Beginning a company with the goal of being both sustainable and socially responsible created a huge challenge for product development.  Nearly all fabric and dye processes are polluting while skilled, ethical sewing facilities were impossible to find.  

So, we needed to create the resources we needed and built the supply chain from the ground up.

First Steps:

We partnered with a non-profit factory with low-skilled workers who were in training.  Our first collection reflects a young company with low overhead from both the design and manufacturing sides.  We then tested small runs of these items at trade shows in Seattle, San Francisco and New York.  

Research and Analyze:

After successful sales of our first collection we revisited our partners to research their strengths and pain points.  This involved contextual inquiry, sampling and extensive interviewing.  We took the partner and consumer feedback to develop our next collection.    

Iterate and sample:

After finding that there was market demand for a backpack we sketched, sampled and iterated on the design to get the look and durability just right.

Sourcing materials and working with our production partners required extensive on the ground collaboration and research as we refined the quality control and production process.