March 6, 2023 • 21 mins
Welcome to a thought-provoking episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast, where we have the privilege of sitting down with Chris Kolbe, Co-Founder of HyperNatural, an extraordinary eco-luxury menswear brand. HyperNatural prides itself on offering one-of-a-kind apparel crafted from naturally-performing materials, entirely free from virgin polyester, plastics, chemical dyes, and harmful petrol chemicals. With a strong commitment to sustainability, the brand combines innovative elements such as Jade stone and crab shells with the world's finest cotton, Supima, to deliver garments that are not only exquisitely soft but also uniquely cool-to-the-touch and odor-free. Furthermore, HyperNatural relies on Creora Regen, the world's only 100% recycled spandex, to provide unmatched comfort and unrestricted movement.
HyperNatural's ultimate goal is to exclusively utilize naturally regenerative materials and dyes, and while they currently work with the available options to reduce their ecological impact, they acknowledge the need for further progress in the next 2-3 years to contribute to carbon reduction.
Join us as Peter Brooker engages in a captivating conversation with Chris Kolbe, delving into his extensive 30-year background in the industry and the inception of HyperNatural, a brand that epitomizes sustainability in its every fiber. Explore the concept of natural growth and the importance of being less wasteful in the fashion industry. Uncover the exciting fabric innovations that set HyperNatural apart, including their ingenious use of nature to create the ultimate polo shirt. Discover the hidden design features that make their garments exceptional, all while embracing the meaning behind the Magpie totem.
Don't miss this enlightening episode, where we explore the world of HyperNatural and its quest to redefine luxury menswear by seamlessly blending eco-consciousness with uncompromising style and quality.
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Episode Transcript
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PB (00:05):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the menswear style
podcast. I'm your host PeteBrooker and today on the show I
am talking to the co founder ofhyper natural Chris Colby. And a
little bit about hyper natural apioneer the future of high
quality eco luxury products madewith innovative materials of
nature, renewable andbiodegradable sources. Hyper
(00:26):
natural has always been inspiredby the genius of nature, and
combining natural solutions withmodern luxury and
sustainability. They know thefuture of fashion and materials
is not in polyester orpetrochemicals, it is in nature.
And here to talk more abouthyper natural is the co founder,
Chris Kobe.
Unknown (00:46):
Sure, so you know, hyper naturals, this new brand
that is actually launching inabout two weeks. So we're brand
new. But it's really what wethink is the future of apparel,
which is this eco luxury. Andwe've really kind of created a
proprietary fabric that's becomea brand. And it really combines
(01:07):
natural solutions with modernluxury and sustainability. And
that combination we feel iswhere the world needs to go. And
we've been able to over over anumber of years develop this
special fabric that we thinkreally shows that the genius of
nature,
PB (01:25):
right? I'm I'm very eager to drill down on the fabric. But so
this is launching on March thethird as we speak, and people
can check it out on the website,hyper natural style.com. But
perhaps you can talk about Iknow you self funded this with
your co founder. Why was it thatyou decided to not seek outside
(01:47):
investment for this brand?
Unknown (01:49):
Well, you know, I've been in the industry for over 30
Some years and been in retailbut in product work for big
brands like Ralph Lauren and inUrban Outfitters, but I've also
started brands like originalPenguin, and so just been an
industry for a long time andsort of really wanted to do
something for myself. And insome ways, the things that I
(02:11):
know our industry really needs.
And so it's a little bit of myform of repentance, I guess, of
coming back with a reallysustainable product that can can
really change our industry,maybe inspire industry. And I
really wanted to self fundedmainly because this allows us to
have control to do it the rightway. And so you know, just
having the experience have donethis for other big companies is
(02:31):
you know, the pitfalls of havingtoo many people involved too
soon. We're trying to avoid,
PB (02:40):
right, and I guess this gives you and your co founder
autonomy over the brand. Haveyou seen it go wrong somewhere
else? I mean, I don't want youto name and shame but other
companies and other brands thatyou might have looked at where
they've had investment to startout with and it just hasn't
panned out well for them.
Unknown (02:56):
Yeah, well, I think that you know, the more money
you have behind you the morepressure there ways to grow, and
to grow maybe unsustainably. Andso what we really want to do is
kind of set the business up andthe brand to grow naturally in
terms of what it can be. Andthen as we see opportunity,
potentially bring more partnersin that really, you know, with
(03:18):
the right expectations.
PB (03:21):
And whilst you were working for other companies, did you
always have it in mind to startsomething else? Did you always
have like a little thoughtbubble that, oh, I could do this
over here. And I can do itslightly differently?
Unknown (03:33):
Yeah, I spent 30 years more or less doing that just
starting businesses and
PB (03:38):
being constantly distracted.
