As a clothing company owner I almost always felt obligated to update my wardrobe every season, when our new line would be released. But as someone who has always been a minimalist and had an issue with over-consummation this has been a very difficult internal battle.
Why get into fashion then you may ask? … good question, seems silly but I guess I really enjoy how dynamic and functional the creative process can be. I love the business side of it, and I love the challenge of creating products that can somehow give back or have a closed-loop life cycle.

The book Cradle to Cradle does a great job of explaining what a truly sustainable product should be, which in theory could replenish the earth through its lifecycle or could be perpetually recycled, and  yield benefits that enhance all life. Unfortunately most of our products are still on a one-way trip to a land fill.
Being ethical and working towards creating sustainable products  is not easy and can often be very expensive at first. However new solution’s are being developed and worked on every day. Take for example this fun and wonderful example of recycling old denim into installation, which is becoming more and more common. Even Gap created a whole campaign to recycle your old denim and receive discounts on new denim.

However, is this really sustainable? Where does the denim go after it is installation for houses?
Are there products that we make that can actually live inside a closed-loop? Cradle-to-cradle design, offers a framework in which the effective, regenerative cycles of nature provide models for wholly positive human design. Over the past decade, the cradle-to-cradle framework has evolved steadily from theory to practice. In the world of industry it is creating a new conception of materials and material flows. In a cradle-to-cradle economy, cities are the principal home and source of technical nutrition—the place where metals are forged, polymers synthesized, and tractors, computers, and windmills designed and manufactured.
It is exciting to see this change happening, but we have to continue to push ourselves to be creative and learn new ways to give back more then we take.
Some examples of companies creating products that do just that:
Climatex
Zeftron

Thank you for your time,

Rustin Coburn