August 21, 2023 • 36 mins
Caitlin Martella had never been a second hand shopper prior to starting her second hand business. In fact, She had a lot of pre-conceptions about what thrifting meant and decided long ago that it was not for her. Like me when I ran my store, she had never even heard of the circular economy and now…well, I’m going to let her describe how she ended up on this path.
So, who is Caitlin Martella and what is Curated Cubs?
In this episode we talk about the Circular Economy (click to get more info on what that looks like).
Curated Cubs donates their overstock to Jessie's Center, and you can too!
They also donate stained baby cashmere to Rapt and Held to be used as kids glove lining. ADORBS!!!
Join us as we shine the spotlight on Caitlin Martella, a remarkable sustainable clothing entrepreneur.
If you are curious about shopping preloved for your kids visit Curated Cubs! Your participation can greatly reduce the amount of textile waste that will ultimately be passed on to our children!!
Together we can DEgrow that waste :)
Enjoying the podcast? I am fiercely independent, and rely on listeners like you to help me stick around.
Can you share the episode on social media, or write a
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review in Apple podcasts?! I would be so grateful.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Miranda Black (00:00):
Hey all you de-growers.
My name's Miranda Black andthis is what's this Place Behind
the Clicks and Mortar, and wetalk about de-growth in fashion
and retail.
Now, if we're going to talkabout cliques, we gotta talk
about social media.
I don't really like socialmedia, which you may not believe
(00:20):
, because there I am makingposts and reels and it looks
like I'm having fun, but thetruth is it gives me a lot of
anxiety and I kinda resent thetime commitment it takes to
create content.
I bet you can relate.
You just give your creativityaway to Instagram, spending
literal hours of unpaid labor tocreate content for these mega
(00:43):
billionaires.
So yeah, I'm a bit of acurmudgeon on the social's front
, but something that intriguesme, something that stops me from
deleting them all from my life,is this community 1990s mall
vibe I've found Like rememberwhen we used to go to the mall
you could actually discover newindependent stores run by like
(01:05):
Mom and Pop or Mom and Mom.
But I went to the Eaton Centerrecently because I have an Apple
computer problem and that's myclosest Apple store and it is
almost unimaginable for anindependent retailer to exist in
the Eaton Center.
Instead, it's all thesepredictable stores.
I bet you could name five rightoff the top of your head, even
(01:28):
if you've never heard of theEaton Center, because there's
stores you find in every singlemall across the world, all
selling the same stuff.
There is zero discovery,nothing new.
And this is where I giveInstagram a second look, because
there are thousands of small,independent accounts creating
and selling fresh shit stuff youwill never find in the mall.
(01:52):
This sales transformation fromstreet to socials was sort of
blooming pre-COVID and then itexploded during the pandemic.
The homeowner or apartmentdweller was suddenly a store.
They were merchandising andputting on live sales.
If you curated your feed right,you were able to shop from
(02:14):
hundreds of thousands ofone-person shows, often thrift
or vintage or homemade, right inyour own city.
It was good stuff.
Well, today I have a story ofsomeone who rode that whole
crazy micro business pandemicwave and is now in the position
to open a real-life bricks andmortar location.
(02:35):
She's gonna give us the clicksand the bricks.
Caitlin Martella opened aclothing business that creates
almost zero waste.
She supports families in needwithin her community by donating
her overstock and she makes itsuper easy for parents to get
into consignment through herwhite glove model.
We're gonna get into that.
(02:55):
But the part that really blowsmy mind is that Caitlin Martella
had never been a secondhandshopper prior to starting her
secondhand business.
In fact, she had a lot ofpreconceptions about what
thrifting meant and decided longago it was not for her.
And, like me when I ran mystore, she had never even heard
(03:16):
of the circular economy.
And now, well, I'm gonna lether describe how she ended up on
this path.
So who is Caitlin Martella andwhat is curated cubs?
Let's go inside and find out.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
This is just when I've heard.
(03:37):
Did you start it in your garageAlmost my garage.
Caitlin Martella (03:40):
We don't have a garage.
I started it in my basement.
I took out a very large portionof my basement to start this
business and actually just aweek and a half ago finally
moved into a studio just a fewminutes from home.
So my husband's really happy tohave this face back.
Miranda Black (03:57):
Okay, so take me back.
Is this your firstentrepreneurial endeavor?
How did this all happen?
Caitlin Martella (04:03):
Oh, good question.
So I definitely think I'm anentrepreneur.
It's not my first, although Iwould say it is the first sort
of shift that I've done whereI'm truly independent.
I have a partner, but we'rereally doing this on our own,
and what I mean by that is yearsago I had my real estate
license, so I was a bit of anentrepreneur there.
(04:24):
But you're always sort ofbacked by a brokerage.
You always have sort of peoplein your corner.
You've got administrators tohelp you out.
This is definitely my first allhands on deck.
Miranda Black (04:36):
Nothing to fall back on.
Yeah, nothing to fall back on.
Caitlin Martella (04:38):
Initiative, I do also have a full-time job, so
while it is my side hustle,it's definitely more than a side
hustle.
Now it's really taken off intosomething wonderful, which I'll
tell you all about.
When I first had my secondchild, which was a girl, when.
I first found out I was havinga girl, I was like complete girl
mom, Like I went crazy withshopping.
(05:01):
I went and bought new clothesand new toys and you know, navy
blue pants weren't good enough.
They need to have glitter onthem.
I will say that I've never beenreally into pink, so that was
good.
Miranda Black (05:14):
But I know I've never been really into pink yeah
.
Caitlin Martella (05:18):
I guess I shouldn't have said that to you,
but it's okay, that's hilarious.
I think it's really funny, but Iwas never into you know, as a
kid, I remember being intoBarbie and things like that, but
even now, my favorite colorsare red and green.
Not the true, true girly girlymom, but certainly I got excited
about dresses and accessoriesand hair clips and things like
(05:39):
that.
So my daughter was born at theend of 2019.
And, of course, covid hit, andwhen I came back to work, I
started to organize her room andI realized, wow, she's got a
lot of clothes and things thatshe's never worn because we have
been inside cooped up for overa year, right, and so I had
things from family members.
(05:59):
I had beautiful clothes fromEurope with tags still on them,
and I'm also the type of person,even with my own clothes, who
doesn't wear the really goodstuff unless I'm going somewhere
because I'm afraid I'm going toruin it.
Miranda Black (06:11):
Oh yeah.
Caitlin Martella (06:12):
Oh yeah.
So that mindset is still a hardhabit to break, but I'm getting
better.
So I realized that I had all ofthese beautiful items.
So I started to think aboutselling them.
And as I started to get intothat, I've got three cousins my
age or a ninth, a little cousingroup together and they all have
kids our age.
And they all said, yeah, weneed to sell our stuff too, like
we haven't worn any of it.
(06:33):
Think about school uniforms andthink about you know, all of
these gifts that we're stillgetting, because people still
buy you clothes in COVID as agift if you have a new baby.
So so started to kind of thinkto myself okay, well, I've got a
group of people who doesn'twant to sell their own things.
They want me to do it for them.
So started to build a bit of aplatform on Instagram.
(06:53):
We slapped an aim on it, calledit curated Cubs, and decided to
try this sort of Instagramsecond hand shop that seemed to
kind of pop up around that sametime when, when COVID was just
beginning.
Miranda Black (07:05):
You saw it out there already, like you saw
people doing that kind of thingA little bit, yeah, a little bit
Like it was.
Caitlin Martella (07:11):
I think it was just starting to become popular
.
I noticed probably just as Ibuilt the Instagram page and as
we started to ramp up I noticed,oh wait, there's other people
doing this like as close as thestreet behind me.
But I've made some really greatconnections from those companies
and I have a really strong sortof community over competition
(07:34):
mindset.
Because I feel like in thisspace, particularly If we as a
community support each other'ssmall business, especially when
it comes to secondhand, and ifwe're giving customers a really
good customer experience andwe're giving them really good
quality items, then that sort ofmindset begins to shift for the
(07:55):
customer and they start tothink oh well, I had really
great experience at Curated Cubsand I found exactly what I
needed with them.
Maybe this other secondhandshop has what I need as well and
maybe I should follow them andsee what they can offer me,
because with secondhand, youreally are living in this space
where there's really only one ofeverything.
So I gravitate towards workingwith some other small secondhand
(08:17):
shops to really offer customersmore than what I can offer them
alone.
