🛒 The Check-Out: Santos by Monica

+ 5 cool climate events + what's in our basket - Jude's, Jenny's Tofu and more...

Jul 25, 2024

Happy Thursday! Welcome to The Check-Out - your weekly dose of climate x consumer goods inspiration, and your discovery box of products and events the Following the Footprints team are loving this week. It’s great to have you here.

Ever fallen down a substack rabbit hole? Hopefully. By hopefully, we mean hopefully this one (if you’re new here welcome!!). Just this week, one of the FTF team shared a substack she’s loving by an incredible NY-based brand - Santos by Monica. Today, we’re falling down a santos-shaped rabbit hole and falling in love with them, simultaneously.

After we dive into Santos by Monica, we’ll share what the Following the Footprints team has loved and consumed this week and 5 Climate x Consumer Goods events coming up. Let’s dig in…

> Brand Spotlight

Santos by Monica: Biomaterials, Bags & Small Batches

A latina-owned, female-founded brand in the heart of NYC that believes fashion should be a tool for education, Santos by Monica are BIG on three things - ‘biomaterials, local production and timeless design’. From where we stand, they’re also BIG on all the little details too. Let’s take a closer look at four areas that caught our eye…

Made to order, made to last

Each Santos by Monica item is created by hand in the US, in Brooklyn Navy Yard and in Midtown Manhattan specifically. They’re either made to order, or produced in small batches of 25. Why? This allows for direct control of inventory, and less chance of waste. From the textile waste that is created from their manufacturing process, 75% is reused. Currently, that looks like creating fabric-covered buttons and card cases. Because they’re so so local, they have massively reduced their CO2 emissions AND can build a strong relationship with their manufacturer - making ethics audits easy peasy.

The biomaterial behind the bags

Santos by Monica rely on a cactus-based biomaterial sourced from Zacatecas, Mexico - check out this fun rundown of the production process on their tiktok. Some reasons why:

It uses 80% less water than the leather equivalent, and relies solely on rainwater.
Cactus regenerates the soil and sequesters CO2 as it grows.
The material created is long lasting, but also partially biodegradable (and what’s not biodegradable within the final bag is recyclable, a win).
No additional energy is required to dry the leaves - they dry naturally for three days, and are then powdered before being processed into the final material.
The material can be dyed with biodegradable, organic pigments. The finishes used are water-based, free of restricted substances, and comply with California Proposition 65 and REACH EU.
The plant is left standing - only mature leaves are cut, so the cactus itself isn’t damaged.

What’s in their ready to wear

In their RTW (‘ready to wear’, it was new for us too) collections they’ve used lyocell, TENCEL lyocell and cotton as their three core materials. Lyocell and TENCEL Lyocell are essentially the same materials, the tencel part is actually more of a brand name (read more about them here). Typically formed from wood pulp from bamboo, beech or other sources - at Santos by Monica, the materials stem from eucalyptus (see what we did there). That’s where things get particularly exciting - eucalyptus is fast growing, doesn’t need pesticides or irrigation, and is 100% biodegradable.

Pack(ag)ing a punch

There’s a lot to cover, let’s run through this at speed…

Mailers > 2 layers of secure and commercially compostable bubble padding.
Hang tags > biodegradable paper embedded with wildflowers and low-water organic hemp cording.
Tissue paper > soy-based inks on FSC-certified paper which are acid, sulfur and lignin-free, and 100% compostable.
Stickers > FSC-certified paper printed with soy-based inks, they’re 100% compostable.
Mailer boxes > corrugated cardboard, the fibers can be recycled up to 25 times.
Packaging tape > water-activated and printed with soy-based inks on FSC-certified paper.

Whew… we hope you kept up.

What’s fun about Santos is that we feel like we know the people behind the brand. Why? Their substack. It’s fun, it features other brands they’re loving, and it gives us a window into their world beyond the ‘about’ page we’re all so used to. Given we love digging behind the scenes, our excitement should come as no surprise.

Like what you see? Check Out Santos by Monica!

Check Out Santos by Monica

> In Our Basket

🔎 What we loved and consumed this week:

From Laura in Manchester: Does anyone know the actual difference between coconut water and pressed coconut water? I don’t, but I keep finding myself craving Vita Coco’s pressed coconut water and the regular stuff just doesn’t cut it! With a mission to positively impact 1M people in coconut farming communities, it’s a treat I don’t mind indulging in!
From Jenny in New York: I spotted Jenny’s Tofu at my local Whole Foods and would have bought it by name alone (heh), but it helped that I was excited about the Smoked Five Spice flavor. I’ve now unlocked a new hyperfixation lunch ingredient and will be buying again (and again, and again….).
From Katherine in London: I’m currently on a bit of a (plant-based) ice cream search as summer has finally arrived in London (see my last favorite from Naturli). This weekend I came across Jude’s plant-based ice cream bars - think Magnum classic but vegan - and I instantly gave it a top spot on my list!

> Monthly Events Roundup!

📆 5 Consumer Goods x Climate Events:

Browse 20+ upcoming consumer x climate events, and submit yours.

31st July - What’s the latest in sustainability reporting? Recent developments and emerging connections

Organisers: Sweep
Location: Virtual

8th August - A Sustainable Unicorn: A conversation with Canva's Head of Sustainability, Mike Williams

Organisers: Greenhouse
Location: Greenhouse Tech Hub, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

20th August - How to Create a Useful Product Carbon Footprint

Organisers: Altruistiq
Location: Virtual

23rd-25th September - Solutions House by Futerra

Organisers: Futerra, Exponential Roadmap Initiative, Google
Location: Virtual, and IRL at New York Climate Week

26th September - Fashion Futures New York

Organisers: Vogue Business
Location: Chelsea Factory New York

Check Out Our Events Calendar!

That’s it for today!

Know a brand we should spotlight next? Let Leone know!
Have links that can make the team learn or laugh? Share them with us, we might just share them in The Check-Out next week.
Hungry for more? You’ll see us on Monday! That’s when we suit up and get serious, digging into a topic that is guaranteed to make you look smart at standup.

Much love,

Team FTF