By Jennifer Graham, Source: Triple Pundit
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Salts Organic Clothing has been plugging away at the organic ethical fashion game since 2005, before the term “eco fashion” even existed. Through the company’s nine-year journey, lessons both soft and hard have been learned about selling people on the value of thinking sustainable in fashion. Salts has been a lone producer manufacturer (me and my sewing machine), a local manufacturer (local small factories) and is now looking to find an ethical business model that is environmentally AND financially sustainable. Salts has had two retail outlets on their home of Vancouver Island, the last one closed in November 2012. This spring Salts Organic Clothing came back with a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter and a new attitude about how to reach the masses with the viability and wearability of eco-friendly clothing.

There is a terrible catch-22 in the business of selling organic fashion. The people who believe in what you are selling are not, by and large, “consumers.” That is, they aren’t the shoppers who are wreaking havoc on the planet and in sweatshops with their fast fashion consumption choices to begin with. In fact, this group is the opposite and tries to make a point to not buy new at all. Great for the planet, but doesn’t work well for the business of growing eco-friendly clothing as a mass appeal concept.

The next catch is that the consumers of mass fashion aren’t yet sold on the need for change. They are hard to reach, and unless you have major name brand appeal, they rarely notice a small, ethical company’s existence. The next battle of the organic clothing war is price. It’s a barrier for most in choosing to try a new product of any kind, especially a clothing product. Lastly, there is the battle of the waste of making extra clothing pieces that you are not sure you are going to sell. Most small designers are not also fortune tellers, so it’s hard to know if that chili red color you picked for your next collection is going to take before you roll it out to the public.

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See more at: Triple Pundit