Unknown (03:41):
Well, I'm kind of, I've always had a lot of ideas, a lot
of visions, and they've hadother bigger companies to bring
it to life with and for theirbenefit. But I've always felt
like I could do it for myself.
And so just kind of waiting forthe right moment. And this
became it in terms of startingsomething I really feel the
industry in the world reallyneeds right now. And I'm just
able to use all my experiencefrom the past and my network to
(04:02):
really do something, I thinkthey can have a lot of impact.
PB (04:07):
Right? And what would you say it is specifically from any
of your other jobs that youmanaged to go right, I can take
that and plug it in to hypernatural?
Unknown (04:21):
Well, you know, what I've learned is, it's really
easy to try to do too much. Andso the biggest thing experience
has taught me in the past isreally how to simplify and
really get down to the essenceof what matters most. And I
think that's the nature of ourindustry starting to reward more
and more people with a reallystrong point of view, to have an
(04:42):
innovative product, they do, youknow, one thing incredibly well,
versus trying to do everything.
And I think you know, I'veworked for a lot of places and
been guilty to myself of justtrying to do too much. And so I
you know, years ago I readYvonne Gerards book, Let my
people go sir Train. And one ofmy favourite quotes from Yvonne
was, the more you know, the lessyou need. And I really do think
(05:05):
that applies a lot to ourindustry. And so you know, with
hyper natural, we're taking theapproach of, you know, let's
just have, the less be lesswasteful in our approach, like,
let's just make the things thatwe think matter, not a whole
bunch of other filler type ofproduct, let's have more
quality, and maybe lessquantity, right? And let's, you
(05:25):
know, let's tell stories thatmake people inspired to want to
go further and do more with whatwe're doing, versus try to, you
know, trick people into buyingthings that maybe they don't
need, right. And so I think thisis, these are the things that I
hope, you know, you know,experiences taught me that we
can bring into a new brand dayone, in some ways that we've
(05:48):
just learned from all theseother great brands over the
last, you know, three or fourdecades.
PB (05:55):
Interesting. I was actually just scribbling the title of
that book, like Scarah mangawould do getting a wine
recommendation from bond, letthe people go surfing. I must
add that to my audible list.
Unknown (06:10):
Thanks, classic.
PB (06:11):
Yeah, I'll check that out.
For sure. Well, I mean, I agree,I looked at the press pack that
you guys sent over. And I oftensee brands that start off
launching with a whole load ofproducts, because they perhaps
don't know how to rein it in, orthey just want to overreach and
tick all the boxes straightaway, rather than get one thing,
(06:32):
right, and then build fromthere. And I'm always on on your
side of the fence. Chris withthis in terms of if you can get
one thing, right, and then learnhow to expand on that rather
than just throw spaghetti at thewall, hope something lands and
then just go back and latch onto that because it just feels
like there's a lot of ways thatsliding down the kitchen tiles
(06:53):
outside of that. Yes. But maybeyou can talk about the fabric.
I'm keen to get into that. Sothis took about two years worth
of research and development. Sotalk about the that journey,
please. Sure.
Unknown (07:07):
So, you know, when we really started out during COVID,
having a little bit of time tosort of think about, you know,
if we were to make the best ofsomething, what would that be?
And we did a little bit ofresearch my partner I and you
know, we kind of come from theworld of Ralph Lauren and J.
Crew. And we've worked you know,we started this brand original
penguin about 20 years ago. Andso we knew a lot about polo
(07:30):
shirts, and we knew a lot ofthat, you know, everybody wears
them.
PB (07:34):
Did you start original penguin? So to run over you,
Chris, did you? Did you startthat?
Unknown (07:38):
I did. Yeah.
PB (07:40):
No, that I mean, that is one again. really rely on your
competitive I love that brand.
I've got loads of the Polos. Sosorry, carry
Unknown (07:48):
on. No, yeah. So you know, just we invite my partner,
I we just we just know polos andbut we also, you know, you know,
because everybody owns andthey're kind of ubiquitous. And
there's this kind of thing thatpeople almost don't really put a
lot of effort into. But it'slike a four and a half billion
dollar business, globally, justpolo shirts, and they've been
(08:08):
wearing them, you know, foreverif you think about like the
history of the shirt. And so wejust thought like, if we made a
really the best one, what wouldwe do and we kind of came down
to it would be about thematerials and in really coming
up with this material, but itwould have to be sustainable.
And the more we dug into it, wegot really obsessed with the
potential of nature and whatnature can actually do to create
(08:31):
performance in materials. And westarted this journey, and it
took a while but we realisedthere's stuff we could do that
would touch your skin, it wouldactually feel a certain way or
have like a potential WellnessBenefit for you. And that led us
down this path of okay can makesomething really commercially
(08:51):
viable, but also sustainable andawesome. We'd have to really put
some things together that don'texist today. And then we landed
on, you know, let's just takethe best cotton in the world
which was is supima cotton, thetop 1% of cotton in the world.
