Rhianna_Team_Timbuktu.mp3
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Highlights:
01:04 What is Team Timbuktu
01:32 Natural fibers and Synthetic fibers
04:19 How the company started
11:51 Back up plan when things go wrong
17:02 What makes Team Timbuktu different
20:50 Allocating company budget
27:23 Business ethics
32:46 Production process
34:21 Future goals for Team Timbuktu
Transcript:
Phil 0:02
You mentioned the word ethics. What does that mean when you say that?
Rhianna 0:06
So in terms of sustainability for me that means the material and the impact upon the environment. And ethics to me means the people involved in the supply chain that are creating the product. So, as a small brand I’ve personally visited all the manufacturers that we work with.
Phil 0:33
This morning, I’m speaking with Rhianna Knight, the founder of team Timbuktu. How are you today Rhianna?
Rhianna 0:40
Really well. Thanks, Phil. How are you going?
Phil 0:42
I’m very good. I’m very pleased to be here and talking to you about your business. But also I’d like to know a bit more about yourself and your background. Before we get into your background, though, tell me a little bit about team Timbuktu, what you do, and what people would find if they went to your website or did some research on your organization?
What is Team Timbuktu
Rhianna 1:04
Yeah, absolutely. So, team, Timbuktu is a sustainably made apparel brand. We’re predominantly direct to a consumer e-commerce store and we make clothes for outdoors more sustainably from recycled plastic bottles.
Phil 1:17
Okay, I’m an old guy on thinking recycle plastic bottles, clothing. I’m like, you gotta be kidding me right now can you back a decent wearable product that’s not making me sweat like a dog out of a plastic bottle?
Natural fibers and Synthetic fibers
Rhianna 1:32
So most people don’t realize what they’re actually wearing is oil. So, going a little bit into the history of fabrics, you’ve got natural fibers and you’ve got synthetic fibers, naturals, phenomenal silk and wool and hemp and all those kind of fabrications but synthetic fibers you need to have for performance activities such as sport, so if you need something to be sweat wicking or waterproof, you’re going to have to use this synthetic material for that level of performance.
Rhianna 1:59
Traditionally Synthetic fibers are derived from oil. But there’s some really amazing fabric mills and manufacturers coming up with some alternatives now, so we’re lowering our dependence on renewables. And so I’ve just partnered with a mill that is, absolutely phenomenal in their research and innovation with fabrics, so that’s how they can do it.
Phil 2:21
Fantastic. So if I was to think about outdoor wear, activewear in general, what is it made of?
Rhianna 2:31
That’s synthetic fibers. So that’s either nylon or polyester. And it started from oil. It wasn’t grown, like a cotton, it wasn’t planted as a seed.
Phil 2:43
So sorry, these are really basic questions. I know but for me, it’s like saying, okay so I know what it’s like to wear those clothes. I wear those clothes myself. They’re comfortable. So on what you’re doing is essentially creating a product, that is using the same materials, but from a recyclable source.
Rhianna 3:14
Creating the same end material, but out of more sustainable, different, initial fibers.
Phil 3:21
Fantastic. So take me through yeah that’s important. Because I mean, for me, that makes it easy for me to understand that your product is comfortable, it’s practical. It’s all of those things that I want. When I, when I go shopping for something that I’m gonna wear in the outdoors. You know, I did a bit of a trek in Kokoda trail a while ago.
Phil 3:43
I understand what it’s like to have reliable clothing that’s comfortable in really, you know, tough conditions. So it’s good to know that your product is essentially an alternative to those that might be readily available in the marketplace. And can you tell us a bit more more about, you mentioned that you partnered with a mill. Maybe take us back to the start here. How did you become involved with Timbuktu why did you set it up? How did you create this business? And what do you think is going to happen in the next few years?
How the company started
Rhianna 4:19
Big question. So I studied fashion design back at university after fashion. Oh, during my degree, I did quite a lot of internships from high street retailers to little independent brands and everyone in between, from luggage to handbags, to dresses to I couldn’t even remember, there was an extensive amount of internships , I really wanted the exposure to the industry to see what a regular nine to five was like outside of university.
