YouSaid · the spoken record

Eric Liedtke

lines on the record: 31
first: 2022-05-16
most recent: 2022-05-16
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Too many times we're asking consumers to wear that sustainability on their forehead, and I think that's part of the issues with the scalability of sustainable solutions. And I'll point at Tesla as another great example. It's like you don't have to compromise your driving experience to drive a Tesla, but it's better for the world. And I think that's what fashion needs. That's what many consumer industries need.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think ultimately, and this goes into my background, I mean, I've always tried to be at the intersection of material innovation and consumer behavior. And I think in my dream that you would not have to talk about sustainability, you could just build a killer brand that was built in a better way. Because I think ultimately the consumer doesn't want to compromise their tastes for their values. And I think that's where we need to get to in fashion is you need to have that quality of design and that quality of desirability in your product that is second to none and has no compromises because it's plant-based or because it's sustainable.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, we want to have a proper merchandise collection selection that you can find what you want for your wardrobe and your favorite items made out of better solution that are just as beautiful and well made. And I think so we've got hoodies coming out. We've got new t-shirts coming out, always constant drops. We've got online jackets. We've got bucket hats. We've got footwear on the radar for end of this year. And we've got some workwear shirts and shorts coming. So we've got a complete range of apparel product coming and footwear on the horizon in the near term.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Choice of any factory they want. They've got to work with the factories that will work with them and the minimums that they have need to be the appropriate size volumes that we can cater and help to sell.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you've got different things. So let's just break it down. So the cotton we're sourcing for our cut and sows grown in North Carolina. It is then unfortunately having to ship to Korea. Be milled because there's no more mills in America, right? And then it brought back to America where we can do the cut and sew and we do the dyeing. So I would say 80% of manufacturing's here. One of the things I'm working with because I have grand visions for not just doing a brand, but also disrupting and creating new supply chains is really bringing milling back here and using the current administration to really fund some of those things. So we are working with bringing cotton mills back to America because that would cut down the big transportation there. Our jackets currently are being done out of Portugal, but we are looking at this because it's a woven versus a cotton cut and sew. So the wovens are being done in Portugal right now just because of the quality and the willingness to work with the material set that we have. But we are entertaining conversations. It's just as a startup to your point earlier about doing this with existing versus startups. Startups don't have their”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Clear of oils and petroleums. We have to again find the different suppliers of who can provide those different inks and methods to apply those inks. And that means. It's a funny kind of sometimes we get problems with color matching and things like that that we have to correct for. So every time we go into a new material, it's typically, as our crave director Paul Gaius says, it's a long dark hallway. We embrace that hallway, but it requires a lot of good old-fashioned ingenuity to figure out the solutions of the next gen materials and supply chains and how we put it all together. That's kind of why we put the rock star team that we have.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The little clip tag you might have on the back of your neck or on the clip tag on the bottom of your shirt. It's like those things typically are 100% polyester, not ours. But you then had to figure out and figure out a new supply chain to find those and then put them together with your cotton shirt manufacturers. Most threads are synthetic because they have higher resiliency. They're more heat conductive, so they don't melt under pressure and they're easier to work with. So most of the supply chains have adapted synthetic threads now instead of cellulose-based threads. Not us. We had to go out and find cellulose threads that could put our product together when you talk about a t-shirt and how you stitch it together. But again, no one else is kind of looking at that inks and dies are inks and dies are 100% water-based.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have every company puts labels on theirs on their product, but almost 100% of them are petroleum-based or polyester. We had to go and source a new label that would allow us to find one from cotton, which is really hard to do because no one's making them anymore because they're actually.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because the guidelines were not set from a sustainability standpoint, they were set from a federal trade commission standpoint, and it was all about importation duties and things of that nature. So you can label a sure 100% cotton, and then all of the trims and bindings and closure systems can be plastic, and the consumer would never know the difference. And that's some of the greenwashing, or I like to say green wishing that's going on in our industry that we need to call out. When we make something, we are talking about everything has been thought through from colors, detail stitching, closures, materials, finishes, dyes, inks, labels, graphics, packaging. Everything is cellulose-based, which means it's coming from one plant or another. It could be coming from.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What are you using? Well, I think right now it's the simplest solutions are the easiest. And so from a parallel standpoint, we're using cottons, we're using eucalyptus, we're using tensile fibers, things that are readily available for everyone to use. What's different about us is we're looking at everything that goes into it. And I think that what we're trying to do is really call out some of the gaps in the innovations that are currently in the marketplace. So did you know that 100% cotton shirt that's labeled 100% cotton doesn't have to be 100% cotton?”