Arvin’s Dustin Winegardner Discusses Utilizing Recycled materials at Scale

Dustin Winegardner speaking on the Brand Activism Panel @ Outpost Trade Navarro, 2018. Photo by: @monicasemergiu

Above, Dustin Winegardner speaking on the Brand Activism Panel @ Outpost Trade Navarro, 2018. Photo by: @monicasemergiu

We sat down with Dustin Winegardner, co-founder of Arvin Goods for a conversation about Arvin’s genesis story, product inputs, and marketing.

Tell us about where you were before Arvin, and what led you to start Arvin.

DW- I was the Managing Director for a design and development company in the apparel and accessories space.  We designed and produced products for brands and retailers within their seasonal collections.  

This experience connected me to many great sources and showed me the immense amount of waste involved in the fashion business.  

When I learned that recycled materials could be utilized at scale, and reduce the impacts by huge amounts I was hooked on trying to launch a brand that could deliver this solution.  It has been a hard road, but Arvin Goods is (by far) the lowest-impact sock in the market now.

Downcycling feels like a regularly overlooked aspect of the apparel business – can you tell us about the infrastructure Arvin is supporting in this space? What can large apparel brands be doing better to support this kind of activity?

DW- Big brands could actually start doing something.  Anything.  99% of them are not doing a damn thing about this.  Most companies are too big with too much red tape to get a real baseline of programs going.  On one extreme you have fast fashion which is the worst, and on the other end, you have Patagonia whos has genuine mission-driven initiatives to lower impacts.  

No company cant transition to recycled materials, or post-consumer recycling in one fast pivot.  Step one in my opinion is to start by utilizing a waste stream in the design process.  The primary yarn we use for our socks is by Recover Fiber.  This is ready made to go into production in the market, yet for some reason, we are one of the only ones using it.  We are tiny.  Can you imagine if Nike started using this yarn for their black and white socks???  Huge impacts there. 

Once recycled materials are part of the ethos (design stage) of the brand then there will naturally be more initiates to do more.  Post-consumer recycling is very much in it’s infancy stages right now.  There are challenges with materials, blends, and technology around how to recycle clothing, and then what the output can be used for.  But, that limitation should not stop big companies from starting take-back programs.  Peoples closets, are like little warehouses of raw materials. I think this will be a very large place for innovation in the coming decade.

Peoples closets, are like little warehouses of raw materials.  I think this will be a very large place of innovation in the coming decade.

Arvin really excels at collaborative marketing. From non-profits to bands like Wilco. Can you tell us a bit about your process towards vetting collaborative opportunities?  

DW- This has taken a long time to develop.  Harry (Fricker) and I are fans of other brands.  We started Arvin Goods based on the influence of what we liked about other brands, and designers.  But collaborations are complicated, you need both sides to be engaged to make it work, and sometimes thats hard to organize and manage.  We learned over time how to do it.

One of our biggest assets is that we are very strong in visual design.  Harry is a master, and in most cases, our partners are bigger brands (like Wilco) so we have to bring something else to the table.  Product and design are our value ads.  Brands like Carrots, Blotto, or Wilco are opportunities for us to put our spin on their brand, and make us both look good.  

Non-Profits and give-back have been part of our plan and mission since day one.  We all have different experiences, and reasons to help different causes or people.  We found out early that people love socks, and there was an irony to me in selling a very staple item like socks and then being able to put it to use.  The best example is we do a give back with Seattle Children’s Hospital every September which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  This year we sent 1,000 pairs to the doctors, researchers, and staff, and donated 10% of September sales to the research fund.  It’s a fun partnership, and puts a lot of socks on people’s feet.

Along those lines, we’re also big fans of your newsletter – The Clean Up. It feels like an honest representation of the Arvin culture. So many brands get caught up in self-promotion, while Arvin seems to get ahead by putting other people’s/brands stories front and center (The Clean Up is an example of this.) Can you tell us a bit about defining the Arvin voice through the stories of other institutions?

DW- Harry and I both wanted a consistent newsletter to share with our audience, but how many different ways can you talk about socks?  As I said before, we are both fans of other brands, we decided the best way to build a community was to share and discuss common interests.  If Patagonia, or NOAH are doing something cool let’s share it.  Then we started adding podcasts, or articles, or whatever else we found that week and building a format that showed something we are up, as well as brands, events, stories, or entertainment that fits our vision.  People seem to dig it, and the Sunday clean up has become our most engaged campaign by far.

How would you define success for Arvin? Is success becoming a big apparel brand? Or leveraging their influence to change supply chain dynamics across an industry?

DW- I would love for Arvin Goods to grow slowly, and consistently, and of course have financial stability.  But “success” would be influencing other brands to wake up and make simple changes to clean up their material choices.  Even if we became a giant $100,000,000 brand the actual impact on the industry would be very minimal.  The money would be nice, but the actual impact would be minimal.  If we can make enough noise that others copy us then we are successful.

Dustin telling the story of Arvin to guests of Outpost Trade Retreat 2018, photo by @monicasemergiu

Being a Friend of the People is a really beautiful concept – for both brands, and individuals. What can the everyday consumer do to help live this ethos?

DW- We started the brand with socks to prove that a simple purchase under $20 could make a difference.  Consumers wont make huge shifts en mass in a short time frame.  We need to work toward millions (or billions) of small changes that will add up over time.  If things are made accessible, and easy to do then we can work towards measurable change.  Theres no magic unicorn that is going to take us to zero waste, zero carbon.  Consumers will become more informed, and make better buying decisions over time, companies need to make this transition easy for customers.  Start with Arvin Goods, the cleanest basics on the planet.

Like what you read?

Share on Social