F.I.T. - Fashion. Information. Technology.

Breaking the Mold: George Brown College's Sustainable Clothing Line

As one of the pioneering projects within the Brookfield Sustainability Institute (BSI), I was honored to be selected to spearhead the creation of George Brown College's first-ever sustainable clothing line. With a strong emphasis on student involvement and a steadfast commitment to sustainability, this venture aimed to disrupt the fast fashion model and promote conscious consumption among our student community.
Working closely with students, our mission was to design a line of clothing that not only encapsulated their unique style and preferences but also prioritized environmental and social responsibility. Simultaneously, the BSI was developing a digital product in collaboration with an external client that aimed to change consumer behaviour by encouraging individuals to cherish and extend the lifespan of their garments, thus challenging the throwaway culture perpetuated by fast fashion.

From Workshop to Product Launch.

Embracing the spirit of collaboration, we tapped into the creative talents of George Brown College's diverse programmes, including Fashion Techniques, Graphic Design, Interactive Media Management, and Digital Experience Design. By involving students in the design process, we empowered them to be part of the solution. Their innovative ideas and fresh perspectives helped shape the design process, ensuring the final product reflected the vision and needs of their peers.

Objectives

The Students.

  • Create a sustainable line of varsity garments, designed by students, for students

  • Assist clients in marketing strategy and content creation

  • Gain hands-on experience in a design agency and influence client strategies

  • reinforce CVs and portfolios to increase employability after graduation

  • Learn how to self-organize and collaborate in a team setting from project initiation to launch

The Client.

  • Develop a B2C digital application to divert clothing from the landfill and break the fast fashion cycle

  • Create a B2B digital product scoping a number of life-cycle stages and garment types

  • Utilize internal GBC assets to develop a physical product to test the market for the digital product

  • Research opportunities for garment recycling economies within Canada

The BSI.

  • Create exposure for the BSI as a Sustainable Design Authority

  • Design a physical fashion product to channel users to a clients digital application

  • Foster collaboration across GBC departments and faculties

  • Utilize GBC facilities such as the Fashion Exchange

  • Engage with students and offer employment opportunities

Methodologies.

Primary and Secondary Research.

I began the project with a deep dive into the system of garment production and disposal, gathering information on a macro and micro scale, considering global and regional challenges. This manifested into a detailed report and synthesized presentation to my managers.

Steering Committee.

I managed a team of Subject matter experts from two schools within the college, Fashion and IT. I met with them during several phases of the project to gain feedback and identify risks. This not only helped BSI as an organization work collaboratively with other faculties, it utilized existing assets within the college when budget constraints limited resources. 

Interviews.

I conducted SMEs interviews with several heads of faculty and facilities within GBC as well as fibre and garment manufactures in Toronto. This allowed me to gain insight into the viability of local production, the impacts on sustainability, and the risks to the enterprise in the short and long term.

F.I.T. - Design Workshop.

After familiarizing myself with the system, I designed an event to engage students with the project and gather information about their needs and wants regarding a sustainable varsity garment line.

The cornerstone of the event was a handbook I designed that included context, including background research, the design brief, criteria for each team, and a detailed itinerary. I assembled the information into a draft wireframe document and passed it to a graphic designer to be formatted.

Optimizing An Exploratory Workshop.

An integral part of the BSI design process is collaborative sprint events. What made this workshop stand out from others is that I encouraged students to conduct primary research during the event by providing them with a student survey to circulate amongst their peers. The students were able to acquire over 75 responses in a few hours. I also encouraged them to contact manufacturers to validate their design ideas and uncover potential risks in their designs.

Frameworks.

Another way I diverged from the normal workshop planning was to provide students with printouts of required tools and frameworks, such as persona, business model canvas, and insight development to ensure teams were producing well rounded design outcomes. Most design sprints at the BSI leave the planning exclusively to the facilitators, however our some of our facilitators were less experienced in design thinking methodologies so I included a few common frameworks to increase consistency and depth of exploration across the three student teams.

Prototypes.

Design concepts were pitched by the teams to a panel of several industry experts and members of the Steering Committee at different intervals during the workshop. The students had an opportunity to gain valuable feedback from industry experts and the prototypes benefitted from feedback and iterations after advisor sessions.