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it is extremely satisfying and rewarding. And I want to give that option to the consumer. And I think we have to put it back on if the consumer is given the option to buy a better solution, will they? And that's where I think that we have to encourage your listeners and everyone else out there that there is a better way and they need to participate in it because the material solutions are coming, the brands are coming, but they need the help of consumer conviction to buy into that purpose and buy into those initiatives.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it doesn't hurt that the global political situation and how that kind of is feeding into it as well. So I would say the same thing in fashion. It's like you can go to a certain point with the incumbents, but sooner or later the incumbents need to be forced to change from outside in. And I feel like, again, I took it as far as I could when I was in-house. I did to your point entertain buying a company or injecting myself into a smaller company that I thought could pivot in this direction. But I got tired of waiting and my urgency was too high in the world's urgency is too great to wait any longer. So I know how hard it is to start a brand. And it's not an easy road. And I can tell you that from my first, you know, from my first months.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The big players, whether it be Mercedes or Porsche or General Motors or Ford or whoever, you know, and this is where I don't want to cast any judgment, but I think they did as much as they thought they needed to do to win the consumers. And that was called a hybrid car. Well, I think we've all had experiences hybrid cars, and I don't think they come close to the urgency that was needed. Tesla came out and built something up that really shook up the world and scared the incumbents. And now everyone has an electric car, and the electric car industry is 10 or 15 years ahead of or anybody's wild imaginations thought it would be.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think it's a great question and something I slept on for a long time. And I believe I took a sustainability approach as far as I could while sitting in the position I had with Adidas. I think at a certain point the incumbent companies are complicit in the make-take and throw away culture that we find ourselves in today. And I would only compare it to the auto industry. There's no doubt that electric engine technology was available for years. Yeah.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's that simple. So there's no other brand that's trying to do this because it's really hard. And I respect what every other brand is trying to do in a sustainable space. But we do things a little bit differently because we like to start with the end. And we start with the question, what happens to this when you're done wearing it? And that's what led us to specifically attack the problem of plastic waste with these plant-based compostable solutions. And I think it's just very important to start with that kind of clear brief because otherwise you get lost in the noise of sustainability. And we're very clear on our mission to create zero plastic waste at end of life, which we think is probably the greatest solution that the fashion industry needs today.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It decompose or biodegrade, whichever word you want to use back into the ground that would supply micro-rich nutrients that you could grow new feedstock from.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Us to build a better way. And that is marrying the innovation of new material science, and let's call it plant-based, 100% plant-based science at this point with great looking product where the consumer doesn't have to compromise their taste to wear something that's better for the world or compromise their values for their taste. So we really see that as a white spot that hasn't been explored yet. And we're a band of warriors that's really trying to solve that with the world's first 100% plant-based zero plastic fashion brand.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So 40% is estimated to be unusable. So it goes immediately into landfills, which I'm sure are leaching into the oceans and are being burned. So it goes right into the air, right into the ground, right into the water. The other 60%, I guess, is being sold, but it's absolutely devastated the local garment industry. And it's really shocking when you start to look at some of those things. So you've got this problem of plastics and what happens to them end of life.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so the holy grail was always can we have something that's from nature goes back to nature. Can we have something that fixes the problem of waste in fashion, which I think is probably the biggest sin. So we can talk about all the issues with microplastics, but I don't think enough companies even give any consideration to what happens to their product when you're done using it. So there are, when you talk about the problem of fashion waste, there's play in obsolescence of fashion coming in and out of seasons every three, six, nine months. And where does all that stuff go when it's no longer being worn? And it doesn't go away. We've already established that. It doesn't go harmlessly away. And it also can be just chipped off to other countries.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Are and there are not a lot of options, it's really difficult to buy sustainable when you talk about buying non plastic product.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And White House had odd. We were right in that frame of 60 to 70% of our product being polyester based. So to get off of the virgin polyester, we thought, okay, let's take the first step with just recycle polyester, recognizing that that's better, and we're not going to let perfect get in the way better. And from what I hear and what I read, from what Adidas is still doing is they're honoring that target and they may even exceed that and hit it in an earlier timeframe. I'm really proud of them continuing to fight the battle against virgin polyester and hopefully polyester in the future.