Rhianna 4:49
And so once I finished my course, I was in the midst of interning with a snowboarding company and I was able to transition to part time and eventually full time work with them. Managing their entire design and production process. So that was for all of their apparel and accessories. So, think hoodies and trackies and beanies and caps and then your more technical outerwear for snowboarding and skiing so your waterproof pants and your bibs and your jackets and gloves and that kind of thing.
Phil 5:18
Any brands we might know?
Rhianna 5:20
It’s a little Australian brand called Yuki Threads. So when I told people from overseas “like what you even have snow in Australia” is like yeah, we do it’s a tight little industry but um, yeah they are a great brand.
Phil 5:33
So you learned about production of a brand. What else did you learn and what made you decide to create this organisation?
Rhianna 5:45
So whilst I was at Yuki, just amazing exposure because for most people when you step out of university course, you’ll be going into a role that if you’re really lucky, you might be in the production team and you might be managing accessories within, let’s say men’s suiting, so that means you’re in charge of the buttons, the zips, the K labels the swing tags at maximum for a particular category within a particular assortment at a larger retailer.
Rhianna 6:17
So whilst there are obviously pros and cons of small or large businesses, at a large retailer you will get the more structured training, but your role will be much more limited. And within its scope versus a small business, it’s probably not going to be much structured training but it’s very on the go learning and you do anything and everything.
Rhianna 6:37
So that might be creating graphics for social media, it might be stocktake it warehouse it might be learning the content management system of a website platform, or it might be your actual role as well like designing and creating visiting, retailers and production overseas. Just a scope is so varied in comparison and so obviously pros and cons of both I think that exposure was absolutely phenomenal.
Rhianna 7:02
The brand was also transitioning their supply chain from using more conventional fibers and manufacturers through to ones that were more sustainable and ethical as well. So that was a really incredible journey to be a part of.
Phil 7:15
So when you decided to create Team Timbuktu I think originally it was called, Mr. Timbuktu, makes me laugh, I’m thinking why would you call it Mr. Timbuktu that I don’t really care. You’re now called Team Timbuktu.
Phil 7:33
And I saw on your website that you did some crowdfunding and so on. Did you have a mentor? Did you have anybody somebody to help you to work through these okay, I want to create my own business. What do I do? Or did you just go and do it?
Rhianna 7:49
A lot of internet research, so I launched the brand via crowdfunding on the platform, Indiegogo. And then I’ve also recently completed another crowdfunding campaign with start some good and ING, which was really good to scale up the brand, but the first campaign, it was me on Google looking at other people who have done crowdfunding that was successful, kind of reverse engineering the campaigns, what did they do for their marketing within their video, within their campaign page, within their rewards?
Rhianna 8:16
And then I just started reaching out to people, it was like, Hey, I’m trying to do this thing. Can I just pick your brain for half an hour? grab a coffee, and then say, like, what do you do here? I don’t get it. Or I’m trying to do this do what do you think of that? And that was so invaluable.
Phil 8:31
So you had the idea? Always from the start that it was going to be a recycled product? Or was there some other core thing that then led to the recycling?
Rhianna 8:45
For me, the most sustainable materials was just common sense. It was never a consideration. So it didn’t really talk about it that much at the start, because I thought, of course, if I’m going to make a product for the outdoors, it would be nonsensical. If I then when I created a product out of materials that actually damages the actual environment, and because of my background in fashion and production and the relationships with the mills and manufacturers, I knew it was a possibility. Versus I think, most like regular public people don’t know that it’s even a possibility. Now, even when a brand like Patagonia has been using it for 25 years, but it just hasn’t been adopted by mainstream brands, and especially not at scale.
Phil 9:28
So it was a bit of a leap of faith because not a lot of others were doing it, although you did mention Patagonia. So where’s the mill that you partnered with? And how did you make that connection?
Rhianna 9:42
And so I was incredibly lucky with my previous work experience at the snowboarding brand. I already had connections with Milson manufacturers. And it’s kind of when you have the initial connections, if you’re saying let’s say like I didn’t have any active connections, but then I could go to my other manufacturers that I already knew quite well and had a good relationship with and said I want to create this new product line, I know you specialise in whatever this particular product, but it’s not that one. Do you know anyone? And the grounds kind of interconnected. So like, Oh yeah, I know someone in this other city you should go visit them, which is amazing.