And let's blend it withregenerative materials or waste
(09:11):
materials to try to createsomething that you know let's
call it a cocktail that doesn'texist. And and so we ended up
coming down to we took jadestonefrom mining waste in Taiwan. And
we combine that with chitin inwhich is crab shells pulverised
down into a powder and we put itinto this brew and we created a
(09:35):
yarn that actually has theseproprietary benefits of cooling
your skin which is the jadestonenaturally and the Chipman is
anti odour and so you couldreally get this like cooling
anti odour effect from what iseffectively mining waste and
food waste. And so we combinethat yarn with supima cotton
(09:58):
which is super soft andluxurious and strong. Oh, and we
added in 100%, recycled spandex.
And we got this like super knitthat that has this really cool
touch, naturally performingthing. And best of all has no
polyester has no petrochemicals,which is mostly what performance
is today, it's mostly syntheticmaterials coated in chemicals,
(10:20):
or it's just a regular cottonshirt that doesn't really do
anything. So we've kind ofcreated this in between, with
hyper natural that bringsnatural performance and luxury
together into one. Onefabrication.
PB (10:37):
How do you know to go about finding jade stone and the
shells of the crabs? How do youknow that this fusion is going
to come anywhere close to whatit is that you want to get out
of the end?
Unknown (10:49):
Well, in our journey, we realised that there's a lot
of there's kind of what was abio materials revolution going
on right now. And a lot of it'sin laboratories and things that
you just don't see. But there'sa lot of really interesting work
going on that that are puttingthings together that are more
sustainable, but natural, ormore sustainable without using
(11:10):
synthetic chemicals andmaterials. And ultimately, it's
about having something that ismore natural, more
biodegradable. But also, youknow, it's better, you know, it
can be a better product. Andmost people don't think of
sustainable products as beingbetter or awesome. And we want
(11:30):
him to kind of flip that on thehead is that we actually made it
better through nature. And so wereally, we think about it as
nature can do a lot of amazingthings if you work with it. And
I think that's kind of the ethosstriper natural. It's the only
thing we do. And it led to thisfabric development that really
just gives people what they wantkeeps cool. You don't have any
(11:53):
odour. It's super soft andcomfortable and luxurious. But
it's also happens to besustainable.
PB (12:00):
And do you have to paint in that fabric? Or can you patent
that?
Unknown (12:05):
We have we have proprietary rights to it. No one
else can do it at the momenttechnically, and part of one of
our partners is the is the millthat has actually helped us
develop the fibre. So we're kindof we're locked in on that
level. But yeah, we can patentit, but it will take It'll take
just takes time. It's it's agood couple three year process.
PB (12:27):
And a process that basically is a lot of red tape and
lawyers, I imagine there'snothing sexy about that process.
Unknown (12:34):
Well, the more important thing is getting into
the market and develop it intosomething that is commercially
viable that people want. Andthat will allow us to, you know,
to really, you know, brand itand build it into other things,
we have a number of other thingswe're looking to do along these
lines of just taking naturalmaterials and creating yarns
(12:56):
that don't exist today. And theyand they can do potentially some
very interesting things.
PB (13:01):
Well, for people that might be watching us on the YouTube
channel, I'm just bringing up acouple of slides to give some
context to what Chris is talkingabout here some of the Polos
first. Can I ask we talked aboutthe fabric, did you do anything
different for the cut of thePolos? With regards to these
designs.
Unknown (13:19):
Our general approach is, in the spirit of simplicity
is we created four styles. Twoof them are classic fit, and two
of them are a slim fit. We havetwo fabrics. One BK one Jersey,
and one fabric story. So thefabrics are is the same for
everything we make it so it kindof comes down to we can fit a
(13:40):
lot of people on different sizeand fit preference, even style
preference so that you can wecan fit a you know, a wide range
of people all with the same, youknow, natural performance fabric
story, and that's where it's anexclusive brand. But at the same
time, if you really look at ourshirts, we put a lot of detail
(14:01):
into them that you wouldn'tnormally expect in a polo shirt.
So if you were to flip it insideout, you'd see there's a class
cleaning pocket on the inside.
It also no there's no labels,there's no tags at all in the
garment. The trims we use areall natural. There's no plastic
whatsoever used on the product.
(14:21):
The buttons are mother of pearl,which you know, also natural.
The packaging is all natural.
There's are recyclablematerials. So we a lot of the
devils in the details. And so wekind of we kind of tell people
the polo shirts or Trojan horseyou just you're getting a lot
more than you might expect.
