How to develop clothing that will live for ever

by THE OLBIOS TEAM

Two brothers from the Isle of Man trying to change the fashion industry

THE OLBIOS TEAM

In the clothing industry, products are usually manufactured in large volumes – great for keeping costs down, but bad for the environment, as hundreds of thousands of tonnes of unsold clothes end up in landfill every year. Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing. Along with his brother Rob, Martin Drake-Knight, decided he wanted to tackle this issue head on, and so set about developing clothing that would live forever.

Rob & Mart Drake-Knight started Rapanui from their mum’s garden shed 15 years ago with ambitions to change the fashion industry.

After the pair started Rapanui they built a platform to share the tech online so anyone can start their own brand, or plug in an existing brand to the supply chain via the cloud. They called this Teemill. With Teemill, anyone in the world is able to launch a fully customised website and online store, design products and track their success – all from their phone or laptop. The products they design are ethically made in real time, produced by renewable energy, with organic cotton and shipped directly to the customer, leaving users with the profit.