What do you do with that shirt that you splattered oil on, or that jacket where the zipper broke, or those jeans that ripped in the thighs?
I would venture to guess if you're anything like me, you put them in a pile to be mended in the back of your closet...a couple of years ago, or...you simply threw them away.
So I am on this little wild crazy adventure to keep those garments out of our landfills. Especially the polyester ones, because they take 300 years to break down.
I want to scale up upcycling from our etsy shop options (which are all amazing and I highly recommend you support those) to something more competitive and community driven.
I want to build an upcycle factory in Milwaukee, WI. Where we take all the clothes that can't be donated or resold in its current state due to stains, rips, tears, etc. and turn them into something completely new and different and unique. There are tons of designers doing this on a really small scale right now, and I so commend them for it. But running a small business by yourself and sewing all new clothing, by yourself, is no easy or sustainable feat.
This factory isn't just for EMND products to be created and sold, it will be a work force development program for those in our community who don't have the opportunity or access to post secondary education. And post production equipment and retail space will be accessible to other Milwaukee upcyclers to be more productive with their own labels. This is a project for my community so we can grow together and set an example to the rest of the industry that we can be better for the planet.
EMND (eh•mend) is an anagram for mend. We mend clothes. We mend our community.
We are currently working on funding to procure a facility large enough to house donations, equipment, and a retail space. Follow us on instagram @emnd_goods to stay up to date on our journey.