Origin Thread

Dear NMKR community,

For too long, customers have been disconnected from how their clothes are made, leading to exploitative sourcing practices becoming the norm. By leveraging the power of blockchain technology, Origin Thread is committed to connecting customers with the people and stories behind their clothes, from the farmers who grow the cotton to the factories where the garments are made. By traceability and provenance of each garment using NFTs, the brand is creating a new standard for fashion that is more sustainable, ethical, and transparent. Let's find out more about Will's project!

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NMKR: What inspired you to start developing OriginThread? Please tell us what makes it so special.

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Will: The fashion industry needs to change. Only 2% of garment workers are paid a living wage. Garments made from polyester are a prime source of microplastics, with clothing accounting for ⅕ of the 300 million tonnes of plastic produced each year. Cotton cultivation accounts for 16% of the world's pesticide use. The US alone throws away over 11 million tonnes of textile waste each year.

In a world where consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, why do we allow this to persist?

When customers have no connection to how their clothes are made and no way of verifying a brands sourcing claims, fashion will continue to be destructive by default.

Origin Thread is created in response to this. We’re setting out to discover how blockchain technology can be used to improve the fashion industry. By connecting customers to how their clothes are made and using NFTs as a permanent record of sourcing information, we hope to provide customers with the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions.

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NMKR: What are the major challenges you're facing right now? We would like to know about your team's plans to overcome them.

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Will: Funding is a challenge for all startups. Particularly when you’re making physical goods. Large amounts of funds are needed to produce products leading to a kind of chicken and egg problem. You need to sell garments to make money but need money in the first place to make the garments.

To overcome this we’ve been selling NFTs of the story behind our clothes. Our first two sourcing trips to India were recorded and sold as NFTs which provided the funds to create our first collection. 

NMKR: What are you doing to get people to use or invest in your project? Please share some thoughts about your growth strategy.

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Will: We’re in a different position to a lot of projects. We’re not selling tokens as “investments” where community members buy with the hope of a future return. Instead we’re using NFTs to enhance a physical product that we hope our customers will love for years to come. 

Our main focus to this point has been in making the best clothing we possibly can. We’re here for the long term and ultimately aim to make shirts so good that they sell themselves. Happy customers will wear their shirts, recommend them to friends and return for many years to come. We’ve been focusing on talking to the Cardano community to this point but will be branching out to talk to a larger fashion audience over the next year.

NMKR: What do you think about NMKR? Tell us what we can do for you in the long run so we both win!

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Will: NMKR is fantastic. It’s reliable and simple to use. The quality of product NMKR has produced in such a short time is remarkable. Whenever we think of something that we might need, for example the function for NFTs to be only available to holders of certain tokens, NMKR has already built it. The pay at point of mint pricing is friendly to new businesses and the API provides a lot of power. 

One function we would like is the ability to “premint” tokens which are then sold using the NMKR checkout. This would allow us to encode a shirts NFC chip before sale, allowing for a better end user experience.

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NMKR: Well, we can´t announce anything yet, but we would recommend having a close look at our announcements in November…

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What's your vision for the future of blockchain/decentralized technologies like Cardano? Please tell us what you're doing to make that future a reality.

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Will: Blockchain tech gives us the power to reimagine our world. Through better sharing of information and value we can create better business models that work for everyone in the supply chain. We see a future where people interact with the blockchain in the same way that they interact with the web and javascript currently.

We’re doing our bit to make this future a reality by creating products for everyday consumers and exploring how brands can create compelling experiences using NFTs.

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NMKR: If our readers want to get in touch with you, where can they find you? 

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Will: You can find us on the following channels:

Website: https://www.originthread.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OriginThread

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NMKR: Real-world projects like yours are essential to the success of NMKR, so we're happy to support you. Your commitment to quality products and ethical sourcing is admirable, and we're excited to see how your project develops. We'll be cheering you on!

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