In January 2014, aged 23, Tom Cridland launched his eponymous label, specializing solely in creating the perfect pair of trousers. He quickly built a vertical luxury menswear brand established on the designer’s “buy less, buy better” philosophy. In 2015, Tom launched “The 30 Year Sweatshirt,” a sustainable fashion project in the form of a luxury cotton crewneck backed up with a 30 Year Guarantee. Following its critical acclaim, Tom continued this momentum by launching “The 30 Year T-Shirt” immediately afterwards. The “30 Year” concept is simple: if anything happens to the garments over the course of the next three decades, the company fixes or replaces them for free. Since its inception, Cridland has seen his revolutionary idea and ambitious project being featured and praised by high-profile international press, like the Huffington Post, the Telegraph, Forbes and the Financial Times. Read on as he discusses growing his company, opening his first retail popup store, and future plans.
Why launch another sustainable brand? How did you come up with the concept of “30 years?”
It was seeing the documentary “The True Cost” by Andrew Morgan that ultimately changed my life and transformed my fortunes in business. I am firmly of the opinion that, in order to turn things around, the world needs to consider sustainability as an opportunity to make profit. I saw a chance for Tom Cridland to pivot as a brand, and I took it. The goal was to engage the mass market with sustainable fashion, and my idea was to guarantee a garment for a length of time to encourage consumers to spend a bit more on durable, ethically made clothing, keep it for longer and to save money over time. The “30 Year” figure was decided after a chat with my production team in Portugal, who showed me sweatshirts, t-shirts and jackets in perfect condition from the 1970s.
Which are the materials that are made to last 30 years?
Italian cotton, sourced from Biella in the North of the country.
You collaborate with a particular factory with rich experience – and which has been making clothes since 1964. Tell us about the process of choosing a factory that’s right for you.
We toured round the whole of Portugal looking for the right production team. My mother is Portuguese and, as a country, I feel they’re unfairly overlooked. Portugal has a rich history, a great heritage in making wonderful clothing and footwear, delicious food and wine, beautiful scenery and great weather. I think it is one of the loveliest places in the whole world.
All your new products launch on Indiegogo. Tell us about this decision. At this point, isn’t the cash flow enough to self-finance your business?
It is. We simply enjoy the process of market testing products on crowdfunding websites. That said, we have definitely outgrown that process now, and will not be doing this in the future. The “30 Year Sweatshirt” launched on Kickstarter, though, and reaching that £50,000 was an extremely uplifting experience for us.
Your newest project the “Entrepreneur Shirt” supports entrepreneurship in developing countries. How important is giving back to the community to you?
We are keen to give back and support aspiring young entrepreneurs, as well as those in the developing world who deserve the opportunity to start businesses and work their way out of poverty. We also want to campaign for a greater focus on nurturing entrepreneurial talent and providing basic business training in our education systems across the world.
How challenging was it starting another project, having already introduced a range that has been worn by Nigel Olsson (Elton John’s drummer) and Leonardo di Caprio? Were you worried it wouldn’t be equally successful?
No more challenging than starting the brand in the first place! Being worried is not something that comes naturally to a true entrepreneur.
You recently opened your own boutique. Tell us about this decision, as well as selecting your stockists.
We were offered our shop on the King’s Road for the months of January and February by the Sloane Stanley estate rent free, as they had seen our work in sustainable fashion with “The 30 Year Sweatshirt,” admired it and wanted to offer us the opportunity of a bricks-and-mortar store. It was a creatively rewarding and extremely exciting experience to see our brand realize its visual potential in a physical shop, as opposed to an online one, but we work best as a direct to customer international e-commerce brand. We may be small and just run by two people full time – me and my girlfriend and business partner, Debs – but the power of e-commerce is that we have customers on six continents. A high-street shop, even on the King’s Road doesn’t afford you that ability.
You have also set up your own PR company to handle publicity for your brand. Having dealt with all the challenges young entrepreneurs face, are interested in attracting clients to help with the same issues?
Tom Cridland Public Relations is actually our company’s sister business. We already have twenty PR clients, including an energy company and a major Saville Rowe tailor, and anyone is welcome to get in touch should they need help securing press coverage. Working is a labor of love for us, and we are now proud to be turning over close to £2m.
Are chinos a side project for you today? What are your plans for expanding your garment range?
Tom Cridland chinos are still a passion and we’re just about to expand our range of colors and materials! In 2017, I have a few key priorities during the first six months of the year. For the Tom Cridland brand, I will be launching a new website, refining our products and testing PPC online marketing for the first time. For TC and TC PR, we have just recruited a wonderful new full-time employee who will be starting in January. We want to grow the PR agency, which is a relentless process. Most excitingly of all, however, my band, The Tomicks, are making our first record in Los Angeles in February. We’ve written ten songs we love, so I’m extremely excited to see where that takes us.
www.tomcridland.com
Images © Tom Cridland
