@ThredUP, #CCCR, and Green-ness

Before I go explaining why the Co-Creation Custom Revolution is actually greener than it may first appear, I want to introduce you to a very cool clothing-exchange company, ThredUP. They've called themselves the Netflix of Clothing, more interesting because the CEO of Netflix sits on their board. After I met Founder and Chief Knitwit, James Reinhart, I felt like I was wasting space, not being green, and not loving life. Haha. Not because James isn't an awesome guy (because he really is, he helped build one the nation's premier public schools in the Bay Area), but because ThredUP solves a real problem, that we don't wear 25% of our clothes in our closets, and there's a really inefficient $2bn used clothing industry out there that could be a lot better. 

This photo isn't of James. It's actually by brymo, maybe it's of him.

James and his team have built this really cool network where you can exchange stuff that's sitting in your closet, that you know you're probably not going to wear again. Now you're wasting closet space, you're probably going to waste more money, more material, more production 'stuff' on buying more clothes, when you can really and quite simply exchange it. And shouldn't we love the clothes that we wear? ThredUP helps us in keeping a wardrobe of clothing that we actually feel good about. I won't go on explaining more about it, you should just check it out.

Now besides the fact that it's always good to give shout-outs to friends, we also want to highlight why the two companies are uniquely related, more than the fact that we're both Boston-founded apparel-related online-based startups. Blank Label, and more importantly, the #CCCR, is about the importance of consumers having more choice in what they choose to buy and wear, and feeling better about it. It's addressing the dress shirt that is 80% decent, but is nothing special. Between buying it at the store and getting home, you've alread y seen 8 peo ple wearing the exact same one. So you wear it maybe to work. You get to the office, go into the lift, and there's someone wearing the same shirt. That's kind of awkward. 

The #CCCR is about creating self-expression you can wear. Similar to ThredUP, it's about you having the clothes you really want, not having to buy new clothes all the time because your newest shirt has fallen out of favor. There is a terrible problem of over-production of clothing, stuff either sitting in warehouses that'll never get worn, or clothes in closets never to be worn again. We keep buying, and buying, and manufacturers keep producing, and producing. No-one's the wiser, no-one's the happier, and definitely not Al Gore, or the planet. That's why we've updated our new green logo. It's only in small part related to the fact that green's my favorite color. ;)

Co-created custom men's dress shirts, designed by you, stitched by us.