PB (14:41):
So of course, you see you can there's a pocket on the
inside and you can work theglass now can i I'm imagining my
girlfriend's lipstick on mycoffee mugs that are just
ubiquitous in my house. Is thatcan I use that or is it just not
going to be too can be toooverkill for that? Yeah, it's
Unknown (14:58):
you were just there's a little A triangle when you flip
up the front hand, and insidethere, you can slip your class
in there. And just this, give ita quick clean. So this, you
know, little thing that youmight discover after you bought
it. There's a little QR code inthere that you know, we'll use
to explain, or to know, a littlemore online. But, you know,
these are just, you know,they're just little details just
(15:20):
to let you know that we put alot of thought and care into the
into into this garment beyondthe sustainable fabric.
PB (15:28):
I love that I used to run an independent fashion shop just
outside of Cambridgeshire. AndI'd always plug this brand, I'm
going back about 20 years, soforgive me the name of the
brands escaped me. But what Ireally loved about their
particular T shirts was that youcould tell the consumer or the
customers, you've flip up thehem, and there would be the
story of the brand. Like on theinside, it would just be Yeah.
(15:50):
And it would just be so cool. Iimagine it must have cost them
in an necessarily penny to getto that that stage. But I as
soon as people saw that, theywould actually buy it because
they knew also it would be apersonal garment for them that
nobody else had had. But whenthey're in the pubs they could
also lift up the shirt. And ifthey got a six pack or a cool
(16:10):
tattoo, Oh, yeah. Oh, I have atattoo as well. Thanks for that.
Unknown (16:15):
Yeah, that was it. Now it's a QR code. So
PB (16:18):
now it's just getting your phone and scan me I love it.
Well, I'm also talking about thelike, the narrative of the
brand. Do you have to go down tothe retailers? And you're gonna
be in Nordstrom and Fred Segalamongst a few others? Do you
have to go down and kind ofschool the, the reps down there
(16:40):
on how to sell hyper natural andwhat the fabric is all about?
Unknown (16:45):
Yeah, absolutely.
Because I think, you know, wewant everyone to understand,
like, what's really differentabout it. And so beyond the
sustainability, that there's alot of benefits in there for the
customer, there's a lot ofthings to be excited about most,
most men want to stay cool. Andthey don't want to smell right.
Everybody can generally agree.
Those are good things. And sohow do you get the people to
(17:06):
experience the product, how toget people to talk about the
story of like, you know, whatjadestone and crab shells can do
for you. And the fact that halfthis garment comes from
effectively waste that's beenregenerated into a luxury
product, that story is, youknow, has to be passed often
from person to person. And sowe're just trying to get people
(17:28):
to be able to share that story.
In the context of the productoften in the store. We also, you
know, we tell people like thelast like, well, what's with the
What's with the bird, you know,on the shirt, like, you know,
it's, you know, the whole, thewhole idea is that, you know,
the magpies kind of it's not alogo, we kind of consider a
totem. And it's like our spiritanimal. And magpies as you might
(17:49):
know, are one of the mostintelligent creatures in the
natural world. They you know, aflock of magpies is called a
mischief. There's this way, it'sinteresting, you know, it totem
of nature, that really is thegenius of nature. And so we kind
of, we want to bring moreattention to that idea of the
(18:12):
gene, the genius of nature andwork with nature. And so we
chose the magpie, for thatreason, but it's also a little
bit of a disruptive bird. Itlikes to cause a little trouble.
And so we kind of see ourselvesin the fashion industry doing
that as well, because theindustry does need to wake up,
and it does need to getmotivated. And ultimately, we
(18:33):
want people to buy sustainableproducts because they're awesome
and innovative. Not just becauseit's the right thing to do.
PB (18:42):
Yeah, magpies can come in through the window and Nick off
with your silver bracelet if youlook at that. So do magpies
dress up their nests to lureother prospective suitors is
that how is that why they'redoing it like picking up bits of
tin foil? Is that what they'redoing? Yeah,
Unknown (18:59):
then tourists are doing a lot of things. But they're,
they're, you know, the cheekycheeky birds, they you know, but
they do the they do things likethe funerals for for their,
their deceased, they do thesethings that are unexpectedly
cool. And I think that's, youknow, where we're coming from
is, you know, don't sleep onnature, nature can do a lot more
(19:21):
if you work with it.
PB (19:22):
Yeah, I didn't know that did funerals. How does that work?
Unknown (19:26):
You know, I don't know you have to watch these. I'm not
a vert expert. But I will tellyou that, you know, this whole
brand started with just the aweof what is possible if we just
open our eyes. I
PB (19:38):
love that. Well, I love the brand as well. And I encourage
everybody to check it out. It'shyper natural style. That's the
website. Chris, are you behindthe Instagram channel and the
social channels if people dropyou a note, will you be behind
that?
Unknown (19:52):
Absolutely. Yeah.
There's just a few of us here.
