Local entrepreneurs bring a community organizing approach to sustainable fashion
Chicago, IL - Tuesday, August 20th - Only 5 days after launching a Kickstarter community
funding campaign for their new eco-fashion venture, "ishi vest"
co-founders Harishi Patel, Rhea Vitalis, and Jackie Mahendra were
stunned as they tipped past their $10,000 seed funding goal. In less
than one week, they had exceeded their initial seed funding goal,
attracted 160 backers, and had received dozens of international orders
for the sustainable, fair-trade vests.
In fact, the team raised their first $5,000 in less than 24 hours, were featured among the most popular projects on Kickstarter.com’s
fashion page, and demonstrated the potential of a community organizing
approach to both sustainable fashion and social entrepreneurship.
“I
am blown away to see us raise all of the seed funding we set out to
raise for our eco-fashion startup on Kickstarter in less than one week
of launching,” said ishi co-founder Harishi Patel. “When I think about
the many social justice projects I’ve founded or facilitated over the
years, there's a common thread of giving people the chance to see
themselves as part of the solution, even when the problems are so huge."
What
had started out years ago as a powerful trip home to India for ishi
co-founder, Harishi Patel, turned into the seeds of a hip, conscious
clothing line with the intent to remind people about how their smallest
choices can have a huge impact. Patel turned to two friends, Rhea
Vitalis and Jackie Mahendra, and the three worked together to launch a
company that would put people and the planet above profits.
In
addition to being committed to ethical fashion, 10% of the company’s
profits will be donated to sustainability efforts that customers will
vote on, whether in the U.S., where the founders live, or in India,
where the vests are produced.
The first step for ishi’s founders was to partner with a fair-trade certified, organic and
natural-dye fabric company near Patel’s hometown in Gujarat. At the
company, the fabric starts with organic seeds, is dyed naturally without
chemicals, and is processed by workers in safe conditions, who are paid
fair wages. With help from a local Chicago designer and friend Tamana
Azizi, the “ishi vest” team refined their first prototype, a unisex vest
which is being featured on Kickstarter.
All
three founders have been involved in social justice and community
organizing efforts in Chicago over the past decade, and they are once
again calling on their community to help them reach their next milestone
of $15,000. This will allow them to not only design, test, and launch
their next vest, an ishi women’s signature style, but also begin the
design process for a third unisex style that their Kickstarter
supporters will get to vote on before it is produced.
The
individuals backing ishi vest on Kickstarter are investing in more than
just a hip clothing line; they are backing a vision for an alternative production process in India,
which is now the world’s second largest producer of cotton and one of
the largest producers of textiles and apparel, employing over 35 million
people.
In
India, exposure to certain pesticides has left many workers with fatal
respiratory diseases, noise exposure has caused hearing loss and sleep
disorders, and ergonomic issues are causing musculoskeletal disorders.
Furthermore, the standard chemical dyeing process itself has been
closely linked to a list of cancers that includes: nasal, lung, brain,
stomach, colorectal, and testicular cancer. The ishi founders hope to
model social responsibility and environmental sustainability in a
country where farmer suicide rates are on the rise due to unmanageable
debt, and where factory workers are often forced into dangerous working
conditions.
“Right now, communities across the country are thinking deeply about their
daily choices, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear,” said ishi
vest co-founder Harishi Patel. “After hearing about the recent horrors
in factories in Bangladesh, I am more motivated than ever to be
launching a new kind of clothing company that puts people and planet
before profits. We’re making beautiful, sustainable products, but we’re
also rethinking consumption and asking our friends and customers to do
the same...one vest at a time.”
View a video update from Harishi Patel, ishi co-founder:
View the kickstarter launch video:
