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

Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We are on a mission to make it easy for women to mix up their wardrobes sustainably. Our closets and our landfills are overflowing. On average, women only wear 30% of their wardrobes, and 85% of women have clothes in their closets that don’t fit. And when we do a closet clean-out, most of our well-intentioned thrift shop donations still wind up in the trash, with a garbage truck of textiles being landfilled or incinerated every second. Fashion waste is a massive problem, and today there’s so much clothing waste that we can see our mountains of discarded clothes from space.

Swap Society harnesses technology to promote circularity in the fashion industry. Our circular business model is a sustainable alternative to the take-make-dispose linear consumption model and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and waste. We envision a fashion future that emphasizes extending the life of garments through proper care and reuse. Our alt-currency SwapCoin™ gives value to unwanted clothing, keeping wearable garments and accessories in circulation longer, while helping to abate the overconsumption of new textiles.

Nicole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I learned the truths about the fashion industry, I was mortified to learn that my love of clothes was contributing to the destruction of our environment and the exploitation of our fellow humans.* I was looking for alternatives and started swapping clothes with women in my local community. It was easier than trying to resell my clothing and I was hooked. Clothes swapping is fun, saves money, and is more sustainable than shopping for brand-new clothes. I swapped my way through two pregnancies without having to buy a whole new wardrobe every time my size changed.

I loved swapping so much that I was inspired to bring swapping online and make it available beyond my local community. I launched Swap Society in 2017 to take swapping to the next level and make it available to women across the USA. Our alt-currency SwapCoin™ makes swapping fair and ensures that our members get equal value for the clothes they swap.

Last year we launched The Swap Society Podcast, and I have the pleasure of interviewing thought-leaders and change-makers who are working to create a more sustainable and equitable world through fashion, art, and activism. Tune in for a dose of climate optimism and chats about sustainable fashion, fair trade, the circular economy, labor rights, minimalism, overconsumption, slow living, zero waste, counterculture, and more. Join us as we envision a brighter future and challenge the status quo.

*The fashion industry is one of the biggest industrial polluters. Total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production, at 1.2 billion tonnes annually, are more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined. The majority of people who make clothes for the global market live in poverty, and are subject to exploitation, working in unsafe and dirty conditions with very little pay. 36 million people are living in modern slavery today, many of whom are working in the supply chains of Western brands.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

We have collaborated with other companies and non-profit organizations that are working to change the fashion industry including Fashion Revolution, Remake, Global Fashion Exchange, Fair Trade LA, Fair Trade Long Beach, NYC Fair Trade Coalition, The Garment Worker Center, and the Switching Gear Enabling Network (a partnership between Circle Economy and Fashion for Good). Getting people to change their relationship with fashion and transforming the industry at large is an enormous task that requires us to work together toward our goals of a sustainable and ethical future.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Our collaborations have helped build our social media presence, as well as reaching out to others who share our passion for sustainable and ethical fashion. We’ve created fun social media challenges that helped generate a lot of user-generated content and help spread the word about our brand. We have hosted in-person clothing swap events to build community IRL, which has also helped grow our followers and membership base. And we always try to share fun, engaging, and educational content.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.swapsociety.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swapsociety/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareswapsociety
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/swap-society
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/swapsociety

Image Credits
Clothing swap events pics by Laura Palladino