Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kara Wright. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kara , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?

The easiest answer is our commitment to slow growth. The culture shift we are trying to promote with our business can be considered degrowth at times, but it is absolutely an attempt to resolve the environmental and social impacts that have resulted from rapid and negligent growth in the fashion industry and beyond. Early on, we started to recognize that we were making, or very close to making, the same mistakes as the very industry we were trying to replace like overproduction and greenwashing. Meanwhile, we were overwhelming ourselves with keeping up with social media schedules and entertaining every request for collaboration we received.

At some point we realized that we were instinctually recreating business models and practices that were familiar, but that also emerged in the same economic conditions (*cough* capitalism) as fast fashion. That moment was liberating because it meant we simply didn’t have to do those things that everyone else did and suggested. We set some boundaries, started signing our emails “slowly, Kara and Marcella,” and only pursued things that felt right and at our pace.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Marcella and I met through mutual friends and knew two things right away: 1) we had a shared passion for living a better, more intentional lifestyle and 2) there was a power within each of us that meant we would build something together someday. As our friendship evolved, we started throwing clothing swaps for our friends in our backyard, using it as an opportunity to also educate our peer group about consumption culture and environmentalism. The swaps became more popular, so we decided to organize behind a brand- GOOD girls ATX, a reference to the title of our very first clothing swap “Good girls wear hand-me-downs.” (We would eventually rebrand to GOOD group ATX.)

My professional background in sustainable business development and Marcella’s in digital marketing and web development made us a powerful team to create a brand and business. Our business model remains experimental, but we mainly deliver high quality, high impact clothing swap events to the slow fashion community by hosting our own events, collaborating with likeminded organizations, and popping-up at festivals. “High quality” means we try our hardest to creating an inspiring and dignified shopping experience for anyone who wants or needs free clothes. “High impact” means we go through great lengths to make sure all clothing swap leftovers are rehomed responsibly to charities and local fashion creatives who will transform them into something new.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We did go through a rebrand which was a pivot we knew was coming from the beginning. When we originally launched our brand as GOOD girls ATX we knew it was not perfect- it was gendered and did not reflect the inclusivity that we wanted to create. However; we also knew it was reflective of where our community was at the time and eluded to ecofeminism and our history… plus we couldn’t come up with anything better at the time! So we launched as GOOD girls, knowing we were going to have to change it eventually, just not knowing when. Within about a year our community and swaps had grown enough for boyfriends, brothers, queer friends and dude buddies wanted to be involved, and many had been after insisting that they were welcome. But we knew that because of our branding, many people would still remain excluded.

So we launched a rebranding campaign with our community! We gathered ideas from our Instagram followers and created polls for them to vote on. We used it as an opportunity to talk publicly about and explore the intersectionality of fashion, environmentalism, sexism, and gender-identity. Ultimately, we landed on GOOD group ATX, and it has felt so GOOD ever since. The best thing about it is was built BY our community FOR our community.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

Success to us is directly related to the success of the individuals, creatives, and communities that attend our clothing swaps and participate in our other programs. There’s a lot of magic to be witnessed at a clothing swap where someone finds a pair of shoes that they love or when a garment walks the runway that was upcycled entirely from clothing swap leftovers.

My favorite story, though, is one that really demonstrates the journey and value clothing can have if the right people are working to keep it out of the landfill. For my birthday, my co-creator Marcella, gifted me a purse that I recognized right away. .. I recognized it because I knew it was from her personal wardrobe, and I was honored that she would gift me something she personally loved. I recognized it because I knew that she had bought it from a designer who popped up at an Earth Day party that GOOD group ATX hosted. I recognized it because I knew it was made from a pair of corduroy pants leftover from a clothing swap that I had given to the designer. And I recognized it because I knew the pants had been brought to the clothing swap by one of our first male participants.

I love the purse, and I love how it represents so many layers of opportunities that GOOD group ATX created for the community and that pair of pants!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://good-group.org
• Instagram: @goodgroup_atx @karaxtierra
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karanwright/

Image Credits

Dillon Havens, Cait Ortiz