Phil 10:17
So are they based in Australia or international?
Rhianna 10:21
My fabric mill for my jackets is in Taiwan. And then I make the jackets in China active wear and Garments made in China and then organic cotton is in India. But that’s been a bit of a trial and error process. So I initially launched with an Italian fabric that I was making in Indonesia. And then I switched to an Indonesian fabric, then I moved over to China and it’s still a bit of trial and error.
Phil 10:47
Fantastic. So really wasn’t that hard based on what you just said, and please forgive the noise in the background we’re sitting on Victoria Street in the Melbourne CBD and it is a little bit noisy so forgive us for that. I’m talking to Rhianna Knight, Rhianna is the founder of Team Timbuktu fantastic outdoor and fitness exercise clothing that she creates using sustainable materials.
Phil 11:20
Rhianna. So I got from your last comments that it must have been relatively straightforward to find mills who were already making these materials that was sourced from the plastic bottles, the plastic recycling and so on. So that was already in place in the marketplace.
Back up plan when things go wrong
Rhianna 11:51
Yes, it was available in the marketplace, but I’ll definitely pick you off on the easy word. Definitely not easy. Everything went wrong. As you kind of expect it to. So in my first crowdfunding campaign, I think that campaign went for, let’s say, two months. And at the six week mark, both of my manufacturers dropped out. And so all of a sudden, like, luckily, I had done my research well, and I’d sampled with many, multiple, many different manufacturers, and I’ve vetted them and I already had backups in place.
Rhianna 12:24
But at that six to eight week mark, they dropped out , one of them all of a sudden said my order size wasn’t going to be big enough. And then the other, they said they could give their recycled certificate when they needed it. There’s one called Global recycled, standard mtrs. And then all of a sudden, they’re like, oh, no, we can’t give it to you. It will cost $500. I’m like, that’s okay. I’ll pay it and like, It’ll cost $1,000 I’m like, that’s okay. I’ll pay it and they’re like, we can’t get it for you.
Rhianna 12:50
I’m like, Okay, I’m gonna have to find a different manufacturer now. And so yeah, just everything went wrong. I launched with three products, I forgot to add into my costing, sourcing like non plastic mailing and garment bags was impossible back then. So I launched without any, like poly bags for the garment, just probably a bit of tech jargon, but basically the plastic bag that you put the garment inside, which I didn’t know back then but you just need for stocktake.
Rhianna 13:22
Like if you’ve got a warehouse and boxes and hundreds of products, if they’re not folded neatly in a little bag, you’re stuffed and it’s going to take you 10 hours longer, which just they’re the kind of things that I didn’t know about. I also launched using cardboard mailing envelopes because I couldn’t find plastic free envelopes. But then when you’re putting a 3d garment into a 2d flat envelope, that’s just going to look awful by the time it gets to the customer. But it’s the things that you learn along the way. So definitely everything went wrong.
Phil 13:55
So, on the one hand, there’s the mills. On the other hand, there’s manufacturers, all of them potentially dropping in or out depending on the circumstances.
Rhianna 14:05
Yeah, it’s really tricky because I’m a still an ultra small brand. And so my order size is about one quarter of their minimum order quantity, which at times like is flexible, but that means I’m paying a surcharge to create the fabric, I’m paying a surcharge to create six sizes instead of three sizes. When you first start with a manufacturer, they’re like, cool, you can make small, medium large, and it’s like, that’s just not going to be good enough, like I launched with five sizes, inactive wear, which have since expanded to six.
Rhianna 14:35
But then it’s difficult because my manufacturers say you’re not making enough of each size you have to pay a surcharge and then my customers are saying also you don’t offer my size, and it’s just you can’t make everyone happy kind of situation. Yeah, so it’s really tricky working as a really small brand with very low budget and autosize to the manufacturers are doing amazing things. They’d rather work with the big brands of the world that are ordering 10s of thousands of yards of fabric rather than a couple hundred meters.
Phil 15:08
Right. From your point of view, from the business model point of view. Do you consider that you have a sustainable business at this stage? Or is it going to take a few more years?