So I think, while there's a bitof saturation in this market
right now, I do think that ithas its advantages to all of us
as preloved business owners.
Miranda Black (08:33):
Yeah, well, they say that if you have one store
of one thing on a strip and it'sonly one thing, then it's not
as attractive for a shopper togo there, because it's only one
store.
But if there's three weddingdress stores or I'm thinking of
something really specific ifthere's three wedding dress
stores, then you can actuallyhave a shopping experience and
(08:54):
they feed each other.
So yeah, competition breeds.
I can't remember.
There's a saying in theresomewhere.
Caitlin Martella (09:01):
No, I love that analogy.
I think it's perfect.
I think of many things that Ido in different as a shopper
right, like with groceries andthings like that, where I go
specifically to the smallerplaces because there are more of
them grouped together.
So yeah, you hit the nail onthe head the better we are at
offering that experience to ourcustomers, the more likely
they're going to shop secondhand.
(09:21):
Like take out the wordcompetition right the more
likely they're going to shopsecondhand, and that's a big
motivator for us is to get morepeople To shop that way.
Miranda Black (09:34):
So question were you into secondhand before this?
Caitlin Martella (09:37):
No, not at all .
Were you a secondhand shopper?
Not at all.
Miranda Black (09:40):
Not at all.
And sidebar are you personallya secondhand shopper?
Is it something you do?
Caitlin Martella (09:45):
just for your kids.
So oh, that's a really goodquestion.
So I've never been.
I never was a secondhandshopper, I think.
Miranda Black (09:55):
Not, even not for your kids, not for anything.
No, you didn't go as a teen?
Caitlin Martella (09:59):
No, not as a teen, for sure.
And the reason I know that soquickly is I was thinking about
my cousin the other day who's 14and she lives for the threat
Like she loves, loves it.
Oh, I want a teacher that sayslives for the threat.
Yes, I live for the threat, Likeshe's all about that life and I
think it's awesome, right, likeespecially now coming from
where I'm coming from, but no,when I.
(10:21):
One of the things I joke aboutwhen people ask me where I
started is I had a boy in 2015,and then I had a girl in 2019
and I had this you know, quote,unquote million dollar family,
and then it wasn't until Istarted realizing that I was
actually spending a milliondollars and that's what the
million?
dollar family meant becauseyou're buying a pink version or
(10:42):
a purple version or a glitterversion of something that you
already have.
Like why can't, why can't Juliajust buy a million dollar
family?
Why can't Julia just wear theshark pajamas?
Why does she have to wearprincess pajamas?
Like it doesn't?
I don't understand.
It doesn't mean anything, right?
Yeah, and so really quickly Istarted to realize number one,
that my daughter couldabsolutely wear all of the
(11:05):
beautiful little things thatI've saved from my son, but
number two, that if I kept going, I was going to bankrupt buying
all these fancy new dresses,and so I definitely, when my
daughter was born, had a bit ofa shift and started shopping at
some of the second hand shopsthat I knew of, and I think,
because of the experience I hadwith some of them, I realized,
(11:29):
well, wait a minute, I canprovide this to some, to someone
as well, and be successful,just like, just like, so and so
is doing.
But it really took me probablymaking three, four, five
purchases from some of thosestores, to realize that I was
actually getting, in many cases,better quality than what I
would get from some of the bigbox stores that shipped to your
door in a couple of days, yeah.
(11:50):
So, yeah, I feel like Idefinitely wasn't a second hand
shopper before for my kids, butI am, I would say now.
It's 95% of their wardrobe issecond hand and the 5% is gifts
and sometimes little things thatI don't have in stock or that I
simply can't find that I reallyneed, especially when your
(12:11):
school decides that every day ofthe week is going to be a
different color t-shirt day.
Oh God, yeah, but we've gottenway better now and we have
t-shirts in every color.
And then for myself it's funny,I also was never a second hand
shopper, I will say I reallyloved a good clothing swap.
Miranda Black (12:30):
I loved yeah.
Caitlin Martella (12:32):
I always loved the idea of bringing your
girlfriends together seeing whatthey've got, swapping it out.
But no, definitely never hit upthe thrift stores or
consignment stores for myself.
Now I find I would say maybecloser to 40 or 50% for myself,
but I'm also not buying myselfas much as I buy the kids.
(12:52):
So it's a lot slower, to kind ofreplace what I've got in my
wardrobe.
If I see something I likesecondhand, then I will
absolutely buy it for myself.
Or, as I probably wouldn't haveconsidered it about four or
five years ago Wow interestingBecause a lot of people I talk
to they're already converts orthrifters.
Miranda Black (13:10):
often are people who they started thrifting when
they're teenagers.
It's great to hear someonewho's only just sort of found it
through their children.
You find that you can findgreat stuff for yourself, and
did you have an idea that it wasgoing to be like a dirty
experience or like a grossexperience?
Caitlin Martella (13:31):
No, I think part of it was.
Well, I'm not going to be ableto find what I'm looking for,
right?
Yeah?
Miranda Black (13:38):
I hear that a lot .
Caitlin Martella (13:40):
And I think that was part of it, but I do
think, not knowing where to goas well, like you always hear
the, you know this store isbetter than this one and this
one is better than this one, andI think really nobody has the
best stuff.
You have to, just you have tobe in it for the find.
Miranda Black (13:56):
It's random.
Caitlin Martella (13:58):
So that's the truth, secrets out.
Miranda Black (14:00):
But I think that's part of it.
Caitlin Martella (14:01):
I've always been sort of a busy person and
so do I have the time to kind ofgo through racks and racks of
stuff looking for my size orlooking for my style?
Not really.
There's obviously tons ofgrowth in that market now, so I
can look on Instagram.
I can see people who look likeme, who are trying things on in
my body, shape and size.
(14:21):
I can buy things off of otherapps and things like that.
So there's a lot of opportunitynow and I do find it a lot
easier.
I know my size now.
Maybe 10 years ago I would havebeen sort of unsure, but I'm
pretty confident in my size.
I know what I'm buying, I knowwhat styles suit me.
So it's a lot easier now thatI'm sort of grown up a bit.
Miranda Black (14:41):
Right, yeah, yeah .
So take me back to how youstarted, Like it was with your
the cousins, and then how didyou branch out and start getting
customers?
Caitlin Martella (14:54):
Yeah.
So we grew pretty quickly onInstagram, just organically
sharing through friends andfamily and for the first year,
Instagram was our sales portal.
Like all of our operations werethrough Instagram, 100%.
It was messy but it was goodand within the first couple of
months we had about 10consignors who we knew.
Miranda Black (15:11):
Oh question, did they come to your location?
Did you ship it out to them?
How did how did it work?
Caitlin Martella (15:17):
No, the fantastic thing with COVID was
that everything was porch pickupand drop off.
So I offered free porch pickupat my home.
I also did deliveries myself.
We were driving around the cityonce a week usually to drop off
packages.
At the beginning it was verymuch growing this business in
our local community People acouple blocks away, people who
(15:38):
knew me, who knew where I lived,and then I was happy to deliver
within certain areas.
I also have a wonderful auntwho lives in the East End who
comes out this way once a weekand she takes all my East End
orders.
So it was kind of like dividingand conquering and figuring out
what people needed and whatpeople wanted.
But yeah, I started off with ahandful of consignors and I
honestly I blinked and we nowhave 102 consignors at last
(16:03):
count.
And so you know, at thebeginning I was supplementing a
little bit by thrifting, doing alittle bit here and there of
like, well, we need more thissize in the shop or we need more
shoes in the shop, but I haveno room to thrift anymore, like
it's all coming in throughconsignment because we have 102
people with at least 102children who are selling us
(16:27):
their items.
So it's been really great to beable to say that this is really
running off of itself in termsof you know, I don't have to go
out and buy product because it'scoming to me.
People are more than happy togive me garbage bags and boxes
and bins full of items and wesort everything and do our best
(16:48):
to accept as much as we can.
But yeah, we started off with asmall bag of my own items that
I was selling for my daughterand now have over 83,.
We've had over 8,300 pieces ofinventory flow through the shop.
Miranda Black (17:02):
Yeah, wow, oh, my goodness, and that's just what
we've accepted.
Caitlin Martella (17:06):
That's not even including what we've had to
donate, because we just had toomuch.
Miranda Black (17:10):
Right.
Where do you donate, by the way?
So?
Caitlin Martella (17:12):
we donate to a couple of places.
