Sheltersuit

Hi Bas, it’s great to talk to you about Sheltersuit and your new venture. Going back to where it all started, were you a creative and entrepreneurial child?

I was a very energetic, cheerful, enthusiastic, but also mischievous boy. I had a lot of energy that I didn’t really know how to use. That quickly turned into disruptive behavior and a lot of clowning around. I was sent out of class by far times ten more often than any other kid in my year.

At one point, I had a desk in the hallway and one under the blackboard next to the teacher, so I wouldn’t look back. Funnily enough, I was able to concentrate much better seated at those desks. My grades shot up from Ds to Bs. When I wasn’t constantly distracted by everything around me, I enjoyed and understood the classes much more.

As a young teenager, I was still a bit of a troublemaker and did some bad things. When my mother, grandfather, and grandmother found out, they felt really sad about my behavior, which in turn made me feel sad. I didn’t enjoy that at all. After that, I decided to use my energy for good – to make people happy.

How did you channel all that energy into something positive?

My parents come from the textile industry and have always owned textile shops. My grandmother taught me to sew as a child, and I attended fashion school. In my first year, we had to make a bag from fabrics and materials we had at home. I found a beautiful, red-checkered tea towel, a wicker doormat, sisal rope, and some shells, which I used to make a really nice bag.

My mother and her friends loved it. I clearly remember how that felt. Instead of causing mischief, I got attention for something I had made myself, and which I really loved. Within two months, I moved my grandmother’s industrial sewing machine into my bedroom and set up a table.

In the years that followed, I became completely addicted to making and selling my own designs. In just four years’ time, I made around 800 unique garments.

Instead of everyday fashion, you started making the Sheltersuit, a jacket that doubles as a sleeping bag for homeless people. How did you come up with that idea?

In my fourth year of fashion studies, my interest in constantly making new clothes started to wane. I asked myself: “Is this it? Making pretty things?” All the city shops were full of beautiful items, but they all felt so fleeting and materialistic to me. Just pieces of clothing.

However, I still applied to Enschede’s art academy, ArtEz. During my internship in Copenhagen, I designed a special sweater with an integrated scarf – a warm, beautiful, and unique piece. I could also see how many people were living on the streets there and thought it would be perfect for them; better than for those of us who already have enough, in any case. But I didn’t take it any further.

Shortly after I left the academy, the father of two of my friends died while living on the street. This reminded me of my idea of creating clothing for homeless people. That’s when the Sheltersuit story truly began.

After Sheltersuit’s success, you are now starting a commercial streetwear brand. Why?

Sheltersuit entered a new phase this year. We were awarded the CBF Quality Mark, ensuring transparency and trust, making it easier for large funds and companies to donate. For example, the Postcode Loterij, the Netherlands’ national postcode-based lottery, requires this mark. This year, we received a significant donation from them.

That gives me the space to create more beautiful things. I want to prove that our everyday clothes can be good in the same way. Not with a sustainable, Patagonia-like brand, but with a rugged street brand: “One of XX.”

In truth, I’m still trying to solve the same problem as with Sheltersuit. One of XX is built on the same three pillars as Sheltersuit, namely: it’s good for people on the street, for people in the workplace, and for the planet by using deadstock. These pillars are so important to me that I never want to compromise on them.

What’s wrong with our everyday clothes?

A: Many fashion brands use so-called “virgin materials,” completely new materials, to create their new collections. After they tell the factory which clothes they want, in which colors and quantities, the factory places an order with a different factory that manufactures the fabrics. That factory then makes the fabric, sometimes even the yarn, and then dyes it. This is a production method that’s incredibly harmful to the planet.

B: It’s cheaper to order, say, 1,000 than 500 T-shirts, due to lower production costs and logistics per item with larger orders. As a result, brands are incentivized to order too much, since the depreciation of their cheap products is negligible and overproduction doesn’t significantly affect their bottom line.

C: This results in a lot of waste among those brands: “deadstock” of finished products. An estimated 15% of clothing produced is never sold. Most brands won’t put that unused clothing back on the rack because they need to always appear to be sold out to drive the demand for new products. That’s why a lot of that unsold stock is shredded or burned. And now we’re back at A again…

How does One of XX solve the problem of all that deadstock material?

I’ve observed with Sheltersuit that there is enough fabric available to produce new clothing. For example, there’s a Portuguese factory where luxury fashion brands manufacture their products. When a brand places an order for 5,000 black T-shirts, that brand pays for the finished product, not the fabric. So, the factory buys a bit more fabric than it needs to ensure it can meet the delivery of 5,000 items.

That leaves them with about 50 to 100 T-shirts worth of leftover fabric. The rolls of completely unused fabric are packed to the rafters there. For the factory owner, the biggest challenge is getting rid of that fabric, because regular fashion brands aren’t equipped to use it.

I’m going to work with that factory and a luxury fashion brand. But there are many such factories in Portugal. I believe it’s totally possible to use those fabrics. We just need a new system that makes all that deadstock its starting point. That’s what we did with Sheltersuit, and that’s what I’m now going to do with T-shirts, hoodies, and then jackets.