So if you reach out to us,you'll probably get us.
PB (19:58):
Great, awesome and We'll leave all the show notes over at
Menswear. style.co.uk But Chris,in the meantime, really enjoy
talking to you. Thanks forjumping on and best of luck with
the brand. Appreciate the time,Peter. Great. I meant to say
jade stone and the crab shellssounds like a great artist that
(20:18):
Phil Spector would have producedback in the 60s. Yeah, it's got
records.
Unknown (20:24):
Yeah, yeah, like it's like some like witch's brew,
right.
PB (20:38):
You've been listening to the menswear style podcast, be sure
to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk For more menswear
content and email info atmenswear style.co.uk If you'd
like to be a future guest on theshow. Finally, please help
support the show by leaving areview on iTunes or wherever
you're listening to thispodcast. Until next time,
Hello and welcome to another episode of the menswear style
podcast. I'm your host PeteBrooker and today on the show I
am talking to the co founder ofhyper natural Chris Colby. And a
little bit about hyper natural apioneer the future of high
quality eco luxury products madewith innovative materials of
nature, renewable andbiodegradable sources. Hyper
(00:26):
natural has always been inspiredby the genius of nature, and
combining natural solutions withmodern luxury and
sustainability. They know thefuture of fashion and materials
is not in polyester orpetrochemicals, it is in nature.
And here to talk more abouthyper natural is the co founder,
Chris Kobe.
Unknown (00:46):
Sure, so you know, hyper naturals, this new brand
that is actually launching inabout two weeks. So we're brand
new. But it's really what wethink is the future of apparel,
which is this eco luxury. Andwe've really kind of created a
proprietary fabric that's becomea brand. And it really combines
(01:07):
natural solutions with modernluxury and sustainability. And
that combination we feel iswhere the world needs to go. And
we've been able to over over anumber of years develop this
special fabric that we thinkreally shows that the genius of
nature,
PB (01:25):
right? I'm I'm very eager to drill down on the fabric. But so
this is launching on March thethird as we speak, and people
can check it out on the website,hyper natural style.com. But
perhaps you can talk about Iknow you self funded this with
your co founder. Why was it thatyou decided to not seek outside
(01:47):
investment for this brand?
Unknown (01:49):
Well, you know, I've been in the industry for over 30
Some years and been in retailbut in product work for big
brands like Ralph Lauren and inUrban Outfitters, but I've also
started brands like originalPenguin, and so just been an
industry for a long time andsort of really wanted to do
something for myself. And insome ways, the things that I
(02:11):
know our industry really needs.
And so it's a little bit of myform of repentance, I guess, of
coming back with a reallysustainable product that can can
really change our industry,maybe inspire industry. And I
really wanted to self fundedmainly because this allows us to
have control to do it the rightway. And so you know, just
having the experience have donethis for other big companies is
(02:31):
you know, the pitfalls of havingtoo many people involved too
soon. We're trying to avoid,
PB (02:40):
right, and I guess this gives you and your co founder
autonomy over the brand. Haveyou seen it go wrong somewhere
else? I mean, I don't want youto name and shame but other
companies and other brands thatyou might have looked at where
they've had investment to startout with and it just hasn't
panned out well for them.
Unknown (02:56):
Yeah, well, I think that you know, the more money
you have behind you the morepressure there ways to grow, and
to grow maybe unsustainably. Andso what we really want to do is
kind of set the business up andthe brand to grow naturally in
terms of what it can be. Andthen as we see opportunity,
potentially bring more partnersin that really, you know, with
(03:18):
the right expectations.
PB (03:21):
And whilst you were working for other companies, did you
always have it in mind to startsomething else? Did you always
have like a little thoughtbubble that, oh, I could do this
over here. And I can do itslightly differently?
Unknown (03:33):
Yeah, I spent 30 years more or less doing that just
starting businesses and
PB (03:38):
being constantly distracted.
Unknown (03:41):
Well, I'm kind of, I've always had a lot of ideas, a lot
of visions, and they've hadother bigger companies to bring
it to life with and for theirbenefit. But I've always felt
like I could do it for myself.
And so just kind of waiting forthe right moment. And this
became it in terms of startingsomething I really feel the
industry in the world reallyneeds right now. And I'm just
able to use all my experiencefrom the past and my network to
(04:02):
really do something, I thinkthey can have a lot of impact.
PB (04:07):
Right? And what would you say it is specifically from any
of your other jobs that youmanaged to go right, I can take
that and plug it in to hypernatural?
Unknown (04:21):
Well, you know, what I've learned is, it's really
easy to try to do too much. Andso the biggest thing experience
has taught me in the past isreally how to simplify and
really get down to the essenceof what matters most. And I
think that's the nature of ourindustry starting to reward more
and more people with a reallystrong point of view, to have an
(04:42):
innovative product, they do, youknow, one thing incredibly well,
versus trying to do everything.
