When Paul Towle talks about his future plans for the Green Fashion Line, the T-shirt distribution company that he founded last year, he makes a brief reference to the tenets of a traditional business plan: turn a profit, expand the business, and so on. Then he gets to the part that he really cares about.
“The big dream is doing good in a bigger sense,” said Towle.
He goes on to talk of his dream of buying a ranch somewhere to operate as a therapeutic riding center; letting disadvantaged kids gain confidence on the back of a horse and reconnecting people with the environment.
It’s a goal that reveals his degree in social work, with which he graduated from UNH in 1993. But what that degree doesn’t suggest is his ability to speak like a scientist on the various environmental problems of the day, his legal know-how that shows when he talks of trademarks and patents with, or the ability to assume the role of a businessman as he discusses profit margins and what it takes to start a business during a recession.
Towle has combined all these differing roles in his newest venture: Green Fashion Line (GFL). The Portsmouth-based company is a global mail order clothing line with an environmentally friendly and socially responsible emphasis. And there’s not an aspect of the business that doesn’t make its way back to UNH.
Towle, who considers himself a “social capitalist,” got the idea for the company during his time at UNH when he was studying macro-social work, which focuses on positively changing larger systems in society. He wanted to do something that would have both environmental and social benefits.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to find a mill that can produce recycled clothing that’s top quality,’” said Towle.
And 16 years later, it appears that he has. GFL’s products are made from 100 percent recycled cotton t-shirts. Traditional clothing companies don’t use all possible material in their cutting rooms. These unused remnants are shredded and blended into various color groupings. The organized color groupings are then used in a patented blending system for consistent shade matching
According to Towle, recycled clothing was always considered low-quality until a Canadian engineer came up with an interesting addition to the above process: soda bottles.
Post-consumer plastic bottles are used to the recycled cotton for strength, which gives the t-shirts their soft feel, according to Towle. The process saves unused cotton remnants from the landfill, as well as eliminates the hundreds of gallons of water needed to grow one pound of cotton.
“What it’s really about is that we need to conserve resources,” said Towle.
The shirts are also made entirely in the United States. GFL currently offers 10 different t-shirt designs on their website, www.greenfashionline.com. The shirts feature sayings such as “Uptight? Dance!” and “Sow simple, reap goodness.”
“All the t-shirts have a positive message,” said GFL intern and senior communications major Kim Rogers.
Towle said the most popular shirt so far has been the men’s fitted short-sleeve design. GFL also offers whole-sale purchasing.
Besides the environmental benefits, Towle also believes in having a positive effect on the community.
“Business should always be meeting a social need, that’s what I think,” he said.
GFL contributes 10 percent of its profits to social causes.
“Right now we work with a lot of animal shelters,” said Rogers. “That’s the big thing right now.”
The t-shirts have been out since earlier this summer and are available online as well as at two shops in Massachusetts, and Portsmouth’s “Mainely Gourmet Chocolate Factory.” Towle, who knows that profits take time, estimates he sold about $4,000 worth of shirts this past summer.
In addition to Towle’s UNH background, his designer received her certificate in graphic design from UNH. He has two primary investors-a UNH graduate and UNH professor of sociology.
“The roots of the business come from a UNH education,” said Towle.
Rogers said that GFL would love to offer UNH apparel in the bookstore, but they have encountered problems with licensing the UNH Wildcat.
“It would be nice if our roots recognized the value of this product and we could be seen in our ‘backyard,’ but with the protective business barriers that can be difficult as the UNH wildcat is owned and requires multi-layer permissions,” said Towle. “The bookstore only carries whatever Barnes and Noble wants- and unfortunately all too often big business is about profit and is not always considerate of local wishes, nor fair labor practices.”
Though the current recession might not seem like the best time to start a business, Towle just thinks it takes a certain mindset.
“I think it takes a vision of where you want to go,” he said, noting that the economy also meant advertising and contracts were cheaper. “I think it’s a good time if you have a good vision.”
1 comments
have you seen the "this cat gets it" tee on campus yet?