So Jesse Center is one thatwe've donated to.
During COVID.
It was harder, although easierin a way, because they had set
sort of porch drop off areas.
I found Jesse Center andBirthmark were our two top
places to donate.
We've had to really sort nowand come up with like different
piles, like okay, this is forJesse Center and this is for a
(17:34):
local family, and we used tohave a program called Play Packs
where we put a bunch of staineditems together into a pack and
sold it for a very maybe fivepieces for $4 or something, so
that parents could outfit theirkids when they're born to
daycare and they're just gonnago make a mess in their clothes
anyway.
But, now what we found.
Just with the number offamilies that there are to
(17:57):
support in the area, we'veactually converted that program
and just made it so that we'redoing capsules for people within
our community who need it.
And so we've got this personhere who has a size five son and
a size two to need daughter,and so we can make a package for
them.
We can make a package for thewoman who has a kid who's 12
(18:17):
years old and she's a single momand she needs some help with
outfitting.
Miranda Black (18:20):
So we can kind of divide it.
Caitlin Martella (18:22):
It takes some time, but I think it's really
valuable, really worth it, justfor our own growth and our own
development and just feelinggood about the work that we do.
Miranda Black (18:33):
Yeah, that's incredible.
It's like you have a built-inphilanthropy side of the
business already baked into it.
That's incredible.
Not everybody starts theirbusiness with that in the
business already.
That's really amazing.
Caitlin Martella (18:49):
Yeah, it's fun to be able to offer that and,
to be honest, it makes our livesa lot easier.
We still do our donationdrop-offs to any of those
organizations.
We're always also open to neworganizations that are accepting
as well, because we do reallyget so many things.
Another thing that we do that'ssuper fun is I have a couple of
consignors who have given mebags that have baby cashmere
(19:11):
items in them and, like, babycashmere is the softest, most
beautiful fabric in the world.
But, the problem with babycashmere this is that you have
to dry clean baby cashmere andso nobody ever wants to do that,
and so I would get thesecashmere pieces that are stained
and I can't really do anythingwith, and the cost for me to dry
clean them outweighs what Iwould ever make off of them
(19:35):
usually.
So what I've been doing withthose pieces, that's super fun,
as I reached out to a localmaker.
She's called Rapton Held, hername's Logan, and she takes
those baby cashmere pieces andshe'll line mittens with the
baby cashmere.
So she'll do these reallybeautiful mittens and hats and
things like that and she'll usethe cashmere.
I think she's mainly used itfor baby mitten lining.
(19:57):
It's just really fun to likewatch something, come in think,
oh, I can't use this, what am Igonna do with it?
Who's gonna take a stained babycashmere sweater and she just
cuts the stain right out andthen uses the rest of the fabric
to move on with her items.
Yeah, it's awesome, it's reallycool.
Miranda Black (20:14):
So you really are participating in the circular
economy for tech sales?
I hope so.
I hope so, and you are.
Caitlin Martella (20:22):
It's amazing that that wasn't really on your
radar before hand, right Likeyou were thinking like oh, I
wanna participate in thecircular economy and make sure
all these textiles get used, itdefinitely wasn't on my radar
and when we did start thisorganization and we thought,
okay, we need to make sure thatwe're donating what we can't use
(20:45):
to the right places, because weknow that so many of these
larger sort of donation centersdon't always do the best things
with these pieces right For sure, some of my stuff might end up
for sale and somebody who needsit may be able to grab it, but a
lot of the times it's not thecase and what I found was a big
struggle and love any tips andinsight you have, because it's
(21:06):
still something I'm trying tounderstand more about is textile
recycling.
Like, how can we recycle ourtextiles?
You know I think the city ofToronto specifically doesn't
have a lot of resources on that,doesn't have a lot of
information.
I've gone down all these rabbitholes.
I found you know something youprobably heard about this
(21:27):
textile recycling bin in Markham, that you know what I mean?
Miranda Black (21:31):
Yeah, you're going, I think that just get.
I mean, I don't know for sure,but as far as I can tell, I just
get shipped to like well, andthat's the thing.
Caitlin Martella (21:38):
So when we first discovered it we were like
, oh my gosh, there's this bin.
Can we make the drive to markthem once a month?
Yeah, we can do, we can do this, we can, we can do it.
And and my partner at the timeshe said you know, like I work
out there, I'll drop it off.
And she kind of came back onetime and said they just only, it
doesn't really seem like it'sany different than any of the
other bins on the corners of youknow around here.
(22:01):
And so we started to kind of diga little bit deeper, ask around
with some of the clothingmanufacturers who we do know,
and the and the designers who wedo know, and nobody really has
a definitive answer.
So I do find that that isreally difficult and I think
that's what spurred this idea ofOkay, if we can't recycle it in
our city, there's got to be adifferent way to recycle it
(22:22):
amongst families, right, there'sgot to be people who need
clothes, there's got to bepeople who need Mitten linings,
there's got to be people whoneed dish rags and and you know
Well why.
Miranda Black (22:33):
but why was that important to you?
Why?
Why were you not like what wasin your mind that was so
important?
Why weren't you willing to justdrop it off at a bin?
Caitlin Martella (22:42):
I don't know, I don't, I don't know why.
I guess I didn't think that Icould get into this business to
solve a problem in In massproduction, only to then Throw
out all of these clothes that Icouldn't accept, because I'm
only a one.
Well, with two woman shop, youknow, we can only do so much and
(23:03):
and obviously there was a lotthat we couldn't accept and I
just couldn't stomach the ideaof sending it somewhere where
it's just gonna end up in alandfill, like.
I think that was the wholereason I I started the business,
so I sort of kept up with thatmomentum to think, you know, not
only can we Make our own moneyas parents by selling our
clothes, we can also make thisan opportunity for people who
(23:26):
might not be able to affordthose clothes new or might not
want to Buy those clothes new.
But also, one of the underlyingpieces was this idea that it is
Helpful to the environment ifwe slow down fast fashion, but
it's not helpful if we're justbuying secondhand and then
putting it in a landfill anyway,because it's all you know,
we're slowing it down, maybe byone or two steps, but it's not
(23:48):
really solving the ultimateissue or one of the ultimate
issues.
Miranda Black (23:54):
Yeah, it just blows my mind that it became
part of your business model whenthat wasn't.
It wasn't something that youwere deciding to go into saving
the world from.
Yes, big choked on textile.
So would you describe yourselfas like, prior to this business,
(24:15):
as a mom going about buyingfrom, going about buying from
Carters and Joe fresh and theseplaces they have the least
transparent Supply chain.
Would you describe yourself assomeone who is just on that path
prior to?
What was your come to?
Caitlin Martella (24:33):
Jesus mode I, so I Definitely was on that path
.
I don't like the two brandsthat you mentioned, but there's
plenty of other brands that Iwas a frequent shopper at, for
sure.
I think the moment, honestly,selfishly, came from.
I could make money off of allthese things that I've got with
tags on them, right.
But then I've always alsoreally been into the European
(24:57):
brands.
There's a lot of Europeanbrands that I love and, again,
they're not all necessarilyethical.
Just because they say thatthey're from Europe Doesn't mean
that they're ethical.
Miranda Black (25:05):
I mean, oh, absolutely not.
I was where you were buyingfrom Europe, you know the most
luxury, and they were veryexpensive and it was expensive
to ship here.
Yep, yeah, that's right.
Caitlin Martella (25:16):
And so I think this really truly started
because I knew that I had morethan I needed and I thought I
can sell this.
But then I started to realizehow many, how many people are
out there like this, like howmany people are sitting on bags
and bags of clothes that theirkids never wore, and what's
gonna happen with those clothesif they don't go back to another
(25:37):
family.
And so that's what sparked itfor me Was number one the
opportunity to help parents getrid of their clutter, sort it
out, organize it for them, likewe have a full white glove
service in terms of how we cansign, so you really don't have
to do anything, you just have togive us a bag and we'll do all
of that for you.
So it started with the idea ofgiving friends and family an
(25:59):
opportunity to sell, make somemoney, and then also giving
people who might like to againbuy some of those clothes an
Opportunity to do that in a waythat was a little bit more
environmentally friendly, thatwas a little bit more ethical,
knowing full well that thosebrands are not going to change
their ethics Just because I'mselling their clothing
secondhand.
And you know it's funny becauseas much as we all know that
(26:22):
those brands are Doing whatthey're doing.
They're still the top sellers,even in the secondhand market,
right?
So they there is.
It's interesting to watch.
I do think people obviouslyfeel a lot better buying those
pieces secondhand and theyshould because They've been made
, someone has purchased them andnow let's do what we can to
(26:42):
kind of keep them in Circulationrather than just throwing them
away, mm-hmm.
But I think all of those piecesreally really brought me to this
moment where I was going.
There is clearly a demand forthis, so it's not just me.
There are tons of other parentswho are buying too much and Not
using enough of it and notburning holes through it, like
(27:02):
we used to think when we werekids.
You know, our jeans werepatched and the knees were worn
out.
Now my son has a hole in hisjeans and I'm like oh, just wear
another pair, right?
Right?
You know my mom has made thatcomment a few times to say we
never had this many clothes.
You had one red jumper when youwere a kid and you just changed
the top underneath like it'sjust.
You know, yes, it's, it's, it'sdifferent, yeah.
(27:23):
So I think it was really thisresponse to this mass production
, mass purchasing, massconsumerism and Realizing that I
could be a better shopper, Icould be better off financially
If I'm both selling and buyingsecondhand.
Miranda Black (27:39):
Yeah, I think the average parents spends three
thousand dollars a year onclothes.
Yeah, I don't know if that's afamily of, what that family is,
but I was like, yeah, yeah, whenyou shop secondhand I spend
like two hundred dollars.
So and it's yeah.
Caitlin Martella (27:57):
So I have a really interesting Story.
I have a consigner who I don'tknow personally, but I believe
has one or two children onlydefinitely doesn't have more
than two kids and one day Ipicked up her consignment lot
from her and it was fourhumongous industrial clear
(28:17):
garbage bags and I brought itback, got through it all, priced
it out and the secondhand Price.
So I put a cost, obviously oneach item that we're gonna sell.
Of what I could accept, thevalue was $8,000 secondhand and
I I mean for, for as a smallbusiness owner, I'm like this is
amazing.
(28:38):
But as a as a mom, I was like Ithought I had a lot of clothes
like this was a second handwhich is like 50% off the actual
price.
Yeah, and I'm pricing it outgoing.
How much is this gonna be?
And just out of curiosity, atthe end I totaled it up and I
thought there's $8,000 worth ofclothes to tea and under.
(29:00):
So their children haven't evengone into like the mud days and
the daycare days and like thepeople of that.
So there's a lot out there andthere is no reason for anyone to
buy new.
Like you can, honestly, I'llchallenge you to go and find
anything that you need in myshop, because I'm sure you'll
(29:21):
find it.
Miranda Black (29:22):
Wow, that's like $16,000 or more, because that's
the stuff that you accepted.
So it's inching up to $20,000worth of clothing and that could
be invested in that child'sfuture.
You said you made thetransition from being in your
basement to now you're in astorefront.
Can you just tell me a littlebit about that, because that's
(29:42):
kind of a magical moment,extremely magical.
Caitlin Martella (29:45):
I was getting to that point where I was going
to burst out of the space and mystuff was starting to trickle
upstairs and it just wasn'tpretty.
So I run curated Cubs with oneof my sister-in-law my brother's
wife, and then on my other sidemy husband's sister-in-law has
a dried floral and decorbusiness and she was looking for
a space and we kind of put ourheads together and thought well,
(30:07):
prices in Toronto, especiallyfor commercial, are a little bit
through the roof and they'resqueezing people out when they
should be welcoming smallbusinesses in.
But that's another podcast too.
It's a podcast.
It's a bit ironically found.
It's found an old felt factoryfive minutes away from my home
here in West Toronto and it's anold felt factory and we were
(30:28):
able to get this beautiful,bright corner unit in this great
heritage building or perhapsnot officially heritage, but it
looks heritage to me.
Call it heritage.
Miranda Black (30:39):
It's officially heritage right now.
Caitlin Martella (30:42):
Old felt presses outside in the parking
lot.
So it kind of got this likecool.
It's got this cool vibe to itand we have a nice large
warehouse that to mysister-in-law, with the florals
and I split, and then we've gota bit of a side room where we
are going to be able to havepop-ups.
We're going to be able to havein-store shopping events a
couple times a month.
(31:02):
We're also going to rent outthat space for workshops and
other small businesses.
So we've also grown to be ableto now provide other small
business owners a chance to getsome affordable space to do
things like workshops andseminars and photo shoots and
clothing swaps.
I think it's going to be a gamechanger for us to be able to
welcome people to do some liveshopping as well.
Miranda Black (31:26):
So it's not going to be like a traditional store
open 9-5,.
It's an event-based but mostlya warehouse where you're going
to do your fulfilling.
Caitlin Martella (31:36):
That's right.
There will probably be aroundone or two times a month when we
have sort of pop-up days wherewe are open to the public, oh my
.
Miranda Black (31:42):
God, that's a dream business, because you
don't want to be open to thepublic all the time, just
standing there waiting for thepublic.
It's like this is the eventtime.
This is when you shop.
Wow, what a really smartbusiness.
Caitlin Martella (31:55):
Thanks, yeah, and I think, coming out of
COVID-2, we have to rememberthat people have gotten really
comfortable buying things ontheir phones and their computers
.
There is still, especially forparents, there's still very much
need to have a fullyoperational web platform to sell
your items on.
So we do have a full website.
I always joke that when I wakeup in the morning I'm sure
there's going to be an order,because moms are shopping at
(32:17):
five o'clock in the morningbecause they're like, oh my gosh
, I'm getting my kid dressed andthey realize they don't have
splashpants today.
And it's so funny because myhusband asked me and I'm like I
told you 7 am, I've got an order.
Here I go.
Miranda Black (32:30):
It's such a great business story.
I love your business story.
I know that I love it because Iwant it.
Caitlin Martella (32:37):
Come work with us anytime.
When we open up more often thanonce a week, you're welcome to
come in.
Miranda Black (32:42):
Well, I'm definitely going to shop it.
I want to go to the event.
Awesome For sure.
I just love it from start tofinish, from getting the stuff
that second hand to giving itaway to the little men.
The men are amazing.
Caitlin Martella (32:53):
And so the last thing I'm going to mention
is that we just started babyregistries and that's a big one
for us.
We were speaking with anothercousin of mine.
I have a lot of cousins, incase you haven't learned from
that.
Miranda Black (33:06):
The key to this business is cousins.
Caitlin Martella (33:08):
The key to this business is had many
cousins.
A couple of months ago she cameand she said you know, I would
really like to have my babyregistry be more like this.
I don't need a brand new babybottle warmer, because who needs
that right?
And so I said I really wantedto do baby registries.
(33:28):
Would you let me do yours?
And she was 100%, and reallyquickly.
We realized that there's ademand for baby registries in
the second hand world.
So we now have, you know, we'vedone the pilot, we've had a lot
of inquiries and we're startingto build now more baby
registries across Toronto.
We have some really great perkswith them.
(33:49):
We offer some discounts forpeople shopping baby registries.
We deliver and I think you'lllike this one.
I reuse the baby gift bags andI wrap the baby registry gifts
in the reusable baby gift bagsand wrap them.
So it's like full circle.
Full circle, you know fullservice and full circle process.
(34:11):
But it's been really great.
People have been extremelyreceptive to this idea of
shopping what we've got.
And I think also it's nicebecause a lot of the times
they'll reach out to myself orSara, who's my business partner,
and they'll say is this goodfor newborn, is this good for?
Do I need this?
And we give them our honestanswer it doesn't.
(34:31):
You know, it's not like a bigbox, like, well, you definitely
need the nursing pillow right.
And then you get there andyou're going what I'm not going
to nurse, what do I use thisthing for?
You know right.
So we can give some sort of reallife examples and guidance.
I mean, it's just two of us, sothere's plenty of other
opinions out there, but it'sbeen a really great thing to try
(34:52):
and I think it's new in thispre-love space.
So we're really kicking it offand hoping that it sticks in the
baby registry world.
Miranda Black (34:59):
Yeah, oh, my God.
I wish there was something likethat when my child was born,
because the amount of stuff thatgets foisted on you.
Caitlin Martella (35:07):
it just it's a mountain of stuff that happens,
it's so crazy.
Okay, Caitlin thank you so much, Thank you.
Miranda Black (35:14):
Miranda, I love this place, thanks.
Miranda, thank you so much, okay, bye-bye, okay, take care, bye.
