Innovation

When Rachel Winn founded SAANS, a retail company dedicated to sustainable and contemporary women’s fashion, she launched it with an ardent commitment to “slow fashion.” Slow fashion is a growing movement that places a heavy emphasis on where the clothing that someone wears has come from. SAANS excels in maintaining their standards of sustainably made pieces by partnering with ethical designers and brands that are just as committed to sustainability and transparency. When seeking out companies whose pieces they would like to carry, SAANS requires them to embody and embrace at least one of the principles that comprise their ethos: locally made, high quality, small batches of production, philanthropic dedication, and more.

Sustainable and ethical standards were always on Ms. Winn’s mind, especially in the fashion industry. What many people do not know is that fashion is the second most polluting industry on the planet, second only to the oil industry. Before SAANS, she had taken a trip to Africa with TOMS shoes with sustainable goals in mind, and that trip is what jump-started her desire to create her own company that would promote the same type of moral code and benevolence.

Ms. Winn already had success in her professional life — in terms of profit and net income for her previous businesses — but she wanted to create “good” for other people around the world, who are not usually given consideration by many of the big companies. Her goal was to recreate that rewarding feeling of success for workers “at the bottom of the totem pole” through her own company, and SAANS did just that.

Inspiration

Ms. Winn has been interested in fashion from an early age, and she has an entrepreneurial drive. After graduating from university, she had her own showroom on the West Coast, and she started carrying brands with special commitments to doing good. She later moved to New York in order to work with major department stores. However, she was saddened to see how big companies care only about the bottom line. She described her experience, “It was all about the bottom dollar, and they push very hard on the vendors so that when they sell the goods they have a big, profitable margin. They don’t realize who ends up paying for it.”

She was also involved in the launch of TOMS shoes, and she had the opportunity to experience a shoe swap in Africa as part of the company’s “one for one” initiative whereby each item purchased from the company will help a person in need. In regards to starting her own sustainable business, she said, “I personally have an entrepreneurial drive, and having a professional background in fashion, coupled with caring about humanity and the impact fashion makes, it felt like a contribution that I wanted to be a part of, and hopefully effectively bring change.” With that, SAANS was born.

Overall impact

The impact of SAANS, as it relates to Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, is in setting new standards. By refusing to deal with manufacturers that are not actively trying to reduce or eliminate their environmental impact or to correct the unsafe working conditions suffered by their employees, it will force these companies to reconsider their operating policies. If SAANS becomes more successful and more well-known, brands and designers want to have their clothing made available through their distribution, then the larger companies that are involved in the production of these garments would have no choice but to disclose their business practices and improve on those that are not up to SAANS’ standards. SAANS also helps educate the public on what they should expect to know about their clothing, and that demand for information can force the bigger brands to keep up with the standards that the smaller brands are setting.

Business benefit

The way that it benefits the business is that it creates a niche. It establishes SAANS’ own identity that makes their brand more than just another store trying to compete with the well-established companies in the industry. This identity creates brand loyalty and consumers who are proud to have purchased items that they know were created in a fashion that they support. The appreciation for their mission will create value for their customers, who will ultimately be willing to pay more for products marketed through SAANS. SAANS is also planning on releasing their own clothing brand in the next few years, so by already establishing their reputation as the sustainable store, their own brand name items will carry that weight.

Social and environmental benefit

SAANS has a clear ethos by which it operates and conducts business. On its website, the company describes itself: “At SAANS, our vision is to connect contemporary fashion with conscious production. We feature pieces from ethical brands that combine exquisite design with traceable origins, so that we as consumers can make decisions with the knowledge of how and where things are made.” The brand works to ensure that every piece it sells was produced ethically, and they are unique in that they focus on the people who fall to the bottom of the totem pole to large corporations and treat them with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

Interview

Rachel Winn, SAANS Founder