And I think you know, I'veworked for a lot of places and
been guilty to myself of justtrying to do too much. And so I
you know, years ago I readYvonne Gerards book, Let my
people go sir Train. And one ofmy favourite quotes from Yvonne
was, the more you know, the lessyou need. And I really do think
(05:05):
that applies a lot to ourindustry. And so you know, with
hyper natural, we're taking theapproach of, you know, let's
just have, the less be lesswasteful in our approach, like,
let's just make the things thatwe think matter, not a whole
bunch of other filler type ofproduct, let's have more
quality, and maybe lessquantity, right? And let's, you
(05:25):
know, let's tell stories thatmake people inspired to want to
go further and do more with whatwe're doing, versus try to, you
know, trick people into buyingthings that maybe they don't
need, right. And so I think thisis, these are the things that I
hope, you know, you know,experiences taught me that we
can bring into a new brand dayone, in some ways that we've
(05:48):
just learned from all theseother great brands over the
last, you know, three or fourdecades.
PB (05:55):
Interesting. I was actually just scribbling the title of
that book, like Scarah mangawould do getting a wine
recommendation from bond, letthe people go surfing. I must
add that to my audible list.
Unknown (06:10):
Thanks, classic.
PB (06:11):
Yeah, I'll check that out.
For sure. Well, I mean, I agree,I looked at the press pack that
you guys sent over. And I oftensee brands that start off
launching with a whole load ofproducts, because they perhaps
don't know how to rein it in, orthey just want to overreach and
tick all the boxes straightaway, rather than get one thing,
(06:32):
right, and then build fromthere. And I'm always on on your
side of the fence. Chris withthis in terms of if you can get
one thing, right, and then learnhow to expand on that rather
than just throw spaghetti at thewall, hope something lands and
then just go back and latch onto that because it just feels
like there's a lot of ways thatsliding down the kitchen tiles
(06:53):
outside of that. Yes. But maybeyou can talk about the fabric.
I'm keen to get into that. Sothis took about two years worth
of research and development. Sotalk about the that journey,
please. Sure.
Unknown (07:07):
So, you know, when we really started out during COVID,
having a little bit of time tosort of think about, you know,
if we were to make the best ofsomething, what would that be?
And we did a little bit ofresearch my partner I and you
know, we kind of come from theworld of Ralph Lauren and J.
Crew. And we've worked you know,we started this brand original
penguin about 20 years ago. Andso we knew a lot about polo
(07:30):
shirts, and we knew a lot ofthat, you know, everybody wears
them.
PB (07:34):
Did you start original penguin? So to run over you,
Chris, did you? Did you startthat?
Unknown (07:38):
I did. Yeah.
PB (07:40):
No, that I mean, that is one again. really rely on your
competitive I love that brand.
I've got loads of the Polos. Sosorry, carry
Unknown (07:48):
on. No, yeah. So you know, just we invite my partner,
I we just we just know polos andbut we also, you know, you know,
because everybody owns andthey're kind of ubiquitous. And
there's this kind of thing thatpeople almost don't really put a
lot of effort into. But it'slike a four and a half billion
dollar business, globally, justpolo shirts, and they've been
(08:08):
wearing them, you know, foreverif you think about like the
history of the shirt. And so wejust thought like, if we made a
really the best one, what wouldwe do and we kind of came down
to it would be about thematerials and in really coming
up with this material, but itwould have to be sustainable.
And the more we dug into it, wegot really obsessed with the
potential of nature and whatnature can actually do to create
(08:31):
performance in materials. And westarted this journey, and it
took a while but we realisedthere's stuff we could do that
would touch your skin, it wouldactually feel a certain way or
have like a potential WellnessBenefit for you. And that led us
down this path of okay can makesomething really commercially
(08:51):
viable, but also sustainable andawesome. We'd have to really put
some things together that don'texist today. And then we landed
on, you know, let's just takethe best cotton in the world
which was is supima cotton, thetop 1% of cotton in the world.
And let's blend it withregenerative materials or waste
(09:11):
materials to try to createsomething that you know let's
call it a cocktail that doesn'texist. And and so we ended up
coming down to we took jadestonefrom mining waste in Taiwan. And
we combine that with chitin inwhich is crab shells pulverised
down into a powder and we put itinto this brew and we created a
(09:35):
yarn that actually has theseproprietary benefits of cooling
your skin which is the jadestonenaturally and the Chipman is
anti odour and so you couldreally get this like cooling
anti odour effect from what iseffectively mining waste and
food waste. And so we combinethat yarn with supima cotton
(09:58):
which is super soft andluxurious and strong. Oh, and we
added in 100%, recycled spandex.
