We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Nicoll a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Morgan , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was walking around Oakland and admiring the graffiti and at the same time seeing tons of people wearing the same Adidas logo sweatshirt. It sparked the idea to give logos and clothing a facelift with graffiti. To do a 180 from my corporate career and create a brand that is anti commodity and waste. Focusing on sustainable practices and celebrating individuality by upcycling vintage clothing into one of a kind pieces.

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?

I grew up in a very creative household . At an early age I was introduced to many forms of art. My Mom is a fiber artist and was constantly introducing and educating my brother and I on all things creative. As I got older my focus turned to fashion and textiles. I attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a BFA in Apparel Design. My corporate career has been a broad range of both large and smaller companies in apparel and home textiles. It wasn’t until I got laid off from my job that I was able to start 2NDZ. I received a severance package for the 10 years at the company and this allowed me the financial stability and time to start my own company.
2NDZ is a passion project of mine. It is a complete 180 from my corporate career. I wanted to build something that is focused on sustainable practices, anti-commodity & waste, and celebrate individuality. 2NDZ is about taking vintage clothing and reimagining them with “graffiti” (embroidery, painting, embellishment, etc). The brand’s name illustrates the story of each garment getting a “second life”. I currently sell on my website www.2ndzshop.com, at a boutique in Oakland called Market, & various events around California. I hope to expand into more boutiques and travel to markets outside of California this year. I also do custom design work. I love collaborating with clients to create something personal and unique. A garment that tells a story about them.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I feel like pivoting has been and will always be a catalyst for me in the most positive way. I don’t like repeating anything and get the most energy from starting or exploring something for the first time. The biggest pivot was getting laid off for the first time in my career after being with a company for ten years. At the time it felt like my career path was going to start a decline. I had never thought of starting my own company and worried that I would be limited with any opportunities that would be fulfilling and challenging. What felt like the worst thing at the time ended up being the best thing. I am beyond grateful for the entire experience. I couldn’t be prouder of the work I do for myself versus the work I did for corporations.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Getting started manufacturing my own product was easy with my years of experience working in the industry. I have maintained many close friends from my corporate careers that has been invaluable for bouncing off ideas and sharing knowledge and resources. In the beginning I was able to get support from previous coworkers with sewing and graphic design needs. Some of the areas I need to brush up my skills and go beyond my network: thrifting, machine embroidery, and screen printing.

Previous to starting 2NDZ I shopped vintage but not to the extent I do today. I have learned a ton on my journey to recognize false advertising when online shopping. I have made many mistakes on the way buying pieces that weren’t authentic or in the condition as advertised.

For some of my pieces I needed to find someone that could do machine embroidery. It was difficult to find someone due to quantity minimums at most of the places I researched. I wanted to make sure everything was made in California and thankfully I found someone that owned an embroidery machine that was willing to do small quantities on vintage garments. It’s also wonderful knowing I am supporting someone who is doing their passion work as a side hustle.

I also needed to find a screen printer. I made the mistake of using a few that had larger minimums that forced me into producing larger quantities of ideas I had not yet tested with customers. I needed to stick to my business model of smaller quantities of ideas. I ended up finding another printer from a previous coworker who was open to doing less & was just a few minutes from my house!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.2ndzshop.com
• Instagram: @2ndzshop