If you want to support Caitlinand her business, give curated
cubs a click.
You can find out how to make alittle money from your kid's
cast off clothing.
And coming up next on what'sthis Place is a clothing
challenge.
Have you ever done one of thoseinternet challenges where you
(35:36):
dump ice water on your head ordo something dumb like choke on
cinnamon?
Well, this is way easier, farsafer, and I'm going to help you
deep dive into your closet.
That's coming up next on what'sthis Place.
This episode was 100% human,produced with zero AI by me,
miranda Black.
You can find me online atwhat's this Place podcast.
(35:58):
I will see you next time.
Hey all you de-growers.
My name's Miranda Black andthis is what's this Place Behind
the Clicks and Mortar, and wetalk about de-growth in fashion
and retail.
Now, if we're going to talkabout cliques, we gotta talk
about social media.
I don't really like socialmedia, which you may not believe
(00:20):
, because there I am makingposts and reels and it looks
like I'm having fun, but thetruth is it gives me a lot of
anxiety and I kinda resent thetime commitment it takes to
create content.
I bet you can relate.
You just give your creativityaway to Instagram, spending
literal hours of unpaid labor tocreate content for these mega
(00:43):
billionaires.
So yeah, I'm a bit of acurmudgeon on the social's front
, but something that intriguesme, something that stops me from
deleting them all from my life,is this community 1990s mall
vibe I've found Like rememberwhen we used to go to the mall
you could actually discover newindependent stores run by like
(01:05):
Mom and Pop or Mom and Mom.
But I went to the Eaton Centerrecently because I have an Apple
computer problem and that's myclosest Apple store and it is
almost unimaginable for anindependent retailer to exist in
the Eaton Center.
Instead, it's all thesepredictable stores.
I bet you could name five rightoff the top of your head, even
(01:28):
if you've never heard of theEaton Center, because there's
stores you find in every singlemall across the world, all
selling the same stuff.
There is zero discovery,nothing new.
And this is where I giveInstagram a second look, because
there are thousands of small,independent accounts creating
and selling fresh shit stuff youwill never find in the mall.
(01:52):
This sales transformation fromstreet to socials was sort of
blooming pre-COVID and then itexploded during the pandemic.
The homeowner or apartmentdweller was suddenly a store.
They were merchandising andputting on live sales.
If you curated your feed right,you were able to shop from
(02:14):
hundreds of thousands ofone-person shows, often thrift
or vintage or homemade, right inyour own city.
It was good stuff.
Well, today I have a story ofsomeone who rode that whole
crazy micro business pandemicwave and is now in the position
to open a real-life bricks andmortar location.
(02:35):
She's gonna give us the clicksand the bricks.
Caitlin Martella opened aclothing business that creates
almost zero waste.
She supports families in needwithin her community by donating
her overstock and she makes itsuper easy for parents to get
into consignment through herwhite glove model.
We're gonna get into that.
(02:55):
But the part that really blowsmy mind is that Caitlin Martella
had never been a secondhandshopper prior to starting her
secondhand business.
In fact, she had a lot ofpreconceptions about what
thrifting meant and decided longago it was not for her.
And, like me when I ran mystore, she had never even heard
(03:16):
of the circular economy.
And now, well, I'm gonna lether describe how she ended up on
this path.
So who is Caitlin Martella andwhat is curated cubs?
Let's go inside and find out.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
This is just when I've heard.
(03:37):
Did you start it in your garageAlmost my garage.
Caitlin Martella (03:40):
We don't have a garage.
I started it in my basement.
I took out a very large portionof my basement to start this
business and actually just aweek and a half ago finally
moved into a studio just a fewminutes from home.
So my husband's really happy tohave this face back.
Miranda Black (03:57):
Okay, so take me back.
Is this your firstentrepreneurial endeavor?
How did this all happen?
Caitlin Martella (04:03):
Oh, good question.
So I definitely think I'm anentrepreneur.
It's not my first, although Iwould say it is the first sort
of shift that I've done whereI'm truly independent.
I have a partner, but we'rereally doing this on our own,
and what I mean by that is yearsago I had my real estate
license, so I was a bit of anentrepreneur there.
(04:24):
But you're always sort ofbacked by a brokerage.
You always have sort of peoplein your corner.
You've got administrators tohelp you out.
This is definitely my first allhands on deck.
Miranda Black (04:36):
Nothing to fall back on.
Yeah, nothing to fall back on.
Caitlin Martella (04:38):
Initiative, I do also have a full-time job, so
while it is my side hustle,it's definitely more than a side
hustle.
Now it's really taken off intosomething wonderful, which I'll
tell you all about.
When I first had my secondchild, which was a girl, when.
I first found out I was havinga girl, I was like complete girl
mom, Like I went crazy withshopping.
(05:01):
I went and bought new clothesand new toys and you know, navy
blue pants weren't good enough.
They need to have glitter onthem.
I will say that I've never beenreally into pink, so that was
good.
Miranda Black (05:14):
But I know I've never been really into pink yeah
.
Caitlin Martella (05:18):
I guess I shouldn't have said that to you,
but it's okay, that's hilarious.
I think it's really funny, but Iwas never into you know, as a
kid, I remember being intoBarbie and things like that, but
even now, my favorite colorsare red and green.
Not the true, true girly girlymom, but certainly I got excited
about dresses and accessoriesand hair clips and things like
(05:39):
that.
So my daughter was born at theend of 2019.
And, of course, covid hit, andwhen I came back to work, I
started to organize her room andI realized, wow, she's got a
lot of clothes and things thatshe's never worn because we have
been inside cooped up for overa year, right, and so I had
things from family members.
(05:59):
I had beautiful clothes fromEurope with tags still on them,
and I'm also the type of person,even with my own clothes, who
doesn't wear the really goodstuff unless I'm going somewhere
because I'm afraid I'm going toruin it.
Miranda Black (06:11):
Oh yeah.
Caitlin Martella (06:12):
Oh yeah.
So that mindset is still a hardhabit to break, but I'm getting
better.
So I realized that I had all ofthese beautiful items.
So I started to think aboutselling them.
And as I started to get intothat, I've got three cousins my
age or a ninth, a little cousingroup together and they all have
kids our age.
And they all said, yeah, weneed to sell our stuff too, like
we haven't worn any of it.
(06:33):
Think about school uniforms andthink about you know, all of
these gifts that we're stillgetting, because people still
buy you clothes in COVID as agift if you have a new baby.
So so started to kind of thinkto myself okay, well, I've got a
group of people who doesn'twant to sell their own things.
They want me to do it for them.
So started to build a bit of aplatform on Instagram.
(06:53):
We slapped an aim on it, calledit curated Cubs, and decided to
try this sort of Instagramsecond hand shop that seemed to
kind of pop up around that sametime when, when COVID was just
beginning.
Miranda Black (07:05):
You saw it out there already, like you saw
people doing that kind of thingA little bit, yeah, a little bit
Like it was.
Caitlin Martella (07:11):
I think it was just starting to become popular
.
I noticed probably just as Ibuilt the Instagram page and as
we started to ramp up I noticed,oh wait, there's other people
doing this like as close as thestreet behind me.
But I've made some really greatconnections from those companies
and I have a really strong sortof community over competition
(07:34):
mindset.
Because I feel like in thisspace, particularly If we as a
community support each other'ssmall business, especially when
it comes to secondhand, and ifwe're giving customers a really
good customer experience andwe're giving them really good
quality items, then that sort ofmindset begins to shift for the
(07:55):
customer and they start tothink oh well, I had really
great experience at Curated Cubsand I found exactly what I
needed with them.
Maybe this other secondhandshop has what I need as well and
maybe I should follow them andsee what they can offer me,
because with secondhand, youreally are living in this space
where there's really only one ofeverything.
So I gravitate towards workingwith some other small secondhand
(08:17):
shops to really offer customersmore than what I can offer them
alone.
So I think, while there's a bitof saturation in this market
right now, I do think that ithas its advantages to all of us
as preloved business owners.
Miranda Black (08:33):
Yeah, well, they say that if you have one store
of one thing on a strip and it'sonly one thing, then it's not
as attractive for a shopper togo there, because it's only one
store.
But if there's three weddingdress stores or I'm thinking of
something really specific ifthere's three wedding dress
stores, then you can actuallyhave a shopping experience and
(08:54):
they feed each other.
So yeah, competition breeds.
I can't remember.
There's a saying in theresomewhere.
