We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yumika Hoskin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yumika below.
Hi Yumika, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Climate change these days isn’t a whisper in the wind, but a serious issue we face in showing us the changing landscape of Earth being directly impacted by unsustainable human operations and behaviour. Growing up in Australia surrounded by beautiful nature and stunning beaches, perhaps the reality of selfish human habits starting to become conscious to me as I started swimming around floating rubbish, with morning walks revealing plastic bottles and wrappers lined up along the shore mixed in with the seaweed. My Japanese mother always packed our lunches in reusable lunchboxes, our water in reusable water bottles and so perhaps my culture influenced me at an early age with more eco conscious habits.
But it was when I was living in Asia that I a pang in my heart started to wake me up. Why was my juice in a plastic cup with a plastic straw passed to me with a single use plastic carrier that was going to be discarded in 2 minutes after I finished my drink? Why was the grocery stores packing my butter in its own individual single use plastic bag? Where my 10 item purchase was spread across 4-5 single use plastic bags when they can fit in no more than 2? Why does this country not have recycling sorting while another country does?
Living an eco conscious, slow living or sustainable lifestyle is very much about waking up to the careless human behaviours that are detrimental to our pollution problem. About measuring our individual impact and being part of the solution and not the problem. This is where Peco Bag was born. Out of the idea that if you change your habit, you can change the world. Our mission started with creating a product that is made from sustainable materials (each bag is made from GRS certified recycled polyester), taking single use plastic waste out of the system and reusing it, a conveniently designed product that folds up into its own pouch so you can carry one on you all the time and designed with style in mind so you can be proud to wear one. We produce out of Nepal where we work with a fair trade certified production partner in a region where labour has been known to be subject to exploitation. Instead they are giving community members skills and jobs to enrich their lives. Each bag is made from 7 recycled plastic bottles and we are currently expanding our line of product offerings.
Yumika, 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?
So I have had a colourful career so far. From running my own fashion stylist business in Melbourne, to studying fashion design, then modelling in Asia, landing on a reality TV show and moving to Singapore eventually where I was a TV Presenter and personality, model and social media content creator. I loved my career but I always knew I wanted to run my own business one day. The entertainment industry was so much fun and gave me a lot of opportunities, however the desire for a greater purpose was knocking on my door. And the wake up call around my eco anxiety surrounded my the never ending distribution of single use plastic everywhere was what sparked my business idea.
Starting the business was a lot of fun for me. As a creative and with an extensive background in production, seeing behind the scenes of other brands, knowing how to produce engaging content and market on social media all played a huge hand in the launch of the brand successfully.
Outside of direct to consumer reusable bags, we also work with a lot of corporate clients for B2B orders. A lot of companies are looking for more meaningful, sustainable and purpose driven brands and products to give to their clients, gift to their employees and market at events. So we can design co-branded Peco Bags with our clients logo or create a fully customised print and pattern. We have had incredible opportunities collaborating with brands such as Bombay Sapphire, we were featured by Adobe in a campaign and work closely with ongoing clients we are proud to have cultivated loyal relationships with. From hotels, EV car companies, sustainable development groups, we love working with brands that are aligned in our mission. And we are excited to be expanding our product lines available soon.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
We produce out of Nepal at the moment and our fabric is made in China. However we are currently securing a second production partner to cater to the US market for B2B orders. We used to produce out of China when I first launched the business and decided to cease working that particular manufacturer after their quality control was not up to par, they did not take the blame for printing mistakes they made and I also suspect they outsourced some of our bag production to smaller companies as we had a batch come in a different size.
The reality is, finding the right manufacturing partner was for me the hardest part and a bit of a nightmare. It takes a long time, especially for eco businesses who needs a lot of certifications from them and the sampling back and forth, aligning with MOQs, production timeline needs and of course balancing cost targets.
Now that I am based in New York, I recently went to a few trade shows for fabric and product manufacturers and I would recommend to anyone. In fact, I wish I started out that way. Finding manufacturers online is difficult. I went through Alibaba at first. But a lot of emails I sent off to inquire with bag manufacturers would never email me back, despite the amount of follow ups. Going to trade shows allows you to have face to face time, see their products in person, gauge their professionalism and keenness to work with you and cultivate a better relationship from the beginning. The new manufacturer I am sampling with in China at the moment are my dream fabric manufacturer who are all about plastic recycling and represent the ethics and mission perfectly aligned to what I believe in and the brand. I Instagram dm’d the founder, emailed, and kept waiting for a reply but nothing. Until one day I saw the founder was showing at one of the textile trade shows in New York. I immediately signed up and went the next day to stalk down his booth. And from that, we have already received our first two samples from them a month later!
My current manufacturer I found through asking around. This website/company highlights and lists ethical and sustainable manufacturers from all around the world. Jumping on a call with them and having such an authentic conversation with their founders sealed the deal. They have been such a dream to work with and every time I send a new order to them, it makes me feel really fulfilled knowing I can bring them business and contribute to the workers incomes.
Relationships and honesty is what really matters in my experience and the success of the brand is also dependant on your productions alignment and belief of beleiving in your brand as well.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
It has actually been instagram. I think because I myself also work on my separate instagram presence as a thought leader in the sustainable living space, often companies who want to feature you for projects are also interested in the person behind the brand. My hosting skills have been very beneficial in this case when video feature projects require me to talk about my brand and its purpose. And in the end, selling your product is obviously important and growing a community, but the number one fan of you products need to be you. So when social media feature projects come up, it’s great because 1. its free cross marketing. 2. It’s free high quality and produced content.
But not only social media, of course word of mouth I think is the most valuable marketing stream. Often when I ask new B2B corporate clients how they found Peco Bag, they say social media or they saw we did something for another company. Funnily enough, we also don’t really run ads. I think I tired one or two times as an experiment with not much success from it. I believe word of mouth is the most authentic because it also validates you have a great product, but social media is a beast so making sure you are always pumping out new content or recycling content goes hand in hand.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pecobag.com
- Instagram: @pecobag
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peco-bag
- TikTok: peco.bag