🛒 The Check-Out: Katie Walsh, Founder of THE RE-PETE PROJECT

+ more in our basket - dashboards, tempeh and LinkedIn profiles we love.

May 09, 2024

Happy Thursday! Welcome to The Check-Out - your weekly dose of brand x sustainability inspiration, and your discovery box of what the team are loving this week. It’s great to have you here.

High quality anoraks and beach clean ups - a match made in heaven? Well, yes, you likely need the first if you’re going on the second… but this isn’t just a one way relationship. What if your anorak was made from single use plastic, just like the kind you’re cleaning off the beach? What if the brand behind it focused exclusively on circularity? What if they achieved a 125.7 B Corp score? I hope you’re sitting down, I should’ve warned you. Today, we’re hearing from Katie Walsh, the founder of THE RE-PETE PROJECT, a non seasonal luxury label laser focused on circularity.

After we’ve chatted to Katie, we’ll share what the Following the Footprints team has loved and consumed this week. Let’s dig in…

> Brand Spotlight

Behind the Brand: 6 questions with Katie Walsh, Founder of THE RE-PETE PROJECT.

👉 Hello! We’d love the non-LinkedIn lowdown of who you are, what gets you out of bed and how you got here.

My name is Katie Walsh and I am a fashion designer. I ran my first label POLTOCK & WALSH for 8 years before taking a little step back to be more of a hands on mum. I knew I would return but I wanted to build something that was sustainable. When I learnt about the circular economy - where product is made from waste and designed in a way that it can be mended or remade so it never ends on landfill - I thought wow this is a real answer to production for a sustainable future, where the more we create the more we clean up the waste our planet is choking on! In 2020 I started THE RE-PETE PROJECT community and in 2021 launched RE-PETE.

👉 Now for RE-PETE - tell us about your brand!

RE-PETE is a luxury label that is gender neutral, non seasonal and a force for good transitioning the fashion industry from linear to circular. When we find fabrics of the highest quality meeting circular principles we design around it - not the other way around - adding gradually to our modular collection of timeless pieces. We started with an anorak made entirely from single use plastic waste and are excited to launch pieces made from recycled wool jumpers, silks and poly scraps and regenerative cottons and banana plant this summer.

👉 How does RE-PETE think about sustainability? Are there any impact-related milestones or achievements you’re particularly proud of?

Our brand thinks about sustainability at every stage of the process - from design, sourcing, manufactory, packaging and end of life - circularity and the planet are at the forefront of every decision. In September 2023 we proudly certified B Corp obtaining 125.7 score, meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

👉 What's one initiative that you have been part of that you loved but don't get to speak about enough?

We organise monthly community beach cleans and I guest lecture at universities to help share and empower future generations with the knowledge that we can create a sustainable future through our choices, be it circular design to picking up plastic from our shores. Anyone is welcome to join our beach cleans which mainly happen on a low tide on the banks of the River Thames seeing that we are London based - dates are posted regularly on our Instagram @therepeteproject.

👉 Ok, magic wand time; if we could grant you three wishes for the fashion and accessories industry, what would they be?

Everyone adopts the circular process.
Workers are paid a fair living wage and work in a secure and safe environment.
We work together towards preserving our planet.

👉 Finally - We’d love some recommendations; one climate-related resource, one page to follow online and one or two consumer brands that are killing it.

Climate-related resource - Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Page to follow online - Fashion Revolution on Instagram
Consumer brand - Rombaut

A huge thanks to Katie for taking the time to chat with us!

Check Out RE-PETE's B Corp Report

> In Our Basket

🔎 What we loved and consumed this week:

From Laura in Manchester: I love the insights shared by Frank Holleman on LinkedIn. He shares infographics and little clips about the environmental impact of the food we eat. They’ve just released a seasonal food calendar but if you are generally trying to buy less, they also have an app with facts and recipes!
From Indira in Glasgow: Living outside your home country definitely makes you miss home sometimes. However, there’s one place where I always get my Indonesian tempeh to help me cure my homesickness, and that is from Better Nature Tempeh! Their high-quality fermented soybean is full of protein and fibres, and very delicious!
From Leone in London: This Food Systems Dashboard is fascinating. Nothing is more satisfying (to me) than a good ol consolidated data source. There’s also so much here that I just don’t understand, so it’s educational too.

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