Green Cotton

Photosource: grooveygreen.com featuring Nau clothing

NY Times Fashion & Style section announced this morning that the much coveted Nau is going out of business. Sundance Channel did a piece on them this week too in their ‘Big Ideas for a Small Planet’ which I blogged about on May 3rd. Unfortunately Nau’s website posts the sad letter from the team stating that that they are ‘saying goodby for Nau’.

While we knew the company took on significant risk, and that there were questions from the beginning as to whether the model would actually work, I must admit that I increasingly felt confident in the staying power of their brand. I’ve been reading about Nau since last September, and just last month a half dozen people I knew asked me if I had heard about this company. They successfully seem to be generating ‘buzz’ around their company.

Yet at the same time, significant investment went into the company – from its design and manufacture of high tech ‘green’ fabrics to designing and sewing the clothes, to building brick and mortar stores and creating a cutting edge website. Unlike the mom and pop online green boutiques, Nau was positioned as the next Nike from the get go. One reviewer I read last fall noted correctly that the company is postured to either succeed beautifully or fail miserably. Unfortunately, it seems that the latter has won out.

Why? Led by former Nike executives, the Nau team is not lacking in the experience, leadership or management arena. While they are ‘green’ in the environmental sense, management wise, this is not the case. So what is it? According to the team, the economy is cited as the main factor in their decline. Slowing consumption, rising fuel costs, rising cost of goods, decreasing purchases….we have heard it more than once in the last few months. So while I agree that the economy is forcing more than a handful of retailers to change course and downsize, I would also venture to say that a few other things could have been done to help stay afloat. (1) One is that their prices seemed high for what they offered and for who they targeted. While I can absolutely appreciate their stylistic, very green apparel, Americans may not be quite ready for those prices at to buy on the green principle as such. Take a look at Cheapest Dress in the World – with expectations as low as $8.98, can we stretch our imaginations to pay $300 for a spring coat?
(2) Color schemes and styles may have been too muted. Everything seemed a bit too dark. Not enough brightness, freshness and newness. Or maybe they were not geared toward women as much as men? I am not sure, but something seemed slightly off. (3) Finally, with REI and Patagonia ‘down the street’ so to speak, or one ‘url tab’ away on the Internet, one has to have a pretty compelling reason to go to Nau rather than long-established, trusted brands. Both of these companies are increasingly stepping out of the pure outdoor gear space and into more fashion-forward ‘office-adaptable’ clothing as well as are increasingly ‘green.’

Also, Nau mentioned that their stores encouraged people to ship whatever products they purchase to their homes rather than carry away with them. I would have to say that this seems troublesome. Counterintuitive from every angle. Isn’t one satisfaction from shopping the ability to carry the item home with you and brighten your day? Also, isn’t walking home with something intuitively more ‘green’ than having it shipped to your house? From a consumers standpoint, I can see how this policy would be troublesome.

All in all however, I must say that I am sorry to see Nau go. I really admired their mission, vision and core company principles. Part of me thinks they may be jumping the gun—who knows what could have been possible if they road the wave a little longer? At the same time, in this economy nothing is certain, and if product, price and promotion are slightly off mark, well, there is not much hope for survival. Wishing the team at Nau all the best in their next venture.

Send me your comments to greencottonblog@gmail.com or post below.

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After four years of serving the e-commerce marketplace, Sean and Susan Bartlett recently announced that they will be closing up their Pangaya online shop. According to a correspondence with TreeHugger, the reason is that the company is not returning as much on their investment at this point, as hoped. The company will be missed by many, as a convenient, reliable source for some of the most fashionable, sustainable designs out there: e.g. Stuart and Brown, Ecoganik, Blue Canoe, UNDESIGNED, and others.

While on the one hand, statistics indicate that demand for organic cotton, and organic fibers such as bamboo, in general keeps increasing, the reality is that the green apparel market is still challenging to be profitable. Given the myriad of style, brand, price, convenience and other variables that factor into women’s clothing choices, it is no small feat to get that equation right for on-line shoppers. Being green, does not indicate sure fire success, and even being stylish does not, as Pangaya has proven.

Pangaya is a good example of a company that provided very stylish clothing at a very reasonable price in a convenient manner. If they could not create a sustainable business model, then what does this mean for others starting out or already in the early stages? Time will tell, but as demand for all natural fibers such as organic cotton, bamboo, soy, hemp and even organic silk and wool, increases, hopefully new companies will continue to enter the market and prove otherwise. We must thank Susan and Sean for carving the brave path with Pangaya, making it easier for others to follow in their footsteps.

All inventory will be marked down up to 80% until it is depleted, so buy your favorite designs now at Pangaya.

