Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Savanna Toporek. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Savanna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
Everyday I am grateful that two years ago I decided to take the leap to start my upcycled brand. I am truly a creative at heart, and after a few short years working different corporate jobs, I felt incredibly unfulfilled and exhausted. I’ve always been super passionate about following your heart and living your life doing what truly brings you joy. Corporate sales was not that for me. Deciding to run Reworked by Sav as my full-time job is one of the most fulfilling decisions I could have made for myself. Not only do I get to work in a creative field designing the clothes that I want to design, but Reworked is a brand focused on the mission of decreasing textile waste and lowering the reliance on fast fashion. When I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night I know in my heart that my time and energy and long hours are directly benefiting not only my customers but the environment.
All of this being said, owning a small clothing brand is not easy by any means. The hours are A LOT more than your typical 9 to 5, the stakes are insanely higher, I make a lot less money, and of course there is always the dooming fear of failure. I honestly picture what it would be like to re-enter the corporate world at least once a week. I would be lying if I said I did not frequently browse jobs on LinkedIn (just to peak of course!) Being in my late 20’s and seeing my friends and peers flourishing at their high-paying corporate jobs and living beautiful lives can be difficult as well. Especially since I did initially take the traditional route of a bachelor’s & masters degree + corporate job right out of school, alongside most of my friends. However, I know regardless of how much more a corporate job could pay, and the benefits and security they could bring, my heart is fully invested into my brand. And these moments of doubt truly just inspire me to work harder at making my brand successful – under the notion of, “OK the brand isn’t bringing you enough security? Well let’s work harder and change that then.” I know deeply that what I’m doing now is what is right for me now. And I am constantly repeating the mantra “comparison is the thief of joy.”
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Reworked by Sav is an upcycled clothing brand intended to decrease the reliance on fast fashion without sacrificing trends, affordability or convenience. The brand is completely owned and operated by myself – with love, support and lots of help from my family! Everything I sell is made from completely secondhand materials, one of a kind and handmade by me. I initially got into upcycling as a teenager, when high-waisted denim first came back into style in the 2010’s. I grew up thrifting and also very conscious of climate change and the importance of environmentalism. As I get older, climate change continues to become drastically worse and more terrifying each year. This was my biggest inspiration to start my brand. The more I learned about the hand that textile waste has to play in global emissions, the more I became aware of the impact of each piece of clothing that I bought, and what happens to it when I’m done with it. In 2022 I actually made it a New Years Resolution to go an entire year only purchasing secondhand clothes, and when I realized how easy it was I realized how much opportunity there was in the secondhand clothing industry. I launched my website on 2/22/2022 and actually ended up leaving my corporate job to run the brand only 4 months later.
Currently, Reworked has an online inventory of over 200 one of a kind upcycled items including denim, sweatshirts tees and accessories available to the U.S. and Canada. Since I started off working with denim, my heart still lies with denim. But lately my customers have been loving my reworked ransom note tee collection. What has been so fun about operating a tiny little online brand, is that I can see a Tiktok video one morning, run to the thrift store an hour later, rework 10 tees and have them on the website ready to ship the next day. I think this really resonates with Gen Z and how quickly they become obsessed with certain trends seemingly overnight. For example when the internet became obsessed with “brat girl summer” inspired by Charli XCX, my DM’s were filled with people asking when I was dropping “BRAT” ransom note tees. I think I had about a week turnaround time on that trend and right now they’re my most popular selling tee!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’m huge into affirmations and today my affirmation was “You’re not supposed to have it all figured out yet.” I think growing up as a millennial and witnessing the rise (and fall) of “girl boss culture”, I developed this belief that everyone around me is doing huge amazing things because they have some secret that I don’t, and I need to find it immediately and make something incredible of myself. This is especially difficult today with the intensity of social media and the fact that you can open your phone and see everyone you know’s biggest accomplishments right in your face the first moment you wake up. I think subconsciously we get really confused and distort reality with snapshots of people’s best moments.
I am constantly reminding myself, that everyone is just trying their best and dealing with their own unique set of struggles everyday, just like I am. There’s no secret clue to creating the perfect life, because no one’s life is truly perfect.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
The amazing thing about the secondhand clothing industry is the incredibly low start-up costs. I’ve always resold my personal unwanted clothes on the different secondhand clothing apps, but after college as I started thrifting more I branched out into reselling clothes as well, which ended up re-gauging my interest in upcycling clothes. With the existence of secondhand outlet stores, material costs for secondhand clothing are next to nothing. I started my brand off sourcing materials at the Goodwill “bins” (outlet store), making TikToks in my bedroom, and cutting denim with scissors and handsewing with a thread and needle.
I want to note – reselling secondhand clothes does have controversy surrounding it. However as an environmentalist, I know that over 80% of unwanted clothing ends up incinerated or sent to a landfill. I truly thing the current secondhand movement is incredible for the environment, and unfortunately there is a never-ending supply of secondhand clothes to be purchased, resold, or upcycled.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.reworkedbysav.com
- Instagram: @reworkedbysav
- Other: Tiktok: @reworkedbysav
Image Credits
Savanna Toporek