Welcome to Know Apparel
1/29/2008 12:52 PM
Please check back here for our blog posts.
First Official Blog for Know2/22/2008 4:29 PM
Welcome to the first official blog for Know! We have been so busy over the last eight months it's hard to know where to start! When I think about how far we've come in such a short time I am amazed.
I conceived of the idea for Know in June of 2007. I wanted to create a line of apparel that would speak to and resonate with people. Thus, the phrases we use in our line, like know Earth, know Peace, know Hope, know Courage, know Strength... I also wanted to create a line of apparel and a company that was eco-friendly and more respectful of our planet and each other.
I started talking with my now partners, Steve and Marcia, in late July or early August and we hit the ground running to make it to the WWDMAGIC tradeshow in Las Vegas that took place just last week.
Working closely with our artist, Know began to come to life in three separate collections on our bamboo, organic cotton and lycra knit and french terry t-shirts, hoodies and pants.
Marcia and I made two separate trips to Shanghai, China, where our garments are made, to meet with the people and see the factories firsthand, and to oversee the sampling process. The factories and people there are great and we can't thank them enough for all of their efforts in producing our sample line.
While all of this was going on, we were hard at work on creating our website. We hope you like it! Again, we had great people helping us and we are very proud of the finished product. We'll be starting on Phase 2 of the site which will enable us to utilize e-commerce to sell our line. Check back often, as this will be happening in the next few weeks!
Our launch at WWDMAGIC was a big success. We worked closely with a great company who designed our tradeshow booth. I wish I could attach a picture so you could see the finsihed product. We made a lot of great connections while at the show and have worked this week following up with everyone we met.
I'll be back often to chat... meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the Know website... tell all of your friends about us. Spread the word about Know!
Shop Now for Know3/4/2008 5:32 PMTime flies! I can't believe it has been over a week since I last wrote. We've been busy planning next steps for Know. Tomorrow we are meeting to discuss the next phase of our website to include e-commerce functionality. We plan to launch this in conjunction with the receipt of our first shipment of goods from China, which will be the end of this month. Check out our Shop Now section to see which styles we will be offering for sale on the site. They will be arriving in limited quantities, so be sure to check back with us often to ensure you don't miss out on your opportunity to take it to the streets in Know!
Know YouTube Video3/4/2008 9:17 PMCheck out our YouTube video at
www.youtube.com/wearknowapparel to see the four styles we'll have available for sale on the site at the end of March... while you're there send it on to friends and family... spread the word about Know!
Chicago StyleMax3/6/2008 4:18 PMWe're headed to our next tradeshow April 5-8 in Chicago. Fortunately, we already have alot in place just coming off the WWDMAGIC show in February. We learned alot at that show and are ready to put some of that great info to use at StyleMax. This one will be a road trip... we should save a ton of money... we were flying 90 lb. bags to Vegas... they cost us as much as a plane ticket! The only drawback is that after a four hour drive to Chicago and four days in a 10 X 10 booth together, Marcia and I will likely be really, really sick of one another for that road trip back to Cincinnati! We'll survive! :)
Earth Hour3/28/2008 10:34 AM
I thought this article was interesting. It appeared in the treehugger.com email newsletter I receive.
"On March 31, 2007, more than 2 million businesses and households in Sydney, Australia—including national icons such as the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House—turned off their lights for one hour. "Earth Hour," as the event was dubbed, was a powerful demonstration of solidarity for the fight against global warming. If the greenhouse reductions achieved in Sydney's Central Business District during Earth Hour were sustained for a year, organizers say, we would save emissions equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.
This year, on March 29, Earth Hour goes global, with cities and towns across the globe going dark to take a stand against climate change. The Sears Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz will be turning off their non-essential lights from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., along with the cities of Denver, Honolulu, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Copenhagen, Dublin, Tel Aviv, and, of course, Sydney, among others. Visit the Earth Hour Web site to see if your city or town is listed; if not, you can initiate your own Earth Hour by getting friends, family, and co-workers, as well as your neighborhood, mayor, or local school principal, to turn off their lights for 60 minutes."
Earth Hour Results3/31/2008 7:42 PM
from treehugger.com
"Did it make a difference? Probably not really, electricity consumption went down but many people probably drove to the parties, and all those candles and tiki lights had their own carbon footprint. And it was just an hour. But during that hour in those cities that participated, A lot of people got the message and took it home. As a symbol it was a huge success."
Facts About Fashion3/31/2008 9:00 PM
I was checking out the treehugger.com website and found some interesting facts about fashion, cotton and the use of pesticides and fertilizers in the growing of regular cotton. I hope you find it as interesting and informative as I did.
"1. The average American throws away about 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per year.</< p>
2. 10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of insecticides in the U.S. are used to grow cotton.
3. It takes almost 1/3 of a pound of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) to grow enough cotton for just ONE T-shirt
4. Seven of the fifteen pesticides used on cotton are considered “possible”, “likely”, “probable”, or “known” human carcinogens (acephate, dichloropropene, diuron, fluometuron, pendimethalin, tribufos, and trifluralin) according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
5. Some studies have shown that organic farmed soils have a better ability to absorb and retain carbon, which would be beneficial in the fight to reduce global warming.
6. Organically grown crops also use less fossil fuel than conventional crops, another benefit in the fight to reduce global warming.
7. Pesticides are suspected to be responsible the severe drop in honeybees, the increase in frogs with extra legs and eyes, and annual death of 67 million birds.
8. The U.S. textile “recycling industry” (which actually re-purposes rather than recycles), with some 2,000 companies, removes annually from the solid waste stream 2.5 billion pounds of post consumer textile product waste."