Hi, I'm Lauren Taylor, and I'm joined today by Kristian Hansen,
the Founder and CEO of slø, and Michelle Zhu, the Founder and
CEO of Huue.
And I'd love to hear a little bit more when we talk about customer
centric sustainability.
Michelle, how are you making Huue really meet your customers'
needs?
So our customers are of course the mills that are the ones that
are actually integrating the dye product into the supply chain,
into the fabrics, before it then gets turned into a pair of jeans
and ultimately sold to the consumer.
And for us a big thing in the early days was just all about
how do we, when we were designing the product, how do we
create it into a drop in solution so that our mill
customers didn't have to bend over backwards in order to
integrate our technology.
And by creating something that they could just use in the exact
same way that they use with a traditional indigo dye, for
example.
And because we are creating a bio identical, we're able to
replicate the exact same shades, the exact same fabric specs that
our customers know and love and that are able to serve their own
customers.
And so by doing that we've been able to create a solution that
isn’t just sustainable in terms of you know lower carbon, lower
toxicity footprint, but also doesn't compromise on the
performance and the scalability that is really what our
customers are looking for.
That's awesome.
And I know Kristian too, you've been talking about how do you
actually drive that customer, need that end consumer to be so
excited about your products.
It's really simple.
We just ask them what they want.
And you know the core of it for us is just how do we make a
product that people want and what is it that they want.
They'll tell you the problem.
And so the core of what we've really done and it's what
allowed us to create this very personal product that ultimately
becomes a very sustainable product because it's very
purposeful.
Everything that we do is based on, "tell us what you'd like us
to make."
It started with pockets for women's clothing and then it
went into fit and sizing.
And, you know, the running joke in our office is everybody hates
buying pants.
And you know, it's true.
If I just walked around a room and ask people that question,
"Do you enjoy buying pants?"
You know, there's this fundamentally, you know,
incorrect theory that's like, oh, you know, only people who
wear plus sizes struggle buying clothes.
Everyone struggles buying clothes because of the mass
standardization of fast fashion.
Everything is the same.
Everyone's supposed to be the same ratio, etc., etc., etc.
So for us really being customer centric starts with asking them,
"What do you want us to make? What would you like?" and then
asking for follow up data afterwards, "How did you like
it?"
Did we, you know, actually do what, you know you asked us to
do, and that's how we build our brand is that feedback loop and
that's the core of how we build a sustainable product.
And I think you're seeing it play out, right?
You're seeing that consumers are actually adopting the product
for a value for the design and the style that they want without
returns, from my understanding.
Yeah, I mean, you know, our return rates are less than 5%.
And you know, even within that, I think we'll continue to drive
it lower and that just comes from personal sizing.
You know, people build the product so they're getting the,
you know, the style that they actually want.
They're getting a fit that they actually want and they're
getting an experience that is unique to the market currently.
And so, yeah, people, you know, or they're coming back and
they're buying a second pair and they're not returning ones that
they already had.
And so we cut down on massive amounts of waste and because
we're not producing in large batches, you know, I make you a
pair of jeans, I don't need to make a batch of a thousand and
hope they sell in a store.
And then, "Oh no, we've, you know, we're sitting on thousands
of extra pairs of jeans," which happens to lots of the big
brands.
So for us being purposeful in that initiative is what allows
us to do, you know, exactly that. That's great and I love
the stories of customer centric sustainability.
Thank you so much for joining me and sharing all the things
you've accomplished.
Thank you.