We’re heading into year two of Big Kansas City, and looking forward to sharing your stories and those of our speakers over the next few weeks. All of this wouldn’t be possible without our content partner, Pinsight Media+. They are a pioneer in mobile media with deep entrepreneurial roots. Their team brings leadership, experience and global awareness to Kansas City’s booming startup community. To learn more or talk with our friends at Pinsight, email Serge Bushman, sbushman@pinsightmedia.com.
As a consumer, we often don’t think of our clothing as having a history.
However, each shirt, jacket, dress and pair of shoes has a story. Those stories are written by the people who source the materials, assemble, package and ship each garment. Yet merely the label marking the country of origin is often as far of a look we’re allowed into this story.
In an attempt to understand where our garments come from and who creates them, Maxine Bédat began to dig into the industry. What she found was the clothing we buy made a significantly larger impact on industry workers and our environment than she could have imagined. As a result of filling the need of “fast-fashion,” a large population of workers are regularly facing human rights abuses. Furthermore, many of those workers feel the need to abandon the craft of creating traditional products, as cheap disposable versions find their way into their communities.
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In response to what Bédat saw, she founded The Bootstrap Project in 2010, a nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to empower individuals to overcome poverty and preserve heritage craft traditions. While working with the nonprofit, Bédat traveled to places like Zambia, Tajikistan and Nepal, spending time with craftsmen, becoming inspired by their work.
After reconnecting with high school friend Soraya Darabi, the two decided to create a business that would help share creators’ stories and facilitate a connection between the producers and the consumers. The company, which works in tandem with The Bootstrap Project, is called Zady.
Zady advocates for conscious consumerism. They operate with the intention of “upending the entire fashion supply chain and bringing transparency for the first time into how are things are being made.” Maxine Bédat believes Zady’s mission is a human rights issue—a strong and surprising statement from a clothing company.
Click on any clothing item on Zady.com and you’ll find a full profile of its producer, detailing who made it and how. Further, with the help of The Bootstrap Project, Zady is helping artisans in developing countries launch their businesses by providing funds through the purchase of their products.
After only two years the clothing startup has flourished, providing consumers with products from a large variety makers around the world that are both finely crafted and up to today’s fashion standards. Zady has received praise from Forbes, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Glamour and many more.
This October, Maxine Bédat will join this year’s slate of speakers at Big Kansas City 2014. For more information on the event, visit bigkansascity.co. Help us welcome her on Twitter @maxinebedat.
Credits: Photo courtesy of Maxine Bédat.