Challenges I Faced as a Sustainable Brand (So Far)

Studying fashion opened my eyes to the terrible effects of the fashion industry on the environment and people. So, making the decision to start a sustainable brand instead of a ‘regular’ brand wasn’t something I even had to think about. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but it was either be sustainable or not be at all.

And a challenge it has been! Even though I know I am doing the right thing, facing all these difficulties, in addition to the normal setbacks of starting a company, can be very demotivating. I’d be lying if I said I never think about quitting (like on a weekly basis, to be honest). I won’t, though, because even when everything seems rather bleak, I just can’t help but love a challenge! If you’re curious about the challenges I’ve had to deal with so far, then keep reading 😁!

 

Sourcing Materials

The most important thing in my swim shorts is the fabric—it’s what makes them different from all the other swim shorts on the market today. So, this is where I started my journey: by searching for this special fabric. It turns out there are a lot of fabrics out there, and I looked into roughly 50 different kinds before I found Amni Soul Eco®. This whole endeavour took me about 4–5 months!

Once I set my mind on using Amni Soul Eco®, I had to find a factory that made it, which meant I had to request samples. A lot of emails and calls to many different factories resulted in me receiving several samples. This process took a good 2 months, and although most of them weren’t what I was looking for, I found 2 good options (and yes, one of them is what we’ve used for our shorts!). Using sustainable materials means it takes much longer to find what you want and where you can get it.

I went through the same process to find the recycled polyester fabric I needed for the net lining and pockets. I found a biodegradable option for this, which was really cool! Unfortunately, it was so rough on the skin that I had to look for another option. I hope that one day I’ll find a better solution 🙂! Of course, I still needed other components like elastics, cords, and labels (these are called trims). This turned out to be difficult, and after requesting several samples, I still hadn’t found what I was looking for. So, I went to Modtissimo, a fabric, trims, and garment manufacturer convention in Porto, Portugal.

 

Production

Surprise, surprise! This turned out to be more challenging than I thought. I left Porto with high hopes, but after sending out the emails with my sketches—and with the info on which fabrics I wanted to use and that all the trims had to be sustainable—quite a few of them told me they couldn’t do it. Even some that had seemed promising pulled out, saying it would be too challenging or take too much time.

Fortunately, I was left with an amazing family-run company. They weren’t manufacturers themselves but acted as middlemen. They had contacts with different manufacturers and could find those who could cater to my sustainability needs. This meant I didn’t have to source my own trims anymore. After so much research and so many setbacks, that was a relief!

Of course, after deciding who to work with, a long road followed. I had to make a lot of hard decisions about trims, colours, fit, timeline, etc. After their first sample, I decided to make a sample myself so I could fit it on the models, adjust it, and then give it back to them to replicate. In the end, 3 samples were made before real production began. (I plan on making a post about this part of the journey too 🙂!)

Once production started, I faced more challenges. First, they couldn’t get enough blue fabric. Luckily, they were okay with making fewer than their MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity), which was set at 100 shorts per colour. Since they didn’t have enough fabric for 100 shorts, they said they would make as many as they could (78 blue shorts were made in the end). Phew, disaster avoided! But then… there was a delay in the labels. Not too bad, you might think. Think again.

They finished all the shorts without the labels, then moved on to another project for a different client. For my shorts, they had been using the special Amni Soul Eco® thread (the same as our fabric), but because they had moved on to another project, they forgot about this and used their usual polyester thread to sew on the labels! It’s really only about 2 cm, but still, it caused some issues in terms of how to advertise the shorts. Saying, "Sewn with Amni Soul Eco® thread" wouldn’t really be true anymore. And that brings us to:

 

Transparency and Greenwashing

You might think the thread issue is so minor that most companies wouldn’t blink an eye and would just brush it off. But to me, and to Draquis, transparency is one of the most important things, even with small issues like this. I always say, “To be a sustainable brand is to be a transparent brand.” If you’re not open about your practices, how are people going to know you’re really being sustainable or working toward sustainable goals?

Many brands claim to be sustainable or have sustainable goals but don’t provide much information about how they achieve these things. So, they make false claims about their sustainable efforts. This is called greenwashing. Unfortunately, they’re pretty good at it, and people believe them. This is a brief explanation, but I promise to write more about greenwashing in the future.

At Draquis, we want people to know we do what we say we do. This means I also acknowledge that there’s still work to do to become more sustainable. And that’s okay. Nobody starts out being ‘perfect’ (I know there’s no such thing as perfect, but you know what I mean).

There will always be things to improve on, but if you’re not open about this, how will people believe you actually want to become more and more sustainable 🙂? It’s hard, though, because it always feels like it’s not good enough. And in a way, it isn’t, especially when it comes to the environment and people. We always have to strive to be better!

 

Balancing Sustainability and Profitability

Have you ever wondered why sustainable fashion is often more expensive? I hope the information above already gave you some insights into why that is. When things are less available and less common, the price goes up. It sucks, but that’s how it is.

Garment manufacturers in countries like India, China, and Bangladesh often do not get paid a living wage, meaning they work but aren’t able to make ends meet. A “living wage” is the minimum pay required for workers and their families to have a decent life. This is not the same as a “minimum wage,” which is the lowest legal amount employers are allowed to pay. Often, manufacturers pay their workers only the legal minimum wage, which is usually lower than the living wage. A fact I found: “Of the 75 million garment workers around the world, only 2% earn a living wage.” That honestly breaks my heart.

We are so used to paying very little for our clothing, but remember this: “Somewhere, someone is paying for it.” When you think about it, how can a company really make a profit on a €5 t-shirt? There are material costs, transportation costs, profit for the brand, profit for the manufacturer, overhead costs, and costs for the garment maker. Where do you think they’re cutting costs? Yep, garment workers’ wages.

This is why I decided to get my shorts made in Europe instead of Asia. I’m not saying all the places in Asia are bad, but it’s harder for me to check if the company I work with is really sticking to the rules. Now, just because I manufacture in Europe doesn’t automatically mean it’s all good. There are, of course, also places here that cut corners on workers' rights. This is why I went to see the manufacturer myself!

So now we have higher labour costs and higher costs for fabrics and trims. And because I’m a small company, I don’t get thousands of items made, but only 100 of each colour, which raises the price even more. The more you produce, the lower the cost per item. The fewer items you produce, the higher the cost per item. Often, sustainable brands are much smaller than big fast fashion brands, which means they produce fewer items.

 

All These Doubts

Starting a sustainable brand is definitely not easy, especially if you have no prior knowledge of starting a company because WOW! That alone is already very challenging. It's basically a double challenge, right!?

Sometimes I do have doubts, like: “Am I doing the right thing?” or “Should I have done it differently?” But I believe that almost everyone who starts a company or brand—whether sustainable or not—has these thoughts. They’re part of the process, I think. So yes, sustainability does add an extra difficulty, but I’m happy I chose this path. And I kind of want to say: “I’m ready for the next challenge!” but in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind a quick break hahaha!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and I will start working on a blog that goes more in-depth about greenwashing and another about garment workers. I’m personally very excited to learn more about these topics and would love to share what I find with you. See you for the next one!