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think the research is still being developed, and not the bummer, but yeah, because there are solutions to this, but it's good to get the frame out there. Chemicals and plastics, there's like 8,000 chemicals in different plastics, and that's good because it makes them highly adaptive, it makes them highly useful, it makes them highly lasting forever. Unfortunately, when those chemicals and those plastics are internalized, they can lead to endocrine disruptors, impacting fertility. It can create cognitive disorders, heart disease, cancer, you name it. I think the research is early to your point, but it is the stuff that's coming out is pretty compelling. And what they're finding is double the amounts in our babies because when they check their feces, they're finding double amount of microplastic penetration in our children and our babies than they are in adults. So it's even more concerning as it affects our younger generations.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's in our bodies. It's in our blood. It's in our organs. It's in the placentas of pregnant women. It's in our fetuses. It's everywhere. And you could argue that mycoplastics, you're eating based upon your diet. You're eating about a credit card worth of microplastics a week.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I mean, there is no way with plastic. You either put it in the ground, you put it in the air, you put it in the ocean, but it still lives. And it still destroys. So, you know, if you burn it, which people think, oh, it's burned, it's gone away, it doesn't. It just goes up in the air and rains back down on us. So they're finding microplastics, which are the tiny cellular level plastics. They're finding them everywhere from the Mariana Trench in the deepest part of the ocean to Mount Everest. Unbelievable. And the density and the amount of it is just going up and up and up.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct, the joke of the magic triangle with the arrows showing that, hey, this is recyclable. And in essence, it's not. I mean, it depends where you are and where you live and what your recycling center takes. But I'm living in Portland, Oregon, which is probably one of the highest or more advanced recycling areas. And they take ones or twos. If you have a one in your pyramid or a two, and those are basically, that's really the two plastics they take. Numbers of plastics go up to nine, and the other seven are not taken, and they're just taken to landfills or burned.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's tons of data on that. First of all, there's plastic probably recycling has been propped up by the big plastic companies because.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's what I like the term is plastic is a forever material, which means there's not a piece of plastic that's ever been created that's not still with us today in some shape or form. So, you know, if you think about it in plastics as kind of a recent invention, if you will, really, really didn't come up until the late 30s and really started to hit its heyday in the 50s. And it was a miracle material. Unfortunately, it's very good. And so it just doesn't go away. And yeah, I think in the fashion space, you've got arguably 60 to 70% depending on what brand and what performance features you're looking for are made out of polyester, which is a form of plastic. And that's also forever material that never goes away.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I really just committed myself, committed the brand to changing that. And I'm super proud of what we did there. But also, you know, kind of flipped a switch in my head and knew that this was going to be my life's calling.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But then the third thing we kind of looked at is like, you know, the world is kind of a tumultuous place, and it's on 24-7 with our consumers. So if you're focused on your consumer, it's like, yeah, you have to care about helping them in sport. And yes, you have to be relevant in the culture of sport, but you also have to kind of make the world a better place for them. And how do we do that through sport? And so we started to tackle some big social or climate issues. And the one that really hit home to me was the impact that the fashion industry has on the environment. And once you see and once you hear the degradation of the planet and fast fashion's planned obsolescence contribution to that, you can't unsee and unhear that. And so”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And with that, I kind of got to work. Those are words I actually live by to this day because I really like that kind of attitude. But anyway, with that, we got to work and we really became a much more consumer-oriented brand than we'd ever been before and really focused on through sport, how can we change lives and really took that unto ourselves. And so when we looked at that, of course, as a sports brand, you want to make product that can run faster, jump higher, do whatever the sport necessities are. But we recognize that the culture of sport doesn't stop when you leave the playing field, when you leave the court. It goes into the stands, it goes into the hallways, it goes into the music venues. So we started to unlock that potential of the brand. And that's where things like, you know, Kanye West came in or Beyonce and those things kind of added into the brand.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I guess it goes just to give you a little context. We were doing a turnaround for the brand. The brand had fallen to its lowest level in years. The share price was trading in the $50 range. Investors were up in arms. Activists were warming up. The press was calling for our CEO's head. And it was kind of a tumultuous time. And instead, Herbert Heiner, the CEO at the time, didn't decide to step away. He decided to change up the board. And that's when I came into the board. He looked at me, he said, Here, you need to reset the brand. And whatever you do, don't ask for permission. Just ask for my advice.”
2022-05-16 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! UNLESS Collective: Eric Liedtke · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT