SmartPlanet visits Howies' new shop

The news of Howies 'going high street' was received with much excitement here at SmartPlanet headquarters. So we asked Ade Gunn-Wilson from Howies to show us around their brand new store on Carnaby Street -- and we weren't disappointed.

Everything at the store is incredibly well thought through from an eco-perspective. The wall-boards are made from reclaimed wood-chippings and recycled green glass, water-based eco-paint is used on floors and other surfaces, while the 't-tree' shelves are made with sustainable oak from Pembrokeshire Woodland. The table in the middle of the store has been constructed from t-tree offcuts, there are low-energy light-bulbs, a reclaimed sink and tap for people to fill up their water-bottles for free and last, but not least, there’s a button outside the store that, when pushed at night, will light up the window-displays for 30 seconds. This means people can have a peep in without Howies wasting energy by leaving their lights on overnight as most other clothes shops do.

We also like the fact that Howies champion other companies and products that do good things in the world. For example, on their '10 best things we love and use' display (pictured) you'll find refillable water bottles, the Wattson smart electric metre, LED bike lights, plus plenty of inspiring books.

And by the sounds of it, this is only the beginning…

SmartPlanet: What are the main benefits of having this store?
Ade Gunn-Wilson: We used to do sample sales before this -- we travelled the country and would just email our customers to tell them where we were going to be, when and what we would be selling. We would have queues of people and they would all have stories to tell us, things to ask and stuff we'd done that had made them cross or inspired them. Having a base where this can happen on a daily basis is great! Also, not everyone wants to buy mail order, some people want to try on their jeans before they buy them and other people just want to come and hang out.

SP: So, are we going to see more Howies shops around?
AGW: Yes, we'd definitely like to get more! We've got to prove that this one can work first, but it shouldn't take too long as we set some fairly reasonable targets to begin with and the response from our customers has been amazing so far. They're a loyal bunch of really nice people.

SP: Has it made a difference working with Timberland [which bought Howies in 2006]?
AGW: Before, we went from one cash-flow crisis to another and never had any money. We're only a £4-5 million company, so we're not actually that big. We've got to plan everything very carefully. Timberland has definitely given us a security we've never had before, and they're also going help us get our factories audited.

SP: Why aren’t your clothes Fairtrade?
AGW: It's not something we ever set out to do. From day one it was all about being organic. We've been trying to marry the two, but never really managed to do it. Because the supply chain for our fabrics is so long, it's difficult to make sure that every single step is completely fair. It's easier to be fair trade when you do alpaca jumpers where the farmers shear the alpaca and knit the jumpers. But we're working on it with Timberland and one of our super goals is to make sure the factories we use are good on health and safety, employment policies, no children -- all those kind of things.

SP: Do you think the high street is ready for organic clothes shops?
AGW: Yes, we've broken our targets with the shop so far. As a brand, although we do talk about political issues, social issues, the environment, recycling, organics and sport in our catalogue, we don't harp on about it. We think this should be the normal way of doing business. We should all be making our cotton organically. Maybe other companies will see Howies on the high street and start making organic clothes, too.

SP: What's next for Howies?
AGW: We want to inspire more people, make more changes and get people to think about their lives and the fact that sitting behind a computer five days a week and working your arse off isn't good. There's a lot of playing to be done out there -- there are woodlands to walk in; rivers to swim in and people aren't doing that. Slowly but surely, we are hopefully getting people away from their desks and that daily grind of standing on the tube and onto their bikes and up in the hills.

SP: And I expect you can reach more people with your ideas here on the high street?
AGW: We know that we are going to expand the brand by being here. It's a bit weird for us being in London's Carnaby Street, though -- we're used to being in Wales. More people walk past our shop in a day than live in Cardigan. We're here with Diesel and Pepe Jeans and we're weenie.

SP: Are you scared?
AGW: No, we're not scared because we know we have a lot to offer as a brand. We've got this weird third-dimension, the organic/ethical side that’s something you really can do a lot with: inspiring people in many ways with art, politics, drawings, little one-liners, the environment…We want to make people think and smile. One of the nicest things about our brand is the interaction between us and our customers. We are making an effort to do something that's not just marketing, and people respond to that.

SP: Are you worried about losing that special relationship with your customers as you grow bigger?
AGW: I am worried, and I'm not. Our close relationship with our customers will be diluted, of course it will. There are people coming in here that don't care about their jeans being organic or about what we think and say. But we're 25 people at Howies and we share the same thinking. Sat at the top of the tree are Dave and Claire who've got the control of Howies despite Timberland being in the loop. All creative thinking and policies come from Dave and Claire and they fight tooth and nail to make what we do on a daily basis happen. They would never compromise our philosophy. The good thing about growing bigger is that we have more money to do what we've always dreamed of doing. We're going to move to solar power, so we cover the electricity we use here and at our offices. And we'll sell more organic jeans, which will mean there's less people buying non-organic jeans.

Find out more about Howies here.

Related Links

• SmartPlanet