TWOTHIRDS was one of the first sustainable clothing brands in the world to pivot away from the harmful messaging and business practices associated with Black Friday, to create a different type of eco fashion sale. Blue Friday and Blue Week were born: an attempt to not lose market share to bullish fast fashion brands, all the while keeping our sustainable values and principles in tact.
“Read on to find out how Blue Week Sales mean everyone can finally say RIP to Black Friday and Black Week Sales.”
Why Our Mission Lock Matters
You can usually judge how sustainable a Black Friday Sale will be by how green or not-so-green a brand’s overriding mission statement is. Here at TWOTHIRDS we are duty bound to do everything possible to remain Ocean at heart, Eco in Mind. Our ocean-loving community holds us to this standard, making no exception for sale periods.
For this reason, we have always endeavoured to approach sales differently, to turn Black (pollution, overproduction, overconsumption, poor quality clothing) into Blue (sustainable, buy-only-what-you-need, durability, high-quality). So how exactly do our Blue Week Sales differ from their Black Week Sales peers when it comes to the selling of sustainable jackets, eco-friendly knits or ethical pants…?
Less Overproduction/Excess Stock Storage
It’s no secret that many fashion brands bring in a large percentage of their annual takings in the leadup to Christmas, an inevitable trend that has been supercharged by Black Week Sales, which have spawned a host of accompanying unsustainable practices. One example is the production of low-quality extra stock to meet anticipated Black Friday Sales demand.
Because we sell the bulk of our eco-friendly jackets and sustainable knits via our pioneering PRE-ORDER system, we tend not to hold very much stock at all, but there are some pieces which are returned to us due to order cancellations or sizing swaps. We combine this excess stock with our new fall and winter collections, products that would be created whether sales existed or not. In this way we maintain conservative stock levels that enable us to reduce our reliance on carbon intensive warehousing and keep our demand on precious raw materials to the bare minimum. Our mantra: Nothing goes to waste!
Making Sustainable Fashion More Inclusive
One of the main criticisms of sustainable fashion is that it costs too much, excluding large swathes of society from joining the sustainable fashion revolution. Often this can give rise to sustainability movements being construed as elitist, something we are at pains to dispel.
Blue Week Sales enable us to reduce the cost of our high-quality, handcrafted clothing so that everyone can treat themselves to that dream sustainable t-shirt or eco-friendly shirt – designed to last a lifetime and not just till the end of January.
“We do not push our community to simply buy as much as possible without a second thought.”
Encouraging Customers To Buy Less, & Better
Where our Blue Week Sales differ most from Black Week Sales is that we do not push our community to simply buy as much as possible without a second thought. Instead, all our Blue Week Sales communications are about encouraging slow fashion fans to take the chance to convert family and friends to sustainable threads, through the exchanging of gifts, or to simply treat themselves to a single piece or sustainable outfit, which will last for years to come. We want discounts to be appealing, but we don’t want to drive unnecessary purchases that could in turn lead to carbon intensive returns or exchanges.
There is obviously a delicate balance to be struck between the financial viability of a sustainable fashion business and the raw material demands we make on the planet. That is why we are constantly fine-tuning our Blue Week Sales processes, to ensure that we get the balance just right. The result is that our ocean-loving community can shop Blue Week Sales with confidence, safe in the knowledge that everything from our supply chain to the fabrics we use have the best interests of the planet at heart.