Rhianna 15:31
In financial sustainability, I wouldn’t say that business has gotten to that stage yet. In terms of environmental sustainability, I’d say it’s well on its journey. So to me sustainability is an ever evolving journey. And so whilst our fabric like our tech jacket fabric, basically our raincoat fabric right now is 48% recycled but this winter we’re introducing it slightly different fabrication which is 100% recycled which wasn’t possible before because of our water size.
Rhianna 16:01
But now because we’re getting marginally larger, we do have a little more room for movement, which is amazing. But yet with always a journey of improving. Eventually we’ll be making like our swing tags recycled cardboard rather than cardboard. So it’s just limiting and reducing. It impacted every area that you can. But then of course, that’s limited by time resources.
Phil 16:22
And if you think about your competitors, and you look around the world, do you see companies that are providing what you’re trying to provide? Like you’ve just described there, for instance, that you want recycle tags? You talked about your new jacket, which is coming in winter. Congratulations when that gets launched. Do you see other organisations providing what you’re trying to provide? Or is what you’re doing and your vision different to them?
What makes Team Timbuktu different
Rhianna 17:02
I’d say from a material standpoint that are the brands that are offering the same thing but not in terms of the vision and the nature of the business. I want Team Timbuktu to to become an outdoors brand, but one that’s accessible to the everyday person. So they’re probably not ever going to go to Kokoda, they’re not going to climb Everest, they’re probably just going for a walk around the block.
Rhianna 17:24
Maybe they’re going to do an overnight hiking trip, maybe not. Maybe they’ll do like 1000 steps or something. They want to get outdoors and be active and move their body, but they’re not going to climb Everest to do so. So they need clothes that are a little more technical than your standard active wear and they need something that’s going to support them outdoors, especially if the weather is not in their favour. But then they don’t need a $700 Garment that is made for Everest use so I think there’s so much room in that middle ground within active run outdoors and also a brand that’s designed for millennials. It’s digital first and is just like, phenomenal. It’s a digital experience.
Phil 18:06
There you go. Millennials had to get a mentioned somewhere. You just mentioned that I think you said digital first, and a phenomenal digital experience. And I’m glad you were able to differentiate and say, Well, you know, we’re not targeting the high end, expensive stuff. We’re focusing on what stuff that people might use every day. Tell me more about that digital first and the digital experience.
Rhianna 18:39
That’s another area that’s just common sense to me as a 20 something person I’ve just grown up like I still remember the Nokia 3315 snake. But since I’ve been an adult, this everything is digital and so whilst bricks and mortar might make sense in the future, launching into a new city or something as a pop up. For me, it doesn’t make sense, especially with the business as it is right now.
Rhianna 19:06
Everything needs to be digital first. And everything needs to be incredible. So that’s like, website that’s designed on mobile rather than laptop, looking really deeply at the data that you’ve got about your customers… who’s converting? What pages are they leaving at? and all that kind of information. So then later, you can offer a really customised, incredible experience. So then the customer doesn’t just feel like they’re another cog in the wheel and the retailer doesn’t actually care about them.
Phil 19:38
Fantastic and do you see, again, you know, when you look out into the market, do you see sort of role models of this, that you look at and say, yeah I want to be like that, or was it something that your vision is again, beyond what is currently out there?
Rhianna 19:55
In different verticals? Absolutely. So active is an incredibly large industry in this lot of really dominant players within that area. At the moment. However, I don’t think there’s anyone that’s offering what I want Team Timbuktu to grow into. In terms of the digital experience. If you look at Glossier or Koala, or Frank or Go to even like an outdoor voices, so many brands that are doing a really, really incredible job with that customer journey right from the initial like cold Facebook ad to the email flows and sequences and onboarding, automations and then customising the website, depending on your previous interactions and all those kind of things. There’s definitely some absolutely phenomenal players.
Allocating company budget
Phil 20:50
Fantastic. Now, when we when you look at your business model, and you look at how you create value, And where you spend your money as in how you have to manage your budget and where all the dollars go, let alone your time. For someone who’s trying to create a new business, obviously, you’re in the particular area of fashion at Team Timbuktu what, roughly, where would you see the money being spent in order to achieve the vision that you want to achieve? Is it you know, was it all about supply of material? is it all about manufacturing relationships? is it all about the digital experience? Is it about research? Where’s the financial dollars go? Where do the financial dollars go?