Student Design Team.

After the FIT design workshop, an interdisciplinary student design team was hired to iterate on the results of the design sprint. I interviewed several students and hired five part-time designers from various programs across the School of Design. We quickly established team protocols such as meeting schedules, assets databases, team values, and communication channels.

I lead the team in a agile fashion to:

  • create three physical hoodie prototypes, a touring display, and survey for student feedback

  • develop brand assets - including identity, logo and guidelines, social media channels and content, GBC newsletter segments , visuals for crowd funding campaigns, and teaser video

  • build relationships with partner organizations including fibre and garment manufactures and GBC organizations to help with promotion such at the Student Union and Threads, the year-end fashion show

  • Iterate with the client on a R&D, production, and marketing schedule

Brand Development.

The outputs from the F.I.T workshop and student designer group would eventually develop into the For Tomorrow product line. The For Tomorrow brand was initially developed to be marketed to school students, in particular GBC students, however the brand was altered to appeal to broader customer segments to encourage a more universal uptake on our clients digital application. 

Design Criteria.

A formal design criteria was created based on systems research and on the values and goals of the BSI and our clients.

Prototypes and production processes were benchmarked against this criteria during development.

This criteria would carry over into subsequent For Tomorrow garment designs, including chef’s uniforms for the culinary school, aprons for the hospitality program, and scrubs for the health sciences department.

  • For Tomorrow uses 100% natural fibres or upcycled fibres that are knit in Canada. The brand supports the development of local talent by constructing garments at George Brown College’s Fashion Exchange, a training and manufacturing facility located in downtown Toronto.

  • For Tomorrow garments are specially designed to limit off-cuts and fabric waste in the manufacturing process without sacrificing comfort or style

  • For Tomorrow leverages digital technology to conduct pre order sales and customization to limit overstock or deadstock garments.

  • For Tomorrow designers take into consideration end-of-life processes such as shredders and limit fasteners, closures, and other non-recyclable materials that would otherwise pollute the recycling process.

  • For Tomorrow uses high quality fibres to insure long lasting wearability, while providing our customers options for customization, allowing personal expression and emotional connection. The most sustainable clothing on the planet is the clothing you wear the longest.

  • For Tomorrow has created partnerships with circular fashion initiatives to ensure our product does not end up in the landfill. We hope you wear your For Tomorrow product for many years, but when you are done with it, we will make sure it ends up in the right place.

  • For Tomorrow’s production processes are well researched and vetted against our robust design criteria, not only do we design products to lessen environmental impacts, but we utilise suppliers and manufactures that support workers rights and local economies.

  • We believe in transparency with our consumers. We may not be able to achieve 0% impact for every product we produce, but we will provide regular updates through our stages of transformation. We are always aiming for long-term, systemic change For Tomorrow.

Physical Product Development.

Some of the challenges that the design team faced was that the garment had to be desirable and innovative enough to encourage sales, timeless enough to inspire emotional durability, and cost effective for the student market. There were some differences in priorities for our stakeholder groups that required negotiation, however management and the client determined that a hoodie should be the first garment sold through the clothing brand. I also determined through survey results and an interview with the campus bookstore that a hoodie was indeed the most desirable and top selling clothing item that GBC currently offered.

I encouraged the student team to iterate on the designs to find compromise in innovation and feasibility. We designed a touring prototype display with a feedback survey so that we could use data to lead the design decisions that were being made. The survey validated many assumptions we had about the product, including that a main priority for students is to keep the product affordable.

Testing.

Although the results were informative, the survey needed to go through another iteration process and another sample group before concrete insights were developed. There were some barriers to engaging students due to school break schedules and only having the resources to construct one display, which meant limited exposure to the products. We also needed to compare results to school demographics to ensure we were getting an unbiased sample group.

I also guided the student team through the development of a usability test, however, regardless of the student feedback, BSI management opted to go with the hoodie design of their choosing to expedite production. Therefore, our testing phase came to an end.

Accessory Design.

