Interview: Creating an apparel and outdoor gear brand from recycled plastic with Bill Johnston.
Bill Johnston is the co-founder and president of Recover Brands, an apparel and accessory manufacturing company whose mission is to create the most environmentally friendly and socially responsible products possible. Recover accomplishes this by maintaining complete control of their supply chain to ensure that all of their products are made from 100 percent recycled materials. An avid outdoorsman, Bill began his journey into sustainable business working for an outdoor adventure company after graduating from NC State. Here, he describes how Recover Brands came to fruition and shares some of the less obvious challenges and benefits of using 100 percent recycled materials.
Kyle Calian: How did you arrive here, working with Recover?
Bill Johnston: I graduated in 2008 from NC State, with a focus on supply-chain management. My dad was in the industry too (he has a knitting mill in Statesville), so I grew up around textiles. After graduating, I went to work for an outdoor adventure company called Moondance Adventures, where I guided backpacking and mountaineering trips for teenagers.
I had always been into outdoor activities, but in leading expeditions all over the world I realized what I really liked was the opportunity to educate kids about the environment. I loved it, but after the first season I started looking for other opportunities. That was when the economy absolutely tanked, so finding jobs in sustainability was not exactly opportunistic. So I stuck it out for four more years and took some time to really think about how I could turn my passion for environmental protection into a career.
After my second year with Moondance I connected with a good family friend, John Riddle, who had been selling yarn to my dad since the ‘80s.
John was a big cyclist, and I had always been really into mountain biking. I was in the market for some new wheels at the time, so my dad told me I should connect with John to get a new bike. I gave him a call, and we hit it off right off the bat.
We started riding together and kicking around ideas. I told him about my passion for sustainability, and he introduced me to the world of recycled textiles. I was taken away by his musings on the possibilities for using upcycled cotton and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
As our friendship blossomed through cycling together, I started to do more and more research on recycled plastic. Shortly thereafter, it became a no-brainer for us to try to start something. So we put our heads together and started a business.
Great, and when did you decide you wanted to start Recover Brands?
We had the idea in early 2010, but we didn’t have a tangible product until the end of that year. Once we started selling, we realized there was this huge void in the market in terms of bolt production and more wholesale scale. Some of our initial orders were driven between running races and different events, but then we shifted our model to focus more on wholesale.
Got you. Can you tell me a little bit more about your process?
We use both recycled PET and upcycled cotton in our core products. What we call the Recover Sport, which is made entirely from post-consumer plastics or recycled PET, is literally post-consumer waste. We collect water bottles, Coke bottles, Gatorade bottles — really any kind of clear number one plastics that are collected in curbside recycling bins or in industrial recycling bins. Those plastics are then sorted, cleaned, washed, broken down, shaved into flake, melted into pellets and then extruded into a new fiber. That fiber is the key ingredient for the Sport. The idea behind that product is that the world has a massive problem with plastic, particularly with single-use plastics, such that there is an enormous abundance of plastic in the world that most often ends up in landfills or in our ecosystems. So our product brings new life to something that would otherwise go to waste and/or harm the environment.
Our sport fabric is one solution for the world’s plastic problem. We also have a 50/50 blend, which is made from a combination of recycled PET and upcycled cotton that comes from post-industrial manufacturing scraps and old garments.
When a manufacturer produces a new garment they end up with loads of thin scraps in their cutting rooms that, historically, has gone to waste.
So we go in and collect those scraps, sort them by color and then blend them with the recycled PET to create a new 50/50 blended fiber, which gets spun into a yarn.
One of the coolest parts of that process is that the color in the shirts actually comes from the upcycled cottons, eliminating the need for dyes and chemicals throughout the entire manufacturing process. That saves a tremendous amount of water and energy. Our shirts use less than a tenth of the water needed to produce a conventional shirt.
That’s amazing. Because of the complex nature of the fabric, do you guys have a take-back program or repair program for damaged apparel?
We have a couple of different programs in place. The 100 percent PET products are more of a closed-loop product where those old garments can be broken down and put back into the supply chain, because they are 100 percent polyester. The 50/50 blend fibers, on the other hand, are a little bit harder to break down. So we have an upcycling program where we take those old shirts, whether it’s a defective shirt or just something that doesn’t have life anymore, and we actually upcycle those shirts into drawstring backpacks and tote bags.
Very cool. What have been some of the more difficult challenges you have faced so far?
When we first started up we were in the height of the recession, so people were not only spending less but many weren’t spending at all. We were launching a new concept in one of the worst markets possible.
The other aspect of that is that the general public is just so much more in tune to sustainability than they were in 2010. Sustainability and environmental issues writ large are on the forefront of people’s everyday thoughts and conversations. That’s really encouraging. That being said, there are definitely some serious obstacles ahead, whether you’re looking at government regulations or just catching people up to speed on the extent of the world’s plastic problem.
On the opposite side of that coin, what have been some of your proudest accomplishments?
Building something from scratch is something we’re as proud of as anything. It’s really encouraging when we can quantify our environmental impact from bottle diversion to water savings, energy savings, reduction in carbon emissions, all of those things. When we look at the grand scale since we started, the numbers are really significant.
It’s a real impact, and it’s been really exciting to see how excited our employees are about it. When they look at their company as a whole and the very impactful efforts that they’re contributing to in their work, the fact that we’ve been able to help facilitate that and really give them something they’re proud of is really exciting. The same thing goes for individuals. You can really see people get excited to know that they’re making an impact even if they’re just buying one individual product.