Rhianna 21:49
So as a bootstrap startup, you kind of learn how to do everything yourself so for me, I’m lucky that I do have that background in fashion and production. So I design and create the spec packs and deal with my manufacturers deal with some nasty work like, work within collaborate with my manufacturers. And, and really do the majority of task. I worked in a marketing agency for a little while.
Rhianna 22:14
So I kind of have an understanding within your digital marketing from your paid ads through to your email automations and a few other things as well. And so it’s really outsourcing only what is severely necessary. And then everything else is just skating by until you scale. And so and there’s so many incredible software’s that you can use from zero to Canva to Trello, to Shopify, to everything that you don’t need custom when you’re starting out, and maybe not even for quite a few years, if ever.
Rhianna 22:51
And so in terms of budget, development, majority of budget is still spent on production and supply chain. So You’ve got your sampling and you’ve got your bulk production and then you’ve got your freight and import duties. And then everything else is really a marginal percentage. So there is marketing budget that is increasing but still pretty small, which is then difficult to compete.
Rhianna 23:17
But if you’re spending that on digital, you get that data and you can see whether you’re getting your ROI or not. So whether that’s a smart investment or if you just turn it off after two days because it’s not working. This the general operations of the business so that’s pretty much all your software subscriptions. And get everything is pretty much a production heavy spend at the moment.
Phil 23:40
Good to know, you mentioned the word ethics or that you’re an ethical product if you like. What does that mean when you say that, you don’t use it a lot as I don’t think any more than once when I was scrolling through your website and saw what they did I thought okay, what does that actually mean to you?
Rhianna 24:24
So in terms of sustainability for me, that means the material and the impact upon the environment and ethics to me means the people involved in the supply chain that are creating the product. So as a small brand, I’ve personally visited all the manufacturers that we work with in our tier one, so that’s our garment manufacturers I’ve gone and visited a couple of the fabric Mills to not yet accessories but that will be later that’s kind of a tier two supply chain and then tier three is your like the cotton at the farm rather than serve right back to the raw material.
Rhianna 25:03
So annually, I go and visit all of our manufacturers, and pretty rigorous like vetting process before we even start sampling with someone. So if I made a new manufacturer that I’m interested in testing out, working with them will have a, essentially an interview to start off with. And the quick the first questions on what are your minimums and what are your pricing and what are your capabilities, it’s more so about the environment of the factory and manufacturer that they are and how the people treated within that factory.
Rhianna 25:36
What laws do you abide by? Do you have any particular certifications, eventually i’d love all of our suppliers to have the SA8000 certification. But because we are such a small business without much like purchasing power, so to speak right now, we are unable to force it onto a manufacturer. So one of our manufacturers they follow the BSCI. So that’s a business social compliance initiative.
Rhianna 26:00
So that means they get a third party audit of their factory annually. And so then I receive a 20 page report saying kind of like grades A to F, about whether they’re performing with overtime with pay with sick leave, like all those kind of things. And so that’s a really, really useful document because even though I do go there each year, it’s not surface level, but I can’t get a 20 page report out of a half day visit. And so I get it’s different for each manufacturer right now, but it basically means that I’m only partnering with manufacturers that have factories where I personally would be happy to work at.
Phil 26:45
Thank you. That sounds pretty ethical.
Rhianna 26:50
I just think in terms of… traditionally the garment industry has done a pretty shoddy job but looking after the people within the supply chain and I just think like, based on birth lottery, it shouldn’t matter where you were born, you should have just the same rights as everyone else like access to healthcare access to minimum wage or above and just access to like a health, safety, health, healthy and safe working environment and get that shouldn’t matter what country you live in. Or who you work for?
Business ethics
Phil 27:23
So you’re clearly a communist? (laughing) Where did you develop these notions of ethics. Was it something that you grew up with in your family? Was it simply something that you just became aware of and read more about? How did that come about?
Rhianna 27:44
And I think that’s mostly just my personal values. I definitely have done a bit of research into the fashion industry. I’m lucky that have never worked with a manufacturer that has been bad like you hear absolutely horrific stories about fire escapes being locked and passports being taken away when people start working in factories and just like absolutely awful things that you can’t even begin to imagine. And so then when you start doing more research like that, then you realise the need to establish like a code of conduct door to go and visit your manufacturers because even though you know that they’re good, you just, I don’t know, it’s really difficult.
