Today we’d like to introduce you to Holli Gibson.
Hi Holli, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I always wanted to be a fashion designer, from when I was very little – my mom was very chic and had a very generous spirit, she cared about everyone. I went to college for fashion design and went straight to work in the industry. I spent 15 years on the design side and was very fortunate to have a very successful career as a designer and design director.
I got interested in sustainability just over 15 years ago. My parents instilled in me that we should be good stewards of this beautiful planet we call home and we should treat everyone with honor and respect. The apparel industry is historically messy and not particularly great to most of the people that work in it. After 15 years of doing things “the way we always do them in this industry”, I decided I wanted to do things differently. I went over to the “dark side” – the production side, and I decided to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
Sustainability is a journey, it’s a path to make better products, make them more environmentally friendly while benefiting not only the consumers and the brands, but also benefiting the people that actually make them. I don’t approach it from a “beat you over the head” philosophy because I don’t think that works. People get on board when they feel that they can make a difference when they can get excited about it. And small changes lead to bigger changes which lead to bigger impacts over time. The more people that join the journey, the larger the positive impact. It’s an exciting time to be in this industry.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Most things worth doing aren’t easy. I think one of the most frustrating aspects comes from the larger brands who like to talk about sustainability, but then turn a blind eye to the truth. They may talk a good game in their marketing and advertising, but when you’re retailing an organic cotton tee shirt for under $10, you did not pay someone a living wage to sew it, in many countries you did not even pay a legal wage to sew it.
But I get so excited about the up-and-coming brands who have built sustainability into their DNA. They’re talking with their customers about recycled and sustainable fabrics, about ethical treatment of the people making the clothes. And unlike the opaque business practices that are standard in this industry, they’re looking to be transparent.
As you know, we’re big fans of Direct To Source. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We’re an apparel manufacturing company focused on sustainable apparel, made ethically. We have offices in the foothills of Colorado just outside Denver and our factory is in the foothills of Guatemala, just outside Guatemala City. Our goal is to make it easy for brands to produce their apparel and to make it more sustainable.
We sew all kinds of apparel products from casual tees and hoodies to activewear and sports apparel to woven shirts. We’re a one-stop-shop for our customers and even provide development and sourcing. Since we keep offices in the US, we can act as the importer for our customers, taking the headache out of producing overseas. And with a one-week ship and duty-free options, we offer quick turn and a smaller carbon footprint.
This year we also launched our Green Label collection. It’s ready-made sustainable apparel, ready to receive custom branding and decoration so that it’s easy for existing brands to add sustainable products into the collection or for new brands starting out – our minimum order is just 50 pieces.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
As difficult as the Covid situation has been, we feel that we have been truly blessed. As brands were canceling orders and factories were wondering how they were going to pay their workers, we managed to secure a deal with the Guatemalan government and Engineers Without Borders to provide PPE. It meant that we were able to stay open and working the entire time, and even hire some more people who were laid off from other factories. It meant that all of those people were able to continue to provide for their families. Even in the other factories who were able to remain open, they were often working at half-staff due to social distancing requirements. We had just completed construction of our new factory building at the end of 2019 and we built it for growth, so even with adding additional employees, we were still able to properly distance and had plenty of room for everyone to work.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@DirecToSource.com
- Website: www.DirecToSource.com
- Instagram: directosource
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgIAVL46m0mlgCY2I9Sbxw