Caitlin Martella (09:01):
No, I love that analogy.
I think it's perfect.
I think of many things that Ido in different as a shopper
right, like with groceries andthings like that, where I go
specifically to the smallerplaces because there are more of
them grouped together.
So yeah, you hit the nail onthe head the better we are at
offering that experience to ourcustomers, the more likely
they're going to shop secondhand.
(09:21):
Like take out the wordcompetition right the more
likely they're going to shopsecondhand, and that's a big
motivator for us is to get morepeople To shop that way.
Miranda Black (09:34):
So question were you into secondhand before this?
Caitlin Martella (09:37):
No, not at all .
Were you a secondhand shopper?
Not at all.
Miranda Black (09:40):
Not at all.
And sidebar are you personallya secondhand shopper?
Is it something you do?
Caitlin Martella (09:45):
just for your kids.
So oh, that's a really goodquestion.
So I've never been.
I never was a secondhandshopper, I think.
Miranda Black (09:55):
Not, even not for your kids, not for anything.
No, you didn't go as a teen?
Caitlin Martella (09:59):
No, not as a teen, for sure.
And the reason I know that soquickly is I was thinking about
my cousin the other day who's 14and she lives for the threat
Like she loves, loves it.
Oh, I want a teacher that sayslives for the threat.
Yes, I live for the threat, Likeshe's all about that life and I
think it's awesome, right, likeespecially now coming from
where I'm coming from, but no,when I.
(10:21):
One of the things I joke aboutwhen people ask me where I
started is I had a boy in 2015,and then I had a girl in 2019
and I had this you know, quote,unquote million dollar family,
and then it wasn't until Istarted realizing that I was
actually spending a milliondollars and that's what the
million?
dollar family meant becauseyou're buying a pink version or
(10:42):
a purple version or a glitterversion of something that you
already have.
Like why can't, why can't Juliajust buy a million dollar
family?
Why can't Julia just wear theshark pajamas?
Why does she have to wearprincess pajamas?
Like it doesn't?
I don't understand.
It doesn't mean anything, right?
Yeah, and so really quickly Istarted to realize number one,
that my daughter couldabsolutely wear all of the
(11:05):
beautiful little things thatI've saved from my son, but
number two, that if I kept going, I was going to bankrupt buying
all these fancy new dresses,and so I definitely, when my
daughter was born, had a bit ofa shift and started shopping at
some of the second hand shopsthat I knew of, and I think,
because of the experience I hadwith some of them, I realized,
(11:29):
well, wait a minute, I canprovide this to some, to someone
as well, and be successful,just like, just like, so and so
is doing.
But it really took me probablymaking three, four, five
purchases from some of thosestores, to realize that I was
actually getting, in many cases,better quality than what I
would get from some of the bigbox stores that shipped to your
door in a couple of days, yeah.
(11:50):
So, yeah, I feel like Idefinitely wasn't a second hand
shopper before for my kids, butI am, I would say now.
It's 95% of their wardrobe issecond hand and the 5% is gifts
and sometimes little things thatI don't have in stock or that I
simply can't find that I reallyneed, especially when your
(12:11):
school decides that every day ofthe week is going to be a
different color t-shirt day.
Oh God, yeah, but we've gottenway better now and we have
t-shirts in every color.
And then for myself it's funny,I also was never a second hand
shopper, I will say I reallyloved a good clothing swap.
Miranda Black (12:30):
I loved yeah.
Caitlin Martella (12:32):
I always loved the idea of bringing your
girlfriends together seeing whatthey've got, swapping it out.
But no, definitely never hit upthe thrift stores or
consignment stores for myself.
Now I find I would say maybecloser to 40 or 50% for myself,
but I'm also not buying myselfas much as I buy the kids.
(12:52):
So it's a lot slower, to kind ofreplace what I've got in my
wardrobe.
If I see something I likesecondhand, then I will
absolutely buy it for myself.
Or, as I probably wouldn't haveconsidered it about four or
five years ago Wow interestingBecause a lot of people I talk
to they're already converts orthrifters.
Miranda Black (13:10):
often are people who they started thrifting when
they're teenagers.
It's great to hear someonewho's only just sort of found it
through their children.
You find that you can findgreat stuff for yourself, and
did you have an idea that it wasgoing to be like a dirty
experience or like a grossexperience?
Caitlin Martella (13:31):
No, I think part of it was.
Well, I'm not going to be ableto find what I'm looking for,
right?
Yeah?
Miranda Black (13:38):
I hear that a lot .
Caitlin Martella (13:40):
And I think that was part of it, but I do
think, not knowing where to goas well, like you always hear
the, you know this store isbetter than this one and this
one is better than this one, andI think really nobody has the
best stuff.
You have to, just you have tobe in it for the find.
Miranda Black (13:56):
It's random.
Caitlin Martella (13:58):
So that's the truth, secrets out.
Miranda Black (14:00):
But I think that's part of it.
Caitlin Martella (14:01):
I've always been sort of a busy person and
so do I have the time to kind ofgo through racks and racks of
stuff looking for my size orlooking for my style?
Not really.
There's obviously tons ofgrowth in that market now, so I
can look on Instagram.
I can see people who look likeme, who are trying things on in
my body, shape and size.
(14:21):
I can buy things off of otherapps and things like that.
So there's a lot of opportunitynow and I do find it a lot
easier.
I know my size now.
Maybe 10 years ago I would havebeen sort of unsure, but I'm
pretty confident in my size.
I know what I'm buying, I knowwhat styles suit me.
So it's a lot easier now thatI'm sort of grown up a bit.
Miranda Black (14:41):
Right, yeah, yeah .
So take me back to how youstarted, Like it was with your
the cousins, and then how didyou branch out and start getting
customers?
Caitlin Martella (14:54):
Yeah.
So we grew pretty quickly onInstagram, just organically
sharing through friends andfamily and for the first year,
Instagram was our sales portal.
Like all of our operations werethrough Instagram, 100%.
It was messy but it was goodand within the first couple of
months we had about 10consignors who we knew.
Miranda Black (15:11):
Oh question, did they come to your location?
Did you ship it out to them?
How did how did it work?
Caitlin Martella (15:17):
No, the fantastic thing with COVID was
that everything was porch pickupand drop off.
So I offered free porch pickupat my home.
I also did deliveries myself.
We were driving around the cityonce a week usually to drop off
packages.
At the beginning it was verymuch growing this business in
our local community People acouple blocks away, people who
(15:38):
knew me, who knew where I lived,and then I was happy to deliver
within certain areas.
I also have a wonderful auntwho lives in the East End who
comes out this way once a weekand she takes all my East End
orders.
So it was kind of like dividingand conquering and figuring out
what people needed and whatpeople wanted.
But yeah, I started off with ahandful of consignors and I
honestly I blinked and we nowhave 102 consignors at last
(16:03):
count.
And so you know, at thebeginning I was supplementing a
little bit by thrifting, doing alittle bit here and there of
like, well, we need more thissize in the shop or we need more
shoes in the shop, but I haveno room to thrift anymore, like
it's all coming in throughconsignment because we have 102
people with at least 102children who are selling us
(16:27):
their items.
So it's been really great to beable to say that this is really
running off of itself in termsof you know, I don't have to go
out and buy product because it'scoming to me.
People are more than happy togive me garbage bags and boxes
and bins full of items and wesort everything and do our best
(16:48):
to accept as much as we can.
But yeah, we started off with asmall bag of my own items that
I was selling for my daughterand now have over 83,.
We've had over 8,300 pieces ofinventory flow through the shop.
Miranda Black (17:02):
Yeah, wow, oh, my goodness, and that's just what
we've accepted.
Caitlin Martella (17:06):
That's not even including what we've had to
donate, because we just had toomuch.
Miranda Black (17:10):
Right.
Where do you donate, by the way?
So?
Caitlin Martella (17:12):
we donate to a couple of places.
So Jesse Center is one thatwe've donated to.
During COVID.
It was harder, although easierin a way, because they had set
sort of porch drop off areas.
I found Jesse Center andBirthmark were our two top
places to donate.
We've had to really sort nowand come up with like different
piles, like okay, this is forJesse Center and this is for a
(17:34):
local family, and we used tohave a program called Play Packs
where we put a bunch of staineditems together into a pack and
sold it for a very maybe fivepieces for $4 or something, so
that parents could outfit theirkids when they're born to
daycare and they're just gonnago make a mess in their clothes
anyway.