I saw on your website you have a couple companies you’ve collaborated with. What have been some of your most exciting collaborations so far?
A couple industries that we really focus on and have done well in are the outdoor sports world, which is a huge passion of mine, and the music world. We work with a lot of different touring bands and music festivals. One in particular that was just such a surreal moment for me was when we did shirts for Wilco’s tour a couple of years ago. We’ve continued to work with them, because wow, we’re making shirts for Wilco. You always have to pinch yourself a little bit on stuff like that. That’s one in particular.
Another really key partner for us that we work with on a daily basis is Sierra Nevada Brewing. They’re the pioneers of the craft beer world and have really revolutionized that industry. They are trailblazers in so many ways, and they set the standard for sustainability in crafting beer. To be a key partner with them is really exciting for us. We also work with a handful of nonprofits, such as the National Parks Foundation and Let Me Run.
That’s awesome. What are some trends that you’re seeing in the world of sustainability, just in general?
I think the political climate right now has people way more engaged than ever before. I think people are seeing direct impacts from climate change and different things that are happening to the world, whether it’s finding plastic on the beaches, or enduring extremely hot summers, droughts, wildfires — climate change is no longer this mystical idea. Its impact is very real. So there’s much more environmental awareness out there than there was when we started this business in 2010.
That being said, we have some serious issues ahead of us on an industrial scale. We have a great deal of work to do on improving recycling systems and infrastructure to make sure that we’re giving people the options to make sustainable choices on a daily basis.
What I just said is a little bit counter intuitive to the world we’re in right now where everyone is shopping online and buying things with excess packaging, which amplifies their carbon footprint.
We all need more education on these topics so that we can make sure we’re reducing our impact while offering people enough variety of products such that they’re able to make informed purchases. We also need to innovate, or in many ways return to making products that are durable and meant to be reused rather than simply thrown away.
Who have been some of your influencers along the way?
I’d definitely say the first person would have to be my business partner, John. He’s not really involved in the day-to-day operations, but since the beginning he put a lot of faith in me and he has been a great mentor throughout this process. I think for him, when we were first getting started, to put his time, connections and money into a 23-year-old who wanted to do something in sustainability — that obviously gave me a lot of confidence.
Nice. I’ve had some amazing mentors along the way, but I’m still looking for that financial support.
Yeah, for sure.
How do you shop for yourself, and what are some of your favorite companies to purchase from?
I am actually not a huge shopper. From a clothing standpoint, I wear Recover shirts every day — I’m in good shape there. I’ve got a rotation of four pairs of pants and then I’ve got shoes and underwear, so there’s not a whole lot to buy outside of that. But I do spend money on outdoor gear, whether it’s new bikes or backpacking equipment or climbing equipment. I always make sure to put a premium on buying nice stuff that will last a long time. That kind of quality is definitely key for me.
And do you have a favorite Recover product?
I wear our Recover Sport Polo pretty much every day. I love that shirt. I had an old polo that was one of my all time favorites, and I only had one of them. We kind of looked at that as a good model for how we wanted to build that product. I love it. It’s something I can wear to the office and it looks nice, I can wear it to meetings or at night. But on the flip side, it has really nice performance attributes. You can go for a run in it, you can go mountain biking in it, you can go surfing in it. It’s going to dry super fast.
It’s an extremely versatile product that is a staple for everyday use.
What do you do to reduce your environmental impact outside of
your business?
I’m kind of obsessed with waste on an individual basis. One of the things that I like to do, and I always encourage other people to do this as well, is to try to be more conscious about my impact. I like to make a game out of it, to see how little waste I can actually create. In my personal life, I think about my recycling bin and my compost bin, and then compare that to my trash bin.
I try to have zero to very little waste going into that trash bin to the point where I might have to take out a small trash bin maybe once a month. The compost, on the other hand, I’m clearing out once a week — same as my recycling bin. I really try to think about it as a game just to see how little waste I can actually send to the landfill and to make sure that what I’m buying or consuming is either 100 percent recyclable or compostable.
Yeah. I’m in the same boat. Is there anything else you want people to know about Recover?
Yeah, I think one of the big things we’re trying to get out there is just general awareness. We want people to know there are other options for sustainable products. Not just the apparel that we make, but we’re also expanding our accessory line with other new products. One of the things we always talk about and the way we review Recover is similar to what a non-profit would in the sense that we’re really trying to provide solutions to these environmental problems. And ultimately we want to get to a point where all this excess plastic is not a problem at all anymore.
We envision a world where we’ve got recycling rates at 100 percent, where there is no single use plastic out there at all. We’re working as hard as we can to try to get to that goal of helping solve that problem and educate and inspire people along the way with really nice products, so they can get excited about. In addition to building excitement about our products’ green attributes, we also want it to be our customer’s favorite shirt or hat or backpack or hoodie.
Something that’s extremely soft, extremely comfortable, extremely durable, such that they can feel good about it in every way.
Ultimately, if they like the product enough and they wear it all the time and they’re out there talking about it, it’s just that word of mouth like, “Oh, wow. That shirt’s made from eight plastic bottles.” And it has that trickle effect where more and more people will hear about it, get excited about it, learn about us, what we’re doing and help us grow in both an environmentally sustainable and socially responsable way.
Check out Recover Brands at:
recoverbrands.com
Follow them at:
@recoverbrands
This interview is featured in Issue №3 of The Regeneration Magazine. You can preview it, order it, or subscribe on our website.
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