And we got this like super knitthat that has this really cool
touch, naturally performingthing. And best of all has no
polyester has no petrochemicals,which is mostly what performance
is today, it's mostly syntheticmaterials coated in chemicals,
(10:20):
or it's just a regular cottonshirt that doesn't really do
anything. So we've kind ofcreated this in between, with
hyper natural that bringsnatural performance and luxury
together into one. Onefabrication.
PB (10:37):
How do you know to go about finding jade stone and the
shells of the crabs? How do youknow that this fusion is going
to come anywhere close to whatit is that you want to get out
of the end?
Unknown (10:49):
Well, in our journey, we realised that there's a lot
of there's kind of what was abio materials revolution going
on right now. And a lot of it'sin laboratories and things that
you just don't see. But there'sa lot of really interesting work
going on that that are puttingthings together that are more
sustainable, but natural, ormore sustainable without using
(11:10):
synthetic chemicals andmaterials. And ultimately, it's
about having something that ismore natural, more
biodegradable. But also, youknow, it's better, you know, it
can be a better product. Andmost people don't think of
sustainable products as beingbetter or awesome. And we want
(11:30):
him to kind of flip that on thehead is that we actually made it
better through nature. And so wereally, we think about it as
nature can do a lot of amazingthings if you work with it. And
I think that's kind of the ethosstriper natural. It's the only
thing we do. And it led to thisfabric development that really
just gives people what they wantkeeps cool. You don't have any
(11:53):
odour. It's super soft andcomfortable and luxurious. But
it's also happens to besustainable.
PB (12:00):
And do you have to paint in that fabric? Or can you patent
that?
Unknown (12:05):
We have we have proprietary rights to it. No one
else can do it at the momenttechnically, and part of one of
our partners is the is the millthat has actually helped us
develop the fibre. So we're kindof we're locked in on that
level. But yeah, we can patentit, but it will take It'll take
just takes time. It's it's agood couple three year process.
PB (12:27):
And a process that basically is a lot of red tape and
lawyers, I imagine there'snothing sexy about that process.
Unknown (12:34):
Well, the more important thing is getting into
the market and develop it intosomething that is commercially
viable that people want. Andthat will allow us to, you know,
to really, you know, brand itand build it into other things,
we have a number of other thingswe're looking to do along these
lines of just taking naturalmaterials and creating yarns
(12:56):
that don't exist today. And theyand they can do potentially some
very interesting things.
PB (13:01):
Well, for people that might be watching us on the YouTube
channel, I'm just bringing up acouple of slides to give some
context to what Chris is talkingabout here some of the Polos
first. Can I ask we talked aboutthe fabric, did you do anything
different for the cut of thePolos? With regards to these
designs.
Unknown (13:19):
Our general approach is, in the spirit of simplicity
is we created four styles. Twoof them are classic fit, and two
of them are a slim fit. We havetwo fabrics. One BK one Jersey,
and one fabric story. So thefabrics are is the same for
everything we make it so it kindof comes down to we can fit a
(13:40):
lot of people on different sizeand fit preference, even style
preference so that you can wecan fit a you know, a wide range
of people all with the same, youknow, natural performance fabric
story, and that's where it's anexclusive brand. But at the same
time, if you really look at ourshirts, we put a lot of detail
(14:01):
into them that you wouldn'tnormally expect in a polo shirt.
So if you were to flip it insideout, you'd see there's a class
cleaning pocket on the inside.
It also no there's no labels,there's no tags at all in the
garment. The trims we use areall natural. There's no plastic
whatsoever used on the product.
(14:21):
The buttons are mother of pearl,which you know, also natural.
The packaging is all natural.
There's are recyclablematerials. So we a lot of the
devils in the details. And so wekind of we kind of tell people
the polo shirts or Trojan horseyou just you're getting a lot
more than you might expect.
PB (14:41):
So of course, you see you can there's a pocket on the
inside and you can work theglass now can i I'm imagining my
girlfriend's lipstick on mycoffee mugs that are just
ubiquitous in my house. Is thatcan I use that or is it just not
going to be too can be toooverkill for that? Yeah, it's
Unknown (14:58):
you were just there's a little A triangle when you flip
up the front hand, and insidethere, you can slip your class
in there. And just this, give ita quick clean. So this, you
know, little thing that youmight discover after you bought
it. There's a little QR code inthere that you know, we'll use
to explain, or to know, a littlemore online. But, you know,
these are just, you know,they're just little details just
(15:20):
to let you know that we put alot of thought and care into the
into into this garment beyondthe sustainable fabric.
PB (15:28):
I love that I used to run an independent fashion shop just
outside of Cambridgeshire. AndI'd always plug this brand, I'm
going back about 20 years, soforgive me the name of the
brands escaped me. But what Ireally loved about their
particular T shirts was that youcould tell the consumer or the
customers, you've flip up thehem, and there would be the
story of the brand. Like on theinside, it would just be Yeah.
