After creating a successful range of socks made from bamboo almost by accident, I had found myself now in the possession of all sorts of facts and information I couldn’t ignore. One of which was the map below.

This map details the solid waste production per kg per person per day. As you can see, Australia is up there as one of the main producers of solid waste globally.

In 2000 there were 2.9 billion people living in cities around the world, producing 3 million tons of rubbish every single day– the majority of it going straight to landfill, sitting there while it slowly breaks down.

A lot of this waste is being generated by the new cycle of “fast fashion” we find ourselves in. Often referred to as “disposable fashion” it is defined by Macmillan dictionary as “a term used to describe cheap and affordable clothes which are the result of catwalk designs moving into stores in the fastest possible way in order to respond to the latest trends. “

This speed to market, combined with a demand for cheaper and cheaper retail prices, has greatly impacted both the quality of the raw materials and the durability of the garment construction.

However prices are now so cheap, we have trained consumers to purchase with an expectation of a couple of wears before throwing it away. The price dictates the expectation that these goods are not made to last.

So a few months after creating my line of black socks, I started thinking what else could I make. I wanted it to be a range of products that weren’t influenced by current trends. Rather necessary items we all have in our wardrobe and wear every day. Items traditionally bought in cotton without a second thought. Items that could easily be replaced by a similar item, made from Bamboo.

With all this in mind, I could no longer call my brand “justsox”, so the idea for “bamboo monkey” was hatched. But I also wanted to see if there was any interest in this concept, so I decided to set up a crowd funding campaign on Pozible.

I entered in my information, and was about to launch my campaign, when I got a strange email. An international PR firm, Porter Novelli, had seen my project and wanted to know if I would be interested in a competition they were running to choose three campaigns on Pozible, the winners receiving thousands of $’s of pro bono PR support. Wow!  Of course!! A week later, I had been selected as a finalist, and was invited to attend a cocktail party at Pozible headquarters. Here I could present my concept, along with the other short listed finalists, to a team of Industry experts, and 150 of my nearest and dearest strangers, who would then vote for the winners on the night.

Nervously I stood up, passionately I gave my spiel, and excitedly I was chosen as a winner. Our campaign launched, and with the fantastic support of the team at P & N we achieved our target.

The concept of bamboo Monkey was created – with a fun mischievous logo, for a brand new brand.

Now what!

I jumped on a plane and flew to Las Vegas, where one of the world’s largest retail trade fairs is held.  I was able to make contact with a sock factory, producers of beautiful quality socks, with Calvin Klein as one of their largest customers. We have worked together to develop our new range of black socks, a range of patterned socks, as well as an exciting new ankle sports sock. Production is almost complete so we are hoping to have them ready for sale on our website in early November.

At this fair, I also met with some exciting new fabric mills, so we are currently in work developing some bamboo fabrics in a heathered yarn, (pepper and salt in appearance) and a micro stripe. On my return, I met with a development team in Melbourne to work on developing a range of shapes. These lifestyle shapes of tees and sweats are starting production in China and planning to be available in November.  So bamboo monkey, is finally starting to take shape.