Member Article

25-year-old graduates launch eco-friendly t-shirt company

Two 25-year-old graduates have started an eco-friendly clothing company to combat high street clothing prices and unsustainable sources.

Relic clothing is aimed at outdoor and adventure sports, specifically mountain biking, climbing, and skateboarding, and was self-funded.

Andy Burgin, co-founder, designs the shirts and does the firms web design, and studied Architecture, while business partner Steve Lindsay studied Economics.

They use pre-made shirts from a climate neutral range from Continental Clothing, certified Fair Trade and with a reduced carbon footprint, around 10% that of a typical t-shirt, although are looking to have greater control over their supply chain in the future.

Andy worked with the Princes Trust for some time, developing business plans and then separately became involved with the Enterprise Challenge, a competition run by Sheffield Hallam University.

Printing is done by a small, independent printer in Sheffield called Yorkshire Tee. Andy said: “It was important that we keep as many steps in the chain as local as possible, even for slight increase in expense.

“I’ve been trying to get involved with local, grass-roots events (such as mates races, skate comps etc) to try and promote the brand and extreme sports as a whole.

“I’m more drawn to using methods such as Kickstarter to try and raise capital for another print run. It has the added bonus of marketing and social media angle at the same time as allowing our customers to pre-order and back us.

Andy said: Relic started because I hated my clothes. The high street sells overpriced, poorly designed, throwaway tat; at the expense of the factory workers and planet.

“I want our shirts to look cool, maybe have a message, maybe look weird, to spark an organic type of interest, not because customers recognise the logo and consider it a status symbol.

“Attaching status to a logo is easy, making people think is a challenge! “

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .