Rose and Doug Phillips asked: “how can we spend every day, together, doing what we love?” Their answer was Conscious Clothing. For two decades they built their business on this premise – even building the gorgeous, sun-filled Michigan studio where their team of ten designs and makes each piece of organic and natural fiber clothing.
Things haven’t always been dreamy, though. As the brand grew, work started to creep into the weekends. The pandemic hit. Then Doug lost his life and business partner. But, the heartfelt vision for Conscious Clothing remained. In this interview, Doug and General Manager Liz DeBraber share how they’re intentionally restructuring the business for the sake of themselves, their team, and their customers.
Doug Phillips is the owner of Conscious Clothing, an organic and natural fiber clothing company based in the Grand Rapids Michigan area. While navigating the challenges of designing and manufacturing in the US for over 23 years against a flood of cheap clothing imports, a mission was born. Exemplifying how a better way is possible by supporting local and organic is better for people and the planet. Doug hopes everyone realizes their power to create change with the purchase power they have and the brands they choose to support.
This episode explores:
Fitting the customer
- How Liz is completely revamping Conscious Clothing’s pattern library to better fit their customers
- The process behind extending their sizing from XS-XL to XS-6X.
- How their small team things about customer service
Fitting the lifestyle
- How founders Doug and Rose built the business from the ground up to realize the life they wanted together
- What they changed to keep the growing business from taking over their life
- How a years-long season of grief forced Doug to make big changes in the business
- Why sustainability is just as much about the lifestyle of the team than it is about the products they are making
- How they are balancing R&D with production
Fitting the values
- Why organic and natural fibers and made-in-USA production are important to Conscious Clothing
- How the industry and consumer values about organic clothing has changed over the 20+ years they’ve been in business
- Why Doug is happy that Conscious Clothing is not as unique as it once was
People and resources mentioned in this episode:
- Conscious Clothing website
- Conscious Clothing Instagram
- Fox fiber® – breeder and grower of organic, naturally colored cotton
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