Innovation

Fallowfield is an extremely innovative company. With organic cotton, sustainable materials and ethically made clothing for children, the innovation is constantly growing and expanding as new products are created and designed. The innovation of Fallowfield is the use of societal and environmental friendly products to create fashionable and desirable clothing for children. Mrs. Canham is confident that she can provide consumers with not only good quality clothing but also pieces of information about where it came from, who made it and how. Her goal is to change the way consumers purchase products by creating awareness on socially environmentally friendly buying habits. Having a story behind each item of clothing forms an emotional connection to the brand, thus creating strong and positive relationships with consumers.

Mrs. Canham was kind enough to also share details about her personal life, her family, and her past experiences. She had previously worked at another clothing store in Guelph called Grey Rock Clothing Co. which offers organically made clothing for both men and women. Here, Canham found a gap in the market. After she spoke with people who worked in the industry and other consumers, she decided to fill the gap by creating a business geared specifically towards children. Supporting her passions and dreams, Fallowfield goes above and beyond to find honest and integral individuals who create the pieces of clothing in a respectful and well maintained environment. She focuses on places operating on fair trade, adult employees and environmentally friendly materials.

Vicky Canham elaborated on her beliefs to make the world a better place by educating people to be socially aware about how they can support women in rural countries by buying her ethically made clothing for children. Canham is striving for a better community by impacting residents in Guelph, as well as around the world through an online platform. Her innovative idea stemmed from her belief of trying to change people's buying habits, which in turn socially helps others around the world. She is also passionate about the environment by making ethical choices to use 100% post-consumer paper and bags and biodegradable mailers.

Vicky’s innovation relates to a sense of mission, purpose and meaning by trying to make a difference in the way consumers shop and think. By instilling certain buying behaviors in some consumers, she is able to make a difference in the world, socially and environmentally. Her main goal further clarifies this because she wants “ to change people’s buying habits”. Interacting with Vicky and the store environment proves there is honesty in her products, transparency in her pricing and trust in her beliefs. She made it clear that all her clothes are either “made in Canada, or made globally and have a fair trade stamp”. She is passionate about “having a positive social and environmental impact” and educating “more people in Guelph to become more sustainable”.

Inspiration

Vicky’s love for sustainable fashion has been around for years. Her inspiration for opening Fallowfield came from a number of different sources. Having spent some time as an employee at Grey Rock Clothing Co., Vicky was able to work with a company that shared her passion for environmentally-friendly clothing. During her time at Grey Rock, Vicky spoke to a number of sustainable shoppers and found that there was a gap in the industry — sustainable clothing for children was not nearly as prominent as for adults. Thus, the idea was born. She went on to conduct more research before bringing the idea to reality. Vicky also accredits some of her inspiration to the documentary The True Cost, which she considered to be “life-changing”.

When asked about her motivation behind Fallowfield, she responded with: “As cliche as it sounds, just to try and make the world a better place… to change people’s buying habits…”.She mentions that while she’d definitely like to make a living off of her business, her main motivation to open shop is that she believes if she can get more people, who can afford it, to start buying sustainably, it is one small step towards the overall goal of making the world a better place.

Overall impact

The short term effect of this innovation is providing parents with good quality, organically made children’s clothes that they can feel socially conscious about purchasing and dressing their children. Vicky finds that a lot of customers coming in will be unaware of the organic aspect to her store, but will be drawn in because of the ‘cute’ and ‘unique’ styles of clothing. She tries to educate her customers on the background of her store. Vicky believes that she has made an impact on the Guelph community by starting conversations about being buying organic and living sustainable lifestyles.

This ties into the long-term effects as well because once you communicate and inform a customer of organic options, you could inspire a change in their purchasing behavior. That is the bottom line goal for Vicky; she wants to inform people of these organic options, like her clothing, and inspire others to be more aware of their spending habits. The long term plans for the company is to stay in the Guelph location, and focus on building their presence through the online store so that geographically they can reach more people.

With regards to concrete evidence, Vicky explains how it is difficult to measure her direct impact from her store, but through her various suppliers, there is more definitive data provided as confirmation of these impacts. An example is the company Pebble, based out of the UK, who sell hand-made toys made by Bangladeshi women. Using Pebble as one of Fallowfield’s suppliers, Vicky has supported these naturally made, fair trade toys and the women who made them in Bangladesh. Other evidence is shown through communication with repeat customers, family members, and friends, she has made an impact on consumer’s viewpoints on sustainability, and that is the first step in promoting change in our world, which Vicky – and our team – views as a success.

Business benefit

Fallowfield’s basis of the company is organic kids' wear. The innovation of selling organically made clothing has impacted the business in its entirety as organic wear is the sole focus of the business. Vicky Canham is very passionate about using as little waste as possible and carrying out business processes in the most environmentally friendly way. An example of how this has affected her business practices is how she is very stringent on who she chooses as her clothing suppliers. She does her research on brands and is very focused on transparency and whether they “actually do what they claim to be doing”. This has improved the Fallowfield brand because she only chooses to do business with brands that share the same passion for fair trade, sustainability, and organically made clothing as she does.

Social and environmental benefit

Fallowfield has a direct effect on the local society by having a bricks and mortar store located on one of the main streets in downtown Guelph. This is a great location for foot traffic, as well as a good central location for Guelph residences. Vicky explained to us how they are in the works for expanding the scope of their online services as well which would expand their impact a societal level. Since Fallowfield is still a fairly new company, Vicky explained how she plans on making charitable donations in the soon future and in interested in the “1% for the Planet” organization.

The impact of this innovation on the environment has been a mindset that has had an effect on most of Vicky’s business decisions. With regards to the environment, she makes choices within the store that create as little waste as possible. An example of this is using 100% post-consumer paper bags, and using biodegradable mailers for her online store that can be reused after being shipped. To the other side of this, Vicky explained to us about how some companies that she purchases from claim to be environmentally friendly, yet still send clothing in individually wrapped packages. This is a concern for Vicky and she is planning on contacting these suppliers and demanding transparency. However, one of her main suppliers sends biodegradable packaging which biodegrades in roughly 5 years.

Interview

Vicky Canham, Fallowfield