross-margins (reported to be 72% gross, which is a lot less than typical retail margins that exceed 100%)

Nau had 60+ employees, and reportedly churned through USD$34 million in cash over 14 months of operation.

What’s different?

I’m not comparing my vision with Nau’s – it’s nothing on the scale of Nau (although I am inspired by their ambition!). But in terms of some of the differences: I’m looking to create a small scale venture that can grow organically, though still fairly quickly – testing ideas in the retail and product space with a much lower cash burn rate.

The business will also focus, at least initially (I’d love to expand that over time), on established, “tried and true” fabrics and textiles – esp. organic cotton.

I am a great admirer of the work Nau did in this area, and I think the industry will benefit from their efforts. But that work came at a cost – some suppliers reportedly weren’t even making money on the fabrics they were selling to Nau, using them as a loss-leader and R&D exercise.

Using organic cotton does increase the garment cost, but not so much as to impact margins quite as extensively as Nau experienced.

I also expect that wholesaling will make up at least part of the sales mix. Even based on the preliminary work I’ve done on budget estimates, it’s clear that a multi-channel approach (incl. online, wholesaling and retailing) will be required. While the business can’t rely on wholesaling alone, I think it will be an important revenue stream for the business.

Lastly, the business won’t be dependent on rapid retail growth (more a longer-term franchise model), nor on extensive fitouts (Nau’s sustainable webfronts were amazing in this regard) – looking to reduce costs by using recycled and reclaimed materials while maintaining a stylish, attractive and locally authentic vibe.

All in all these approaches require far less capital than the rapid growth, high-tech approach of Nau. Hopefully these differences, and other aspects of the business plan (once it’s ready) will be strong enough to get over the hurdle for investors to take on the venture.

But perhaps it will be just a little bit harder without a leading light like Nau to point to to bolster my case.

Ever since I first worked with Digital Eskimo (while I was working on the Future is man made site re-launch for WWF) I’ve really admired their approach to using qualitative research methods to underpin their work.

The research we did for the FiMM site was really valuable and useful – giving us a much clearer picture of where sustainability fits in people’s lives and what sort of site/support people would find most benefit in.

So, in starting down the path of launching a new business, I felt strongly about embarking on a research project to underpin the brand and product development.

Keep reading over the jump for more information about the research process.

Update: I was remiss in not mentioning that I was first introduced to the idea of ethnographic style research for business and the web by Stephen Cox, who is now doing great work at News Limited.

Although I can’t afford some of the more innovative approaches (like “Mobile Diaries”) that Digital Eskimo employ, I have begun working with Natalie from Red Rollers about carrying out a (smaller scale) research project incorporating what Natalie calls “in context interviews and the use of cultural probes”.

The research involves 6 participants sharing their thoughts on a few different themes, including:

• Men’s attitudes and behaviours relating to fashion and clothing purchases
• Exploring men’s fashion brands in terms of appeal, loyalty and personal experiences with different clothing brands
• Investigating attitudes towards ethical brands generally, and clothing more specifically
• The key influencers in men’s lives when it comes to fashion and clothing – who or what influences the brands on their radar and in their wardrobes – and how
• Understanding the role of the retail experience and the media when it comes to influencing men’s brand preferences and their role in the shopping process.

The picture at the top of this article shows the packs that are going out to participants in advance of the first interviews commencing next week. They outline a few exercises that our participants will undertake to help inform the interview process and to provide some more in-depth information for our research. It’s a very exciting step for me – the first really solid investment in the new business.

If my previous experience is anything to go by we’ll get some really interesting insights that will help to develop a successful label – I’m really looking forward to what we can learn…

I’ve also been wanting to find some more obscure tshirt labels since Threadless tees are seemingly popping up everywhere nowadays. Plus I wanted a bit of a change, given most of my tees are Threadless already.

In watching my Facebook news feed I saw they’d become a fan of the-affair, figuring that was the label they were talking about, and sure enough it was them.

I checked out the website and subscribed to the blog. I dig the tees and the branding, and the other week took the plunge and purchased two tees.

More about my impressions of the tees and American Apparel over the jump…

As a fan of William Gibson I couldn’t go past Corto’s Crash (I’d link to the tee directly except the site is all Flash with no URL munging to make it bookmarkable), and I liked the subversiveness of Muslim Jesus. I had a bit of trouble actually ordering on the site due to the small size of my MacBook monitor (I couldn’t select the size from the popup list), but after a bit of fiddling got it to work.

Once translated into AU$ the cost (GBP25) adds up, but I figured I’d support a fledgling label and rack up the extra cost as research. The tees arrived pretty quickly and are printed on American Apparel cotton tees. The packaging is pretty cool – black shipping bags with great branding.

