No Nasties: Spreading a movement for fair trade cotton

Though a recent start-up, No Nasties, the brand of organic clothing is experiencing 200 percent year-on-year growth. A T-shirt brand as of now, it’s aiming to introduce kids’ wear, infant wear, lifestyle products and give more clothing options with

sustainably made raw materials. Apurva Kothari, Owner and Proprietor, No Nasties, attributes the strong growth of his brand to growing awareness among customers. “As more and more consumers are asking for it there is a growth in the market. The brands will only make it if there is a demand. So that is a positive change which we see