Friday, July 30, 2010

WTIAS Answers No. 5 - Ali Hewson

Please read WTIAS No. 5 first!

My main drive has always been my children and since having had my children I became much more aware of what was going on in the atmosphere, the environment and I wanted to be able to buy clothes for my children that weren’t made by other people’s children. [Right]

So there was a couple of different ideas that kind of converged together. And if you look at any developing country one of the first industries that starts is the clothing industry, starts with a couple of sewing machines, little factory develops. In Africa the cotton industry was already there so it seemed like the right direction to go, but at the moment we go into factories that already exist. [Ok]. And at this point what they need in most of those  developing countries is trade. They just need more business to keep their present factories opened.

[So you purchase from the businesses that are already established and then help them distribute it elsewhere. Ok. Got it. Great].

Exactly. And plus by working with, I mean, being such a tiny company, you know, it’s very much experimental at this point, but working with factories to help develop their skills, you know, designers go down there. They see what they can do. They try and help them do new stitches or whatever. So it makes them more attractive then to other companies coming in  if they have new skills.