I’m personally not a massive fan of American Apparel product (as I’ve mentioned before) – the weight of the cotton is too thin for my liking and the body is a bit long – but a lot of my friends really dig them and overall they feel pretty good. If you’re looking for an alternative aesthetic to the “Threadless style” of tee, definitely worth checking out.

Overall a good quality product, though I’m not convinced they’re worth the AUD$60 given they’re not organic cotton and in the end are just printed AA tees. For comparison, Threadless tees are USD$15 – which works out to be a AUD$20-25 (depending on how many you get and the cost of shipping).

Sweatshop free?

As an aside, American Apparel claim to be “sweatshop free”, though I found this quote (from this interview with founder Dov Charney) interesting:

For us “sweatshop free” was never about criticizing other business models; it was about attempting something new. It comes down to this: not blindly outsourcing, but rather knowing the faces of our workers and providing them the opportunity to make a fair wage.

The interview goes on to address criticisms that American Apparel is “anti-union” (claims I’ve heard elsewhere). Clearly it’s not a cut and dried argument (along similar lines to what I’ve discussed before about doing the right thing but not getting certified).

Perhaps part of the reason for “de-emphasising” the sweatshop free angle is because of the criticism such a claim invokes if you’re not dotting all the Is crossing all the Ts by becoming certified. This kind of behaviour is something Joel Makower talks about a lot with legitimate efforts by companies to go green being written off as greenwash because they aren’t doing absolutely everything that activists are asking for.

But again this just hits home to me that certification is so important for businesses wanting to market on doing what they can to have a clean supply chain – it builds customer trust which is so critical in today’s market.

Granted, there were a few booths with organic cotton, hemp or bamboo offerings. Bamboo Body were there, along with Eco Wear and Pure Pod – but there were probably less than a dozen offerings in the full exhibition center area, and of those only one had menswear (tshirts).

The organisers claimed that there was an “eco-fashion” precinct – but this turned out to be 6 stalls, one of which was linen, and the other was Drizabone – included because they use Australian sheep which is a “natural fibre” (supposedly we’re meant to overlook the immense damage sheep grazing causes on the environment.)

I spoke to a couple of merchandising and shop-fitout suppliers at the show, and it seems that they haven’t yet received word that “green is the new black”. Not one could answer even the most basic questions about eco-friendly shop fittings – they had none. One at least made an attempt, claiming their mannequins were recyclable, but I’ve yet to find evidence to back up that claim.

There were two paper bag companies I spoke to – one responded to my question about recycled bags with “you’d want to look at our natural finished product”. When I asked about the recycled content of the bags, he acknowledged there was none!

Paper Pak, on the other hand, seemed to have a good range of blended recycled material with sustainably managed virgin pulp – and the sales rep didn’t try to bullshit me. He explained that they used water based inks, improving the enviro credentials, but that the adhesives were problematic from a biodegradability standpoint. Still more research to go, but a good start at least on that front.

Overall it was worth the visit to review – but not overly inspiring. I’m currently also reading Eco Chic which serves as a stark reminder as to why I got into this game in the first place. But more on the broken-ness of the system in another post…

Consulting biz: Zumio

Preparations for my consulting biz are going well – the name is Zumio, and I’ve started a blog (of course!) covering work related stuff – esp. posts on social media and networking, with a bit of emphasis on non-profit/social change.

I was waiting until I’d created the site design etc. that reflects the Zumio visual ID etc., but it might be a couple of weeks before that’s done, so worth making mention of it now…

I’ve got a few bookings already post my departure from working as an employee at Digital Eskimo. (Happily I’ll be continuing working with the eskimos as a freelancer on some projects into the future.)

Menswear label: Soko Loko

The menswear label has a “working title”: Soko Loko – I call it “working title” because I’m still working on sourcing a designer and developing the business plan, so I’m not 100% sure the name will stick.

I’ve been busy attending another series of courses at Sydney Community College covering a lot of the practicalities of starting your own label in NSW. Susan Goodwin, who designs and runs street-wear label Rocket Fuel, as well as freelancing for some more well known labels, is running the courses. She’s been an invaluable source of hard-won information about the industry, how it ticks, and how we can make our own label succeed. (Further courses are planned in May – keep an eye on the college’s site if you’re interested.)

Over the next month or two I should have a bit more to talk about in that regard (as much of my time has been focused on establishing the consulting gigs). Suffice to say that so far things have been progressing well.

Fuzu

My band Fuzu have been on a little bit of a self-imposed hiatus as we search for a keyboardist (we’d been jamming with someone who’s unfortunately moving to Melbourne) and finalise the artwork. Toby has come up with some promising photos that may become the cover art, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer…

In related news, we’re no longer the only Fuzu in town – seems a certain gorilla at Toronga Zoo liked the name, which apparently means “to graduate”.

Strange, but true…