But, now what we found.
Just with the number offamilies that there are to
(17:57):
support in the area, we'veactually converted that program
and just made it so that we'redoing capsules for people within
our community who need it.
And so we've got this personhere who has a size five son and
a size two to need daughter,and so we can make a package for
them.
We can make a package for thewoman who has a kid who's 12
(18:17):
years old and she's a single momand she needs some help with
outfitting.
Miranda Black (18:20):
So we can kind of divide it.
Caitlin Martella (18:22):
It takes some time, but I think it's really
valuable, really worth it, justfor our own growth and our own
development and just feelinggood about the work that we do.
Miranda Black (18:33):
Yeah, that's incredible.
It's like you have a built-inphilanthropy side of the
business already baked into it.
That's incredible.
Not everybody starts theirbusiness with that in the
business already.
That's really amazing.
Caitlin Martella (18:49):
Yeah, it's fun to be able to offer that and,
to be honest, it makes our livesa lot easier.
We still do our donationdrop-offs to any of those
organizations.
We're always also open to neworganizations that are accepting
as well, because we do reallyget so many things.
Another thing that we do that'ssuper fun is I have a couple of
consignors who have given mebags that have baby cashmere
(19:11):
items in them and, like, babycashmere is the softest, most
beautiful fabric in the world.
But, the problem with babycashmere this is that you have
to dry clean baby cashmere andso nobody ever wants to do that,
and so I would get thesecashmere pieces that are stained
and I can't really do anythingwith, and the cost for me to dry
clean them outweighs what Iwould ever make off of them
(19:35):
usually.
So what I've been doing withthose pieces, that's super fun,
as I reached out to a localmaker.
She's called Rapton Held, hername's Logan, and she takes
those baby cashmere pieces andshe'll line mittens with the
baby cashmere.
So she'll do these reallybeautiful mittens and hats and
things like that and she'll usethe cashmere.
I think she's mainly used itfor baby mitten lining.
(19:57):
It's just really fun to likewatch something, come in think,
oh, I can't use this, what am Igonna do with it?
Who's gonna take a stained babycashmere sweater and she just
cuts the stain right out andthen uses the rest of the fabric
to move on with her items.
Yeah, it's awesome, it's reallycool.
Miranda Black (20:14):
So you really are participating in the circular
economy for tech sales?
I hope so.
I hope so, and you are.
Caitlin Martella (20:22):
It's amazing that that wasn't really on your
radar before hand, right Likeyou were thinking like oh, I
wanna participate in thecircular economy and make sure
all these textiles get used, itdefinitely wasn't on my radar
and when we did start thisorganization and we thought,
okay, we need to make sure thatwe're donating what we can't use
(20:45):
to the right places, because weknow that so many of these
larger sort of donation centersdon't always do the best things
with these pieces right For sure, some of my stuff might end up
for sale and somebody who needsit may be able to grab it, but a
lot of the times it's not thecase and what I found was a big
struggle and love any tips andinsight you have, because it's
(21:06):
still something I'm trying tounderstand more about is textile
recycling.
Like, how can we recycle ourtextiles?
You know I think the city ofToronto specifically doesn't
have a lot of resources on that,doesn't have a lot of
information.
I've gone down all these rabbitholes.
I found you know something youprobably heard about this
(21:27):
textile recycling bin in Markham, that you know what I mean?
Miranda Black (21:31):
Yeah, you're going, I think that just get.
I mean, I don't know for sure,but as far as I can tell, I just
get shipped to like well, andthat's the thing.
Caitlin Martella (21:38):
So when we first discovered it we were like
, oh my gosh, there's this bin.
Can we make the drive to markthem once a month?
Yeah, we can do, we can do this, we can, we can do it.
And and my partner at the timeshe said you know, like I work
out there, I'll drop it off.
And she kind of came back onetime and said they just only, it
doesn't really seem like it'sany different than any of the
other bins on the corners of youknow around here.
(22:01):
And so we started to kind of diga little bit deeper, ask around
with some of the clothingmanufacturers who we do know,
and the and the designers who wedo know, and nobody really has
a definitive answer.
So I do find that that isreally difficult and I think
that's what spurred this idea ofOkay, if we can't recycle it in
our city, there's got to be adifferent way to recycle it
(22:22):
amongst families, right, there'sgot to be people who need
clothes, there's got to bepeople who need Mitten linings,
there's got to be people whoneed dish rags and and you know
Well why.
Miranda Black (22:33):
but why was that important to you?
Why?
Why were you not like what wasin your mind that was so
important?
Why weren't you willing to justdrop it off at a bin?
Caitlin Martella (22:42):
I don't know, I don't, I don't know why.
I guess I didn't think that Icould get into this business to
solve a problem in In massproduction, only to then Throw
out all of these clothes that Icouldn't accept, because I'm
only a one.
Well, with two woman shop, youknow, we can only do so much and
(23:03):
and obviously there was a lotthat we couldn't accept and I
just couldn't stomach the ideaof sending it somewhere where
it's just gonna end up in alandfill, like.
I think that was the wholereason I I started the business,
so I sort of kept up with thatmomentum to think, you know, not
only can we Make our own moneyas parents by selling our
clothes, we can also make thisan opportunity for people who
(23:26):
might not be able to affordthose clothes new or might not
want to Buy those clothes new.
But also, one of the underlyingpieces was this idea that it is
Helpful to the environment ifwe slow down fast fashion, but
it's not helpful if we're justbuying secondhand and then
putting it in a landfill anyway,because it's all you know,
we're slowing it down, maybe byone or two steps, but it's not
(23:48):
really solving the ultimateissue or one of the ultimate
issues.
Miranda Black (23:54):
Yeah, it just blows my mind that it became
part of your business model whenthat wasn't.
It wasn't something that youwere deciding to go into saving
the world from.
Yes, big choked on textile.
So would you describe yourselfas like, prior to this business,
(24:15):
as a mom going about buyingfrom, going about buying from
Carters and Joe fresh and theseplaces they have the least
transparent Supply chain.
Would you describe yourself assomeone who is just on that path
prior to?
What was your come to?
Caitlin Martella (24:33):
Jesus mode I, so I Definitely was on that path
.
I don't like the two brandsthat you mentioned, but there's
plenty of other brands that Iwas a frequent shopper at, for
sure.
I think the moment, honestly,selfishly, came from.
I could make money off of allthese things that I've got with
tags on them, right.
But then I've always alsoreally been into the European
(24:57):
brands.
There's a lot of Europeanbrands that I love and, again,
they're not all necessarilyethical.
Just because they say thatthey're from Europe Doesn't mean
that they're ethical.
Miranda Black (25:05):
I mean, oh, absolutely not.
I was where you were buyingfrom Europe, you know the most
luxury, and they were veryexpensive and it was expensive
to ship here.
Yep, yeah, that's right.
Caitlin Martella (25:16):
And so I think this really truly started
because I knew that I had morethan I needed and I thought I
can sell this.
But then I started to realizehow many, how many people are
out there like this, like howmany people are sitting on bags
and bags of clothes that theirkids never wore, and what's
gonna happen with those clothesif they don't go back to another
(25:37):
family.
And so that's what sparked itfor me Was number one the
opportunity to help parents getrid of their clutter, sort it
out, organize it for them, likewe have a full white glove
service in terms of how we cansign, so you really don't have
to do anything, you just have togive us a bag and we'll do all
of that for you.
So it started with the idea ofgiving friends and family an
(25:59):
opportunity to sell, make somemoney, and then also giving
people who might like to againbuy some of those clothes an
Opportunity to do that in a waythat was a little bit more
environmentally friendly, thatwas a little bit more ethical,
knowing full well that thosebrands are not going to change
their ethics Just because I'mselling their clothing
secondhand.
And you know it's funny becauseas much as we all know that
(26:22):
those brands are Doing whatthey're doing.
They're still the top sellers,even in the secondhand market,
right?
So they there is.
It's interesting to watch.
I do think people obviouslyfeel a lot better buying those
pieces secondhand and theyshould because They've been made
, someone has purchased them andnow let's do what we can to
(26:42):
kind of keep them in Circulationrather than just throwing them
away, mm-hmm.
But I think all of those piecesreally really brought me to this
moment where I was going.
There is clearly a demand forthis, so it's not just me.
There are tons of other parentswho are buying too much and Not
using enough of it and notburning holes through it, like
(27:02):
we used to think when we werekids.
You know, our jeans werepatched and the knees were worn
out.
Now my son has a hole in hisjeans and I'm like oh, just wear
another pair, right?
Right?
You know my mom has made thatcomment a few times to say we
never had this many clothes.
You had one red jumper when youwere a kid and you just changed
the top underneath like it'sjust.
You know, yes, it's, it's, it'sdifferent, yeah.
(27:23):
So I think it was really thisresponse to this mass production
, mass purchasing, massconsumerism and Realizing that I
could be a better shopper, Icould be better off financially
If I'm both selling and buyingsecondhand.
Miranda Black (27:39):
Yeah, I think the average parents spends three
thousand dollars a year onclothes.
Yeah, I don't know if that's afamily of, what that family is,
but I was like, yeah, yeah, whenyou shop secondhand I spend
like two hundred dollars.
So and it's yeah.
Caitlin Martella (27:57):
So I have a really interesting Story.
I have a consigner who I don'tknow personally, but I believe
has one or two children onlydefinitely doesn't have more
than two kids and one day Ipicked up her consignment lot
from her and it was fourhumongous industrial clear
(28:17):
garbage bags and I brought itback, got through it all, priced
it out and the secondhand Price.
So I put a cost, obviously oneach item that we're gonna sell.
Of what I could accept, thevalue was $8,000 secondhand and
I I mean for, for as a smallbusiness owner, I'm like this is
amazing.
(28:38):
But as a as a mom, I was like Ithought I had a lot of clothes
like this was a second handwhich is like 50% off the actual
price.
Yeah, and I'm pricing it outgoing.
How much is this gonna be?
And just out of curiosity, atthe end I totaled it up and I
thought there's $8,000 worth ofclothes to tea and under.
(29:00):
So their children haven't evengone into like the mud days and
the daycare days and like thepeople of that.
So there's a lot out there andthere is no reason for anyone to
buy new.
Like you can, honestly, I'llchallenge you to go and find
anything that you need in myshop, because I'm sure you'll
(29:21):
find it.
Miranda Black (29:22):
Wow, that's like $16,000 or more, because that's
the stuff that you accepted.
So it's inching up to $20,000worth of clothing and that could
be invested in that child'sfuture.
You said you made thetransition from being in your
basement to now you're in astorefront.
Can you just tell me a littlebit about that, because that's
(29:42):
kind of a magical moment,extremely magical.
Caitlin Martella (29:45):
I was getting to that point where I was going
to burst out of the space and mystuff was starting to trickle
upstairs and it just wasn'tpretty.
So I run curated Cubs with oneof my sister-in-law my brother's
wife, and then on my other sidemy husband's sister-in-law has
a dried floral and decorbusiness and she was looking for
a space and we kind of put ourheads together and thought well,
(30:07):
prices in Toronto, especiallyfor commercial, are a little bit
through the roof and they'resqueezing people out when they
should be welcoming smallbusinesses in.
But that's another podcast too.
It's a podcast.
It's a bit ironically found.
It's found an old felt factoryfive minutes away from my home
here in West Toronto and it's anold felt factory and we were
(30:28):
able to get this beautiful,bright corner unit in this great
heritage building or perhapsnot officially heritage, but it
looks heritage to me.
Call it heritage.
Miranda Black (30:39):
It's officially heritage right now.
Caitlin Martella (30:42):
Old felt presses outside in the parking
lot.
So it kind of got this likecool.
It's got this cool vibe to itand we have a nice large
warehouse that to mysister-in-law, with the florals
and I split, and then we've gota bit of a side room where we
are going to be able to havepop-ups.
We're going to be able to havein-store shopping events a
couple times a month.
(31:02):
We're also going to rent outthat space for workshops and
other small businesses.
So we've also grown to be ableto now provide other small
business owners a chance to getsome affordable space to do
things like workshops andseminars and photo shoots and
clothing swaps.
I think it's going to be a gamechanger for us to be able to
welcome people to do some liveshopping as well.
Miranda Black (31:26):
So it's not going to be like a traditional store
open 9-5,.
It's an event-based but mostlya warehouse where you're going
to do your fulfilling.
Caitlin Martella (31:36):
That's right.
There will probably be aroundone or two times a month when we
have sort of pop-up days wherewe are open to the public, oh my
.
Miranda Black (31:42):
God, that's a dream business, because you
don't want to be open to thepublic all the time, just
standing there waiting for thepublic.
It's like this is the eventtime.
This is when you shop.
Wow, what a really smartbusiness.
Caitlin Martella (31:55):
Thanks, yeah, and I think, coming out of
COVID-2, we have to rememberthat people have gotten really
comfortable buying things ontheir phones and their computers
.
There is still, especially forparents, there's still very much
need to have a fullyoperational web platform to sell
your items on.
So we do have a full website.
I always joke that when I wakeup in the morning I'm sure
there's going to be an order,because moms are shopping at
(32:17):
five o'clock in the morningbecause they're like, oh my gosh
, I'm getting my kid dressed andthey realize they don't have
splashpants today.
And it's so funny because myhusband asked me and I'm like I
told you 7 am, I've got an order.
Here I go.
Miranda Black (32:30):
It's such a great business story.
I love your business story.
I know that I love it because Iwant it.
Caitlin Martella (32:37):
Come work with us anytime.
When we open up more often thanonce a week, you're welcome to
come in.
Miranda Black (32:42):
Well, I'm definitely going to shop it.
I want to go to the event.
Awesome For sure.
I just love it from start tofinish, from getting the stuff
that second hand to giving itaway to the little men.
The men are amazing.
Caitlin Martella (32:53):
And so the last thing I'm going to mention
is that we just started babyregistries and that's a big one
for us.
We were speaking with anothercousin of mine.
I have a lot of cousins, incase you haven't learned from
that.
Miranda Black (33:06):
The key to this business is cousins.
Caitlin Martella (33:08):
The key to this business is had many
cousins.
A couple of months ago she cameand she said you know, I would
really like to have my babyregistry be more like this.
I don't need a brand new babybottle warmer, because who needs
that right?
And so I said I really wantedto do baby registries.
(33:28):
Would you let me do yours?
And she was 100%, and reallyquickly.
We realized that there's ademand for baby registries in
the second hand world.
So we now have, you know, we'vedone the pilot, we've had a lot
of inquiries and we're startingto build now more baby
registries across Toronto.
We have some really great perkswith them.
(33:49):
We offer some discounts forpeople shopping baby registries.
We deliver and I think you'lllike this one.
I reuse the baby gift bags andI wrap the baby registry gifts
in the reusable baby gift bagsand wrap them.
So it's like full circle.
Full circle, you know fullservice and full circle process.
(34:11):
But it's been really great.
People have been extremelyreceptive to this idea of
shopping what we've got.
And I think also it's nicebecause a lot of the times
they'll reach out to myself orSara, who's my business partner,
and they'll say is this goodfor newborn, is this good for?
Do I need this?
And we give them our honestanswer it doesn't.
(34:31):
You know, it's not like a bigbox, like, well, you definitely
need the nursing pillow right.
And then you get there andyou're going what I'm not going
to nurse, what do I use thisthing for?
You know right.
So we can give some sort of reallife examples and guidance.
I mean, it's just two of us, sothere's plenty of other
opinions out there, but it'sbeen a really great thing to try
(34:52):
and I think it's new in thispre-love space.
So we're really kicking it offand hoping that it sticks in the
baby registry world.
Miranda Black (34:59):
Yeah, oh, my God.
I wish there was something likethat when my child was born,
because the amount of stuff thatgets foisted on you.
Caitlin Martella (35:07):
it just it's a mountain of stuff that happens,
it's so crazy.
Okay, Caitlin thank you so much, Thank you.
Miranda Black (35:14):
Miranda, I love this place, thanks.
Miranda, thank you so much, okay, bye-bye, okay, take care, bye.
If you want to support Caitlinand her business, give curated
cubs a click.
You can find out how to make alittle money from your kid's
cast off clothing.
And coming up next on what'sthis Place is a clothing
challenge.
Have you ever done one of thoseinternet challenges where you
(35:36):
dump ice water on your head ordo something dumb like choke on
cinnamon?
Well, this is way easier, farsafer, and I'm going to help you
deep dive into your closet.
That's coming up next on what'sthis Place.
This episode was 100% human,produced with zero AI by me,
miranda Black.
You can find me online atwhat's this Place podcast.
(35:58):
I will see you next time.
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