THE PASSION PROJECT

“When I was at home looking after our nine-month-old baby, my husband Michael was working at one of the big four banks. He would wear these fun, quirky socks to work that were a huge conversation starter. I was bored at home, so I decided to launch a sock brand. We had tens of thousands of subscribers, and delivered to more than 70 countries. Michael eventually left his bank job to work with me full-time.

One day he was clearing out his sock drawer and said, ‘Where should I put these?’ We realised that you can’t send second-hand socks to charity because they’re worn and you [shouldn’t] put them in the bin. That sparked the idea of launching the world’s first sock take-back program, where we not only took back the socks we sold, but accepted every other sock brand as well. In four months we diverted more than 15,000 kilograms of socks from landfill.

We had such an engaged community in Australia and they were saying, ‘Why can’t we send you other textiles too?’ So we broadened our scope, and since 2020 we’ve diverted more than 4.5 million textiles from landfill through our business Upparel.

The best thing about my job is that we are a purpose-driven brand. I have three kids and what we do today is for the next generation.

It’s so rewarding when other companies ask how they can get involved. For example, we’ve partnered with Vanish Australia in pledging to divert one million clothing items from landfill over two years to help #MakeTextileWasteVanish. It’s a nice feeling to know you can make a difference.”

For more, go to upparel.com.au and vanishstains.com.au/make-textile-waste-vanish/.