Phil 28:24
It’s not that difficult. You’ve obviously worked it out, you know, from your own point of view, if you will. And I didn’t ask you this beforehand, so if you had a top three values what might they be for you?
Rhianna 28:48
Equal Opportunity.
Phil 28:56
I mean, you’ve already expressed a whole range of values. Through the conversation, I was just interested to see whether you’d actually worked it out and sat down and figured it out in a concrete way, and what it might mean, but it’s clearly something you’re living with every day. So that’s fantastic. Do you see what you’re doing?
Phil 29:21
And you mentioned a range of other things there. You know, you talked about health care and all these other things that are essential to healthy human society. Do you have a view about how you might be contributing or how you could contribute to.. I’m going to use the word transformation finally in this, so do you see what you’re doing as part of a transformation that’s occurring or that might, you might be able to contribute to a transformation that’s occurring in our socio economic systems. If you like.
Rhianna 30:02
At times, yes. At other times? No. It probably depends who I’m hanging out with in terms of other entrepreneurs. I was lucky enough to be selected to do an accelerator program with the Foundation for Young Australians, which is called Young Social Pioneers. And through their network, I met so many absolutely incredible social entrepreneurs, that are real change makers and doing phenomenal things within society for so many different minorities and just absolutely, like, changing everything up from the ground up, which is amazing.
Rhianna 30:35
So in terms of that, then I have a bit of an imposter syndrome. I’m like, I’m just making a fashion business like all I’m doing is making a pair of pants. Yeah, the are stretchy they are great. They’re made out of recycled plastic bottles, but like you guys are doing the real cool things. And then I’ll chat to other people that are also doing amazing things just by like.. starting up a business from scratch.
Rhianna 30:54
That is so much hard work. And as much as people say to you, it’s hard work. I don’t think you really know what you’re signing up to until you’re a couple years in because you’re like, wow, would I have done that otherwise if I had have known about, like, the stress and the amount of work and the instability and just also so much learning, but yet you don’t know what you’re signing up for.
Rhianna 31:21
And so then I have other friends that I know that have started up brands, and whilst perhaps I wouldn’t want to work with them based off their sustainability and ethics right now. I think they have room for improvement. And then I guess if you’re going to compare my business to their business, then I guess it is a bit more transformational in terms of traditional unconventional business practices. But yeah, I guess a bit
Phil 31:48
Thank you and I didn’t ask you but do you sell … what you do sell do you sell is a significant amount of it internationally.
Rhianna 32:03
Predominantly Australian, we have a couple of customers from New Zealand and America and occasionally from around the world, but pretty Australian for now.
Phil 32:13
Okay. And is that why do you think that is, given that you are a digital business?
Rhianna 32:18
That would be just because the the focus within marketing right now is within Australia. And so we’re like, whilst we can be global pretty easily, we just need the time and resources to cut our marketing plan for that.
Phil 32:32
And just take me through the business value chain, if you like, sort of take me through it, so that people can understand a bit more about this. The way in which you transform the waste product into the final garment.
Production process
Rhianna 32:46
Yep, so there’s about seven or eight steps in a simplified version about how you got a plastic bottle right through to a pair of leggings or rain quote, to start with all the plastic bottles that collected through recycling all the caps are taken off and the labels are taken off. And then they’re sorted by colour. So we can only use the clear plastic bottles.
Rhianna 33:07
And then after that they’re all sterilised and washed. And then they’re cut down to kind of like a cornflake size and melted down to like a rice bubble size, and then melted again to be extruded through kind of like a shower head. Then you’ve got this yarn, which you can weave into a fabric and then cut and sew just like a regular garment. So whilst that sounds quite energy intensive, it actually uses about 70% less energy compared to processing oil into a fabric. So not only you saving dollars also the environment.
Phil 33:41
Wow, that’s great just there right there. Yes. I mean, that was just listening to you. I was immediately thinking energy energy. So go on, tell us more about that.