One of the insights of the FIT design workshop was that customization increases emotional durability. While designing garments, I guided members of the team to develop a line of varsity patches that could be purchased separately from the full garments. The idea was that students could use their hoodies to document their college experience, creating a sentimental garment that would endure many generations. These patches had to be designed to appeal to the GBC community as well as not creating barriers to end-of-life processing such as polluting single-source textiles. Myself and the student team were reaching out to manufactures to see what innovate processes may be available to create single-fibre patches with limited or dissolvable adhesives. Prototypes of the patches were created by the Fashion Exchange to be displayed at the year end fashion show, Threads.

Production.

Under tight deadlines and pressure from our client, the student team and I shifted away from testing and focused on delivering 100 units by convocation in June.

Myself and a student designer visited a local knitting mill to discuss sustainable fibres, product recycling, customization, and delivery. Swatches were acquired to management and clients for approval. We also toured College-owned production facility that would be charged with delivering a initial batch of hoodies.

To raise funds to aid in production and increase brand exposure, the clients opted to use crowd sourcing platforms to launch their product in partnership with the For Tomorrow hoodie. The team helped build some of the assets for the campaign, however control of the launch was directed back to the clients as members of the student team were graduating from school and team resources were limited. At this time I was also reassigned to focus on the initiation of other BSI initiatives.

BSI continued their partnership with our clients to launch For Tomorrow and SIXR in fall 2023.

Contributions

Looking back.

One of the foremost difficulties I encountered was reconciling the diverse needs and demands of the stakeholders involved. Each party had their own set of priorities, and bringing them together to reach a consensus posed a significant challenge. However, I understood the importance of collaboration and the need to align these priorities in order to meet our production deadlines.

Furthermore, the different metrics of success held by each stakeholder added another layer of complexity. For instance, while some emphasized simplicity and cost effective design, others accentuated sustainability and uniqueness. Balancing these contrasting perspectives and ensuring that each design decision catered to these distinct metrics was an uphill battle. Nevertheless, I remained adaptable and open-minded throughout the design process in order to satisfy all stakeholders involved.

Operating within tight budget constraints further compounded the challenge. However, in the face of adversity, I was determined to find innovative ways to source the necessary resources. By creatively utilizing the existing organizational infrastructure, I managed to acquire the essential materials and support required to bring the project to fruition. This process not only showcased my resourcefulness but also demonstrated the importance of working with the available means to achieve desirable outcomes.

Looking Forward.

The aforementioned challenges necessitated a culture of iteration and constant refinement. Recognizing that the initial design concepts might not be perfect from the outset, I fostered an environment where feedback and improvement were welcomed. This iterative approach allowed me to incorporate the preferences and requirements of each stakeholder, ensuring that the final design satisfied everyone involved. Overall, this project epitomized the intersection of complexity, creativity, and resilience. By skillfully managing the diverse needs of stakeholders, aligning conflicting priorities, navigating different metrics of success, operating on a minimal budget, and fostering a culture of adaptability and iteration, I successfully delivered the BSI’s first actualized project.

Collaborators.

I had the pleasure of recruiting a highly talented student design team. Their selection was based on their exceptional performance during a workshop, recommendations from faculty members, portfolio reviews, and interviews. Throughout their tenure, I closely monitored their performance, providing regular reports to my managers. Based on their exceptional work and growth, I recommended contract renewals and future job opportunities upon graduation. 

Additionally, I had the fantastic opportunity to collaborate with clients of the BSI, who were experts in clothing manufacturing, and seasoned faculty of the Fashion Techniques and Design program at George Brown College. These experts played a pivotal role in influencing the creation of physical prototypes.

Deliverables.

  • Research Report

  • Workshop Handbook and Marketing Materials

  • Student User Survey

  • 3 Prototypical Designs

  • Student Team Deliverables

  • 3 Iterative Hoodie Designs

  • Feedback Survey

  • Brand Design

  • Promotional Video

  • Assets for Socials

  • Patch Prototypes

Skills Demonstrated.

  • Project Management

  • Coordination

  • Facilitation

  • Benchmarking

  • Testing

  • Stakeholder Management

Impact.

  • Development of a sustainable clothing line for GBC

  • Launch of a client’s digital product

  • Work experience for student design team

  • Exposure of BSI initiatives

  • Cooperation across GBC faculties

  • Engagement with GBC groups such as Student Union

  • Networking opportunities for students