(15:50):
And it would just be so cool. Iimagine it must have cost them
in an necessarily penny to getto that that stage. But I as
soon as people saw that, theywould actually buy it because
they knew also it would be apersonal garment for them that
nobody else had had. But whenthey're in the pubs they could
also lift up the shirt. And ifthey got a six pack or a cool
(16:10):
tattoo, Oh, yeah. Oh, I have atattoo as well. Thanks for that.
Unknown (16:15):
Yeah, that was it. Now it's a QR code. So
PB (16:18):
now it's just getting your phone and scan me I love it.
Well, I'm also talking about thelike, the narrative of the
brand. Do you have to go down tothe retailers? And you're gonna
be in Nordstrom and Fred Segalamongst a few others? Do you
have to go down and kind ofschool the, the reps down there
(16:40):
on how to sell hyper natural andwhat the fabric is all about?
Unknown (16:45):
Yeah, absolutely.
Because I think, you know, wewant everyone to understand,
like, what's really differentabout it. And so beyond the
sustainability, that there's alot of benefits in there for the
customer, there's a lot ofthings to be excited about most,
most men want to stay cool. Andthey don't want to smell right.
Everybody can generally agree.
Those are good things. And sohow do you get the people to
(17:06):
experience the product, how toget people to talk about the
story of like, you know, whatjadestone and crab shells can do
for you. And the fact that halfthis garment comes from
effectively waste that's beenregenerated into a luxury
product, that story is, youknow, has to be passed often
from person to person. And sowe're just trying to get people
(17:28):
to be able to share that story.
In the context of the productoften in the store. We also, you
know, we tell people like thelast like, well, what's with the
What's with the bird, you know,on the shirt, like, you know,
it's, you know, the whole, thewhole idea is that, you know,
the magpies kind of it's not alogo, we kind of consider a
totem. And it's like our spiritanimal. And magpies as you might
(17:49):
know, are one of the mostintelligent creatures in the
natural world. They you know, aflock of magpies is called a
mischief. There's this way, it'sinteresting, you know, it totem
of nature, that really is thegenius of nature. And so we kind
of, we want to bring moreattention to that idea of the
(18:12):
gene, the genius of nature andwork with nature. And so we
chose the magpie, for thatreason, but it's also a little
bit of a disruptive bird. Itlikes to cause a little trouble.
And so we kind of see ourselvesin the fashion industry doing
that as well, because theindustry does need to wake up,
and it does need to getmotivated. And ultimately, we
(18:33):
want people to buy sustainableproducts because they're awesome
and innovative. Not just becauseit's the right thing to do.
PB (18:42):
Yeah, magpies can come in through the window and Nick off
with your silver bracelet if youlook at that. So do magpies
dress up their nests to lureother prospective suitors is
that how is that why they'redoing it like picking up bits of
tin foil? Is that what they'redoing? Yeah,
Unknown (18:59):
then tourists are doing a lot of things. But they're,
they're, you know, the cheekycheeky birds, they you know, but
they do the they do things likethe funerals for for their,
their deceased, they do thesethings that are unexpectedly
cool. And I think that's, youknow, where we're coming from
is, you know, don't sleep onnature, nature can do a lot more
(19:21):
if you work with it.
PB (19:22):
Yeah, I didn't know that did funerals. How does that work?
Unknown (19:26):
You know, I don't know you have to watch these. I'm not
a vert expert. But I will tellyou that, you know, this whole
brand started with just the aweof what is possible if we just
open our eyes. I
PB (19:38):
love that. Well, I love the brand as well. And I encourage
everybody to check it out. It'shyper natural style. That's the
website. Chris, are you behindthe Instagram channel and the
social channels if people dropyou a note, will you be behind
that?
Unknown (19:52):
Absolutely. Yeah.
There's just a few of us here.
So if you reach out to us,you'll probably get us.
PB (19:58):
Great, awesome and We'll leave all the show notes over at
Menswear. style.co.uk But Chris,in the meantime, really enjoy
talking to you. Thanks forjumping on and best of luck with
the brand. Appreciate the time,Peter. Great. I meant to say
jade stone and the crab shellssounds like a great artist that
(20:18):
Phil Spector would have producedback in the 60s. Yeah, it's got
records.
Unknown (20:24):
Yeah, yeah, like it's like some like witch's brew,
right.
PB (20:38):
You've been listening to the menswear style podcast, be sure
to head over to menswearstyle.co.uk For more menswear
content and email info atmenswear style.co.uk If you'd
like to be a future guest on theshow. Finally, please help
support the show by leaving areview on iTunes or wherever
you're listening to thispodcast. Until next time,
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