His sustainable clothing may be fashionable now and in 30 years
The difference between price and value is one of the toughest lessons for some consumers to learn.
Many years ago, I spent an afternoon in Nairobi chatting with a U.S. executive working for Eveready East Africa. She was relating the challenge in persuading customers to stop using carbon zinc batteries and start buying alkaline equivalents.
The company wanted to shut down the ancient carbon zinc line, but those models were 5 percent cheaper than the alkaline batteries, and too many East Africans wanted to save those two or three shillings, even if the newer batteries lasted 10 times longer. Eveready couldn’t simply take the carbon zinc models off the market because it faced competition from Chinese manufacturers, and the company would lose market share.
Seduced by the lowest price, and to some degree loyal to a favored brand, too many poor people ended up paying much more in the long run to listen to their handheld radios. But before you think only poor people in developing countries make this mistake, consider your recent purchases.
Did you buy the Volvo instead of the Hyundai? Did you buy a lithium battery instead of an alkaline? Did you buy a discount store T-shirt instead of one with a 30-year guarantee?
Yes, you can buy T-shirts and sweatshirts with a 30-year guarantee from a man who is not yet 30 himself.
Entrepreneur Tom Cridland started his eponymous clothing
line three years ago after learning that fashion is the second-most polluting industry in the world, just behind oil and natural gas. That ranking shouldn’t be surprising when you consider what it takes to produce fibers, create textiles, treat the cloth, make the clothes and then deliver them to a customer base that includes almost every person on earth.
The environmental impact has only worsened with the arrival of socalled fast fashion, which mass produces trendy clothing made so cheaply it will wear out before it looks dated. Most fast fashion isn’t intended to last more than a year.
“Fast fashion is often made unethically; it’s not made very well, and it looks worse. And in the long run you are actually paying more for it,” Cridland explained. “I saw sustainable fashion as a gap in the market. I’m not a philanthropist by any means.”
At 26, the affable Brit fits many millennial stereotypes. He has never worked for anyone else, is overconfident, wants to make money responsibly and refuses to focus, running a public relations firm and starting a music career in addition to his fashion line.
Yet he has turned a $9,000 startup grant from the British government into a business with $2 million year in revenue and only three employees, including himself and his girlfriend.
Cridland admits that the 30-year guarantee for his sweatshirts and T-shirts is a marketing ploy for his 3-year old company, but he insists he is sincere. So far, Cridland has sold 20,000 30-year sweatshirts, repaired 30 and replaced 10.
“I’m not going to lie and pretend to be a do-gooder,” he said. “It’s a 30-year guarantee, so it’s a pledge that we’ve made the sweatshirt very well.”
The key to making long-lasting clothing is twofold. First, Cridland limits the company to clothing basics that won’t go out of fashion. Second, he uses the best cloth and manufacturing techniques at top factories in Italy and Portugal.
“It’s an expensive sweatshirt to make, and $80 is not a cheap price,” he said. “It’s still too much for some people. I’m trying to work on it, but the production costs are what they are.”
To keep prices low, Cridland doesn’t sell to retail stores, which would add hefty markups. Products are only available through his website, tomcridland.com.
Cridland now sells more to the United States than the United Kingdom, with a significant number shipping to Texas.
Cridland’s business model is not unique, but it does point to a fascinating and potentially positive trend in retailing: selling high-quality, sustainable goods directly to consumers. Other examples range from Tesla cars to Harry’s razor blades.
Cridland sees enormous opportunities for startups offering ethical and sustainable products, not just in terms of profit, but in reducing pollution.
“The point is not to stop buying new things,” Cridland explained. “It is to buy less and buy better.”