Rhianna 33:51
So not only are you saving plastics that would most likely otherwise end up in oceans or landfill you using less energy in the process and we’re also lowering our dependence on non renewables because obviously, it’s not sustainable for the fashion industry, the majority of fabrics that are made of polyester, and I think it’s about 60% also. And so if the majority of that polyester is made from oil, then that’s just not sustainable to the future of fashion.
Future goals for Team Timbuktu
Phil 34:21
Fantastic. Now, Rhianna, if you were to think and I’m sure you’ve done this already, two or three years out from here. What are the key things that you looking to achieve or the milestones if you like that, again, to enable you to say, I’ve got a financially and environmentally sustainable business.
Rhianna 34:52
First of all, I think from the customer side, I’d love it and even tomorrow, but in a couple years, if I saw like even more customers getting outdoors, doing cool things, adventuring, whatever that term means to them. Like, for example, yesterday I saw a customer, she looked in New Zealand and they were doing an engagement photo shoot. And she was wearing one of our tech jackets because it was pouring with rain.
Rhianna 35:19
She messaged me just like this is amazing. It kept me dry, every other part of my body was wet. Just so like that I wouldn’t normally think of when I think the type of adventure but that’s amazing to like a hike to walking the dog around the block. Just getting more women outdoors. That’s a huge goal for the brand. In terms of sustainability and ethics, I love it in three years to be B Corp certified.
Rhianna 35:48
To have all of our manufacturers have the SA8000 certification and potentially to be introducing a couple new fibers as well. Whether that means more synthetics that are made from alternate raw materials, and definitely have a global presence, don’t really care for bricks and mortar unless it make sense in terms of strategy by then. And have a pretty well rounded team. So everyone is doing that skill set rather than scrambling around to just make do.
Phil 36:23
And can I just ask then how many members? How many team members do you have?
Rhianna 36:29
It would not be many. So I pretty much do everything within the business still have had an intern for a couple months, who’s amazing and she’ll be saying on one day week, but yeah, for the past three years have been the sole member and sole team member of Team Timbuktu.
Phil 36:44
Yeah. So you’re driving the creation of this business through the relationships that you have with your manufacturers and your material suppliers. And so that’s fantastic. Now You mentioned that lady. Did she send you a photo?
Rhianna 37:06
Yes she sent a couple of photos actually.
Phil 37:08
So do you get a lot of that sort of feedback, the photographs and so on of people’s experiences because I’m assuming that’s part of the brand, the experience that people have with the gear?
Rhianna 37:19
Yeah, I’m starting to get more and more, I’d still probably say this about 50% of the photos that we received that are tagged on Instagram with @TeamTimbuktu and the other 50% are in direct messages if people don’t want to share like sometimes you’ll get a message and Oh, just be someone trying on your leggings at home, in the bedroom in front of the mirror and like some people are comfortable sharing that and other people wont which is totally fine. But it’s so great to see that people are really excited about the product and want to share it in whatever format is best for them. So yeah, that’s really cool.
Phil 37:55
Well Rhianna It’s been great to talk to you today. I hear your views on everything from the health system to communism, and ultimately how we’re going to transform the planet. Your organisation Team Timbuktu is a great organisation, you’re doing a fantastic job. You’re building enormous skills and knowledge and capability that you’re going to share with lots of young people coming through the system, I’m sure over the next few years, is there anything you’d like to say about your organisation before we finish up?
Rhianna 38:33
I’d say two things, okay. For the shameless self plug, follow us on Instagram. Every little bit counts, every little bit counts as we are still a growing brand and what a mouth recommendations really are the best for growing our community. We’ve got a pretty engaged community which is amazing and they’ll be trying to reduce our impact whatever is most important to them, whether that’s moving single use plastics from their day to day life, or supporting ethical clothing brands or whatever is most important to them.
Rhianna 39:10
And then the other, which I haven’t touched on would be to Google, “Who Made My Clothes -fashion revolution”. And so that’s, that’s just monumental within fashion that really highlights why it is so important to have ethical and sustainable supply chains. And from there, I’m sure you’ll probably end up in a rabbit hole of fashion, ethics and sustainability.
Phil 39:35
Thank you so much Rhianna. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you today.
Rhianna 39:37
Thank you