Green is a natural fit for the holiday season. Not only is green a longstanding holiday color with its inseparable red partner, but it is also the color of trees, and of course the winter tree of all trees, the Christmas Tree (evergreen, pine or fir).

When I think of a tree, the obvious attribute of ‘greenness’ comes to mind, but also its character: enduring, deep-rooted, and benevolent.

Around Christmas time, those attributes seem timely. As a season of giving, friendship, and family, it is akin to trees. These qualities, enduring, deep-rooted and benevolent, typify the green movement in many ways, too.

While ‘green’, trees and Christmas may go hand in hand, one cannot help but ask – how is it that we have grown so far away from the inherent qualities of ‘green-ness’ this time of year?

We have good intentions, yet, at the end of the day, doesn’t it seem as though we have grown farther from sustainability and deep-rooted-ness? And at the same time, have we not grown closer to mass consumption?

Some of our seasonal challenges to green-ness:
• Shopping ++ (busiest shopping time of year)
• Wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, tape, paper, tissue, boxes galore
• Shipping gifts all over the country (carbon emissions)
• Extra food, chocolate, alcohol consumption

While I too find myself engaged in all of the above, I also feel tinges of guilt as well. On the one hand, I want to give gifts to family and friends – to recognize the love that they share in my life and as an act of appreciation; however, as I find myself wrapping gift after gift and running to the post office, I also discover dismay at the ritual. Is it really necessary, I ponder. Isnt there a better, less wasteful way ?

I know these questions have been asked by countless others, and the answers are seemingly simple: there are so many ways to show appreciation. Buying gifts is just one. Yet somehow, this is so hard to enact. We all get caught up in the collective frenzy of holiday giving, celebrating and indulging– and as one of the busiest times of year, shopping always seems easier than making something. Stores also kindly remind us how easy and important it is to do this, with all the many sales, best prices of the year, and inviting specials. How can one resist?

What is the alternative? One obvious one is to make all of one’s gifts. Sounds terrific, yet, as noted above, with a full-time job, a spouse, family, and other commitments – how does anyone find the time to make gifts? Please advise if someone has discovered the trick….

Other solutions? Go Green, of course. Give rather than buy and when needed, buy ‘green.’

There are some really good companies out there ‘greening’ the holiday season, to reduce the guilt. For example, Green Wraps with their hand-sewn fabric wrapping for gifts, as well as all the many online green apparel companies for women and children, such as Bamboozled with bamboo clothing for kids and babies, even Barneys this year is supposedly going all out green.

Tree Hugger also has an excellent green guide to the holidays too worth checking out.

Another nice idea is to give a gift of charitable donation or loan. Kiva is a wonderful new company that offers small loans to eager entrepreneurs from all over the world through established micro credit organizations. With just $25 you can radically improve someone elses standard of living anywhere around the world.

There are many other non-purchase related activities that you can do to Green the holidays, too. One tradition in my family is the ‘Hand-made Secret Santa.’ We all pick out of a hat and who’s ever name we get we must make them a gift by hand for Christmas. Undoubtedly year after year, these gifts become the most memorable, meaningful and talked about gifts for years to come. Pouring hours into them, at the end of the day, it becomes rather rewarding and fun.

Making Christmas dinner together, singing carols, ice-skating, playing games, hiking, skiing, and walking outdoors are all fun, low environmental footprint activities as well. What’s your favorite green activity?

Here’s to greener holiday for all, and may the virtues of the ‘green tree’ cloak our holiday spirit as an enduring, deep-rooted and benevolent time.

This brand new multi-purpose shop, Greenward, opened in Porter Square recently, with an all around green mission: to offer a wide range of eco-friendly products for the one-stop green minded shopper. From recycled materials to ‘recyclable’ products, organic products, handmade items, energy efficient items, biodegradable, AND educational products, the store covers the green gamut.All products are screened to meet at least one but ideally several of the above criteria, and fall into the following categories:

• Gifts
• Housewares
• Jewelry
• Cards and stationary
• Handbags and other bags
• Cosmetics
• Books and magazines
• Urban cycling accessories
• Toys and games
• Things for baby
• Energy efficiency improvement items
• Natural cleaning products

The store sounds like the ‘Target’ of green products (though not as big, which is kind of nice). Greenward appears to be an all around environmentally and socially conscious store that aims to do well for consumers, the environment and the community. I will be checking out the store in November– so stay tuned for a real-time review after Thanksgiving, but in the meantime, if you are in the area and are also looking for eco-apparel store, you might also want to check out Envi located on Newbury Street in Boston.

clipped from www.greenwardshop.com Welcome! Located in Porter Square, Cambridge, Greenward is an independent boutique specializing in eco-modern goods.Our hours: Monday-Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 11am-6pm Thursday: 11am-8pm Sunday: 12pm-5pm For directions, click here. To read our latest newsletter, click here.