“Maybe it’s your bony elbows,” said my wife.
She was busy throwing out a bunch of my sweaters, just like she does every fall.
You see, after a year or two of wear, holes emerge in the elbows of my sweaters. And as my wife has suggested, the likely culprit is my elbows.
But bony elbows aren’t the only reason clothes get thrown away. They also get tossed because our taste in fashion changes, or our bodies change, or we need to make room in our closets.
That’s why, in the U.S. alone, 2,150 articles of clothing are thrown away each second. So in the time it takes you to read this essay, about 500,000 items will be making their way to the dump.
Recently, a new investment trend has emerged around this topic. And today, I’ll tell you how to play it for profits that could potentially reach 10x your money.
Fast Fashion, Fast Trash
To set the stage here, consider a clothing company called Shein.
Shein, founded in 2008, focuses on what’s called Fast Fashion — trendy clothing that’s designed to be bought cheaply, worn a few times, then thrown away.
For popular fast-fashion brands, this quick cycle can result in significant sales. According to The Wall Street Journal, Shein’s 2022 sales will reach $24 billion.
But as you learned a moment ago, this also results in an extraordinary amount of waste. Since you’ve started reading the essay, about 250,000 clothing items have been thrown away.
But now it seems consumers have had enough…
McKinsey Study Reveals Powerful Trend
You see, a new consumer trend has recently emerged:
More shoppers than ever have started focusing on a brand’s eco-friendliness.
For example, as global consultant McKinsey found in a survey of 2,000 consumers, 67 percent consider the use of sustainable materials to be an important purchasing factor.
Furthermore, 60 percent of consumers plan to purchase products that use environmentally-friendly packaging, and 65 percent plan to purchase fashion items that are more durable.
For brands — and for investors like us — there’s a clear takeaway here:
Sustainable Fashion has become such a high-potential market…
Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion refers to clothing that’s designed, manufactured, distributed, and used in ways that are friendly to the environment.
For example, natural materials such as hemp, linen, cotton, and silk are biodegradable, so they compost cleanly back into the soil.
And recycled or “deadstock” materials (i.e., materials that were created, but never sold or used) make the most of goods that would otherwise go to waste.
Three Sustainable-Fashion Startups
As investors, now’s a good time to invest in companies that are focusing on this area.
Here are a few that are currently raising capital from investors like you:
Comrad — Socks are a $48 billion industry. But most socks are made from cheap and unsustainable materials. That’s why your socks have holes in them. Comrad’s are different. They’re made from recycled fabrics and packaging, and they’re plastic-free.
These premium compression socks are worn by everyone from Olympic athletes and doctors & nurses to Michelin-star chefs. The company brought in more than $5 million in revenue over the past 12 months. The press, from Forbes to Business Insider to Men’s Health, is raving about it. And the Founder & CEO built and sold three different companies before age 30.
Lambs — This one’s not just about making clothes that are sustainable. It’s also about making people more sustainable. You see, Lambs apparel makes supporting your health as easy as putting on a T-shirt. Thanks to its scientifically-proven fabric technology that blocks external stressors we’re exposed to daily, its apparel can boost your immune system, performance, cognition, and sleep.
It's trusted by NFL, NBA, NHL, and UFC athletes, and it’s backed by the former President of Lululemon and Founder of Bulletproof Coffee. The company is on track for $15 million in revenue in 2022.
RedThread — The human body doesn’t come in a standard size. Furthermore, apparel sizes aren’t standardized across brands. This leads to over-production of clothing that doesn’t fit — and thus, ends up in landfills.
RedThread’s solution, and its vision, is to become “the most sustainable apparel brand for everybody.” Its custom-fit clothing is made to your exact measurements from just two photos, and shipped to you in one week. In fact, its patent-pending technology creates sustainable, custom-fit clothing with zero waste. According to the company, it has a path to profitability in 2023, and aims to bring in $100 million in revenue by 2023.
But Remember…
Keep in mind:
I’m not recommending that you go and blindly invest in these startups. These are early-stage ventures, so you need to do substantial research before making an investment decision.
The fact is, the surest way to make 10x your money on an early-stage investment — that’s our target for all of our startup investments — is to do substantial research.
But if you believe in the mega-trend of sustainable fashion, these three startups could be a great place to begin your search.
Happy Investing
Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with any of the startups we write about. We’re an independent provider of education and research on startups and alternative investments.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
