How www.9plus1.co.uk was born
I am an engineer and I have spent most of my career using my knowledge to help prevent environmental disasters. But as a mother of three there are a few disasters that I often felt powerless to fix.
A huge pile of clothes ends up in landfills each and every day. The equivalent of one truckload every second. A big proportion of that is children’s clothes, especially during the first two years, when they grow out of things almost in a matter of days. In a world where it takes 3,871 litres of fresh water to produce one pair of jeans and where the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions (more than all international flights and shipping combined), this truly matters.
As a parent — this is not the world I want my children to grow up in. And yet, I still want convenience and choice and to be able to express my children’s individuality through their clothing.
My partner and co-founder, Chris, has a PhD in biology and is a climate change specialist. He and I have spent years pursuing a personal mission to reduce waste and encourage our friends to wear their clothes for longer and to buy from more environmentally friendly brands. But finding those brands takes time and effort. Something that new parents rarely have time for.
That is how the idea for 9plus1 was born.
Two years on and our Gloucestershire based company, backed by Voulez Capital (Europe’s leading VC for women-founded businesses), now offers a single online place with a wide range of choice of eco friendly baby clothes — over 600 product lines and over 30 high end brands and counting.
Parents subscribe to a plan to rent, return and repeat the cycle with new, slightly larger and season appropriate garments. And — Voila! — an eco friendly, clutter free, convenient way to have a stylish wardrobe that grows with their baby.
In a covid and post covid world such convenience matters a lot. And it’s much cheaper too.
Watch this space — soon there will be a wardrobe that grows with your bump as well.
Hele Vaarsi
Co-founder & CEO
www.9plus1.co.uk
