It's April 11th, 2017...already! W.O.W.
It's been 6 years since we started this little "project" of ours. 6 years of organic, 6 years of fairtrade, 6 years of working with cotton farmers, 6 years of getting to know all of you (btw, have we told you lately that we love you?)!
But we can't help wonder - after 6 years, do you really know us?
Here are 6 things that you probably didn't know about No Nasties:
1. We are India's FIRST Fairtrade licensed clothing brand
That's right - we're #1! When we started out, there were several fairtrade producers (farmers & factories) in India but we were the first to get a Fairtrade License as a brand selling in India.
We've been 100% organic and fair trade since day 1 (April 11th, 2011) - 6 years and counting!
2. We're a REALLY small team!
We are a lean, mean, motley crew of 4 people. Yep, you heard right - just 4!
We are a family-owned, couple-run business with Apu & Shweta at the helm.
- Shweta is our creative head, handling ALL design and production. (Read her design philosophy).
- Niyati lovingly packs all our e-commerce orders & manages the inventory.
- Priyanka handles all our Ops & Customer Service (she's our newest member - she just joined us last week!)
- And me, Apu - I handle the biznessy & techie stuff, the sales & the yak yak, and claim to be dreaming up new visions for the company so I can sleep some more.
ps: We are actively looking for a 5th crew member to head up our Marketing & Social Media digital madness so if you know someone who'd be a good fit, please ask them to email us at gotta_love_hashtags@nonasties.in.
We miss everyone who's been part of our journey so far (special shoutout to Diti, Ruth, Amrita, Felix, Anushka, Nilofer, Christina, Vishal, Maeve, Ruta, Asja, Yashika, Chris, Jayanth...oh boy, this list is long and they're already cueing the play-off music to get me off-stage...)
3. We don't compete; we collaborate.
We want to create a movement for ethical fashion to help put a stop to farmer suicides in India.
That's our raison d'etre; our mission; our purpose!
And we need more people to join us to achieve this. Together, we can.
Here are a few things we've done to help grow this movement:
- Helped launch other competing brands! We have directly helped at least half a dozen ethical fashion brands around the world and consulted 100+ aspiring brand owners on how to go about it. For us, it's not about getting a bigger piece of the pie but sharing the pie recipe! If you want ANY help, just ask - really! (Ask here: secret_pie_recipe@nonasties.in)
- Co-founded The Green People of India in collaboration with other Indian organic cotton t-shirt brands which later grew into a wider community of "green" businesses.
- We are joining an international group of brands to provide more stability and support to our cotton farmers co-op (Chetna Organic) as part of a global coalition called ChetCo (read about it on Forbes.com) - super excited about this!
- We are an active part of the Fashion Revolution Day movement and were the country co-ordinators for India when it launched. We continue to be a part of this amazing global campaign (hey - come for our movie screening on April 24th in Goa! Email us for details - dontforgetthepopcorn@nonasties.in)
4. Have you met Doug?
Did you know we started and run a non-profit project too?
Did you know that it's kinda, sorta, really super-duper awesome??
It works with women from the cotton farming community of Maharashtra, India (from the regions that have the highest number of farmer suicides) to give them a reliable, secondary income AND create awareness of the agrarian crisis in their region. It's working!
It's called Once Upon A Doug.
5. A Global Goan Business
Recently, we shifted our base to the lovely beach town of Goa (it's lovely but...) and we love being local + global. Being online means we've reached all corners of the planet - literally! Don't believe us? Here's a list of countries that we've shipped to in 6 years:
- Australia (that's like all the way down there!)
- Austria
- Bahrain
- Belgium
- Brazil (that is literally the other side of the planet from us!)
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland (up top!)
- France
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Latvia
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Netherlands
- New Zealand (down low)
- Norway (up top again!)
- Peru (how did they even find us!?)
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden (one of our faves!)
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
That's 45 countries that have received some No Nasties loving, and we love that! Though our focus has always been to kickstart a consumer movement in India for ethical fashion, it's humbling (and quite a high!) to know that we're catching people's attention around the world.
6. The Bottomline: Happiness!
We're not here for the money (though it helps); we're not here for the fame (it's fleeting); we're not here for anything but happiness. Happiness for us and for our farmers and factory workers and supporters and customers - all of us.
We believe happiness comes from Purpose.
Sure, pleasure & passion are sweet too but it's purpose that is the wind in our sails.
We've drafted our mission accordingly. Here it is, scribbled on a whiteboard many moons ago but still standing tall in our office as a daily reminder of why we do what we do. (click the image to open our Instagram account).
ps: a big shoutout to the folks at Happy Startup School that have inspired us & shaped a lot of our thinking. If you haven't yet, do yourself a favour and check them out!
Conclusion:
We'd like to leave you today with these 3 things to ponder on:
- a movement for ethical fashion
- a clothing brand that you will love
- an invitation for you to join the above.
Join us, won't you?
