We were very honored to be featured in a NY Times story about the impending expansion of Textile Recycling as part of the city’s recycling program.  Though it is still very early in the selection program, Wearable’s does not appear to be able to participate in the new program due to our For-Profit status.  We are extremely disappointed by this and will keep you up to date on any news. But, thanks to NY times for bringing some light to the subject.

Courtesy of our friend Mike Lieberman

Wearable Collections wants to be clear that we are here for you, fashion industry. There is no need for you to be slashing your clothes and sending them to landfills. There has to be a better solution.  If you read the NYTimes, or one of our faves, racked.com (photo courtesy of Racked), you may have noticed the hub-bub H & M have brought upon themselves by slashing and tossing perfectly good apparel.   We are not even going to pretend to  know what goes on in the mind of some  corporations.  We do know that it is customary for them to slash samples and returns. Obviously, the companies have a right to protect proprietary designs. It just seems wrong on multiple levels in this era both economically and environmentally to be continuing these rituals.  Wearable Collections would like to offer our service to to any company who would like to break this habit.  We are already collecting nearly 100,000 lbs of used clothing a month in the NYC metro area.  We could easily include any and all of your stores as part of our daily collections. We can even provide you with a clothing recycling bin free of charge so that your customers can easily recycle clothes within your stores.  Once the clothing is collected, it is brought to a sorting facility to determine a new home for it.  Industry standard calls for 50% of these items to be re-used as second hand clothing,  providing cheap clothing in emerging markets, 25% of the collected items will be used as rags in heavy industry, and 20 % is sent to facilities where they are broken down into fibers to be re-used as low grade fiber products. From any load 95-97% will be re-used in one form or another.  We provide our service at no-cost to our partners and will donate 20% of the gross proceeds of the sale of the clothing to the charity of our partner’s choice. H & M should know, no one has to lose!

To join the Wearable Collections clothing recycling program please e-mail us at info@wearablecollections.com

Passion- Your idea needs to be something you are passionate about.  You will be dedicating endless hours and energy to your project so it needs to be something you enjoy thinking about, and something that really drives your interest.  You will need to sell your idea to others , your passion will give them confidence to support you.

Think Local- Think of problems/needs facing your local community, master them, become an expert on them. Chances are there are other communities facing the same problems and that your solutions can be transferrable to other communities.

Demand – Make sure that there is a demand for your idea/product/project.  The first step to any project is doing a google search and seeing if it exist.  However, just because it exists does not mean you shouldn’t do it.  There are always ways to modernize and evolve others ideas.  If you could produce anything in the world (to make money)what would it be? It would probably be a product that everybody uses.  Think of ways to put modern touches on existing products. Making them greener is certainly one way.  Sourcing them locally is another twist. There are also ways to use different technologies to enhance communications and break through existing barriers.

Be Capitalized-  Try and be honest with yourself about the costs of implementing your idea.  Growing the project can take a lot more time than you estimated so be prepared financially both for your organization and personally because it may be a while before you are taking a paycheck.  Once you have proven the concept it will take capital to scale.

Branding- Your public image is extremely important.  Be clear what your mission is and how you plan on achieving it. Simple things like the name of your company can be the difference between success and failure.  If you say you are an eco-friendly company, you need to consider the marketing materials you use for promotion, the energy your organization uses, and the products you stand by. Fact is, every aspect of your business should be aligned with this mission and ought to be clearly conveyed in your marketing collateral.

Put your social responsibility where your mouth is- If you are going to brand yourself as a socially responsible company you need to follow through on this statement.  People are very aware of organizations using marketing tools to tug at their heartstrings but not backing up their claims with proper actions

Transparency- The more information you give to the community the more likely your organization will garner their trust.  When the community trusts you they are more likely to help you spread your idea and engage in your project

Partner, Partner, Partner- Spend every ounce of available mental capacity you have thinking about what other organizations would benefit from working with you and which organizations you would benefit from working with.  Sometimes the best partnerships are the least obvious. Your ability to tie your story into the stories of others is probably one of the largest components of scaling it, and making it viral. Don’t be afraid to use your network.

Become Familiar with Social Media Tools- It should be a given that every company needs a website as their calling card, but what might not be so obvious is how social media tools can help every organization.  Other than your time, or the time and cost of an employee or intern, these tools are essentially free and give you access to hundreds of millions of potential customers, fans, and clients.  Marketing costs can take up a huge percentage of any company’s budget.  These tools reduce the costs significantly.  I would recommend that on your website you have a blog to report constant updates, and at be active on both Facebook and Twitter.  These tools give you the ability to spread the word quickly to those who want it and gives them the ability to share this valuable information

Be prepared to play every role in your organization.  When you start your organization you will need to fill many roles: Public Relations, Business Development, Financier, Human Resources, etc…  As your organization grows you will need to invoke these skills to fill the gaps created by an ever changing environment.  There is no room to be one-dimensional.  Coming up with a special idea is great, but it takes a special person to be able to implement it.

Today we placed a clothing recycling bin inside (eco)compasion, greenfinds.com store at 2 great jones st. This bin is open to the public. So people in the village feel free to drop off your used clothes and get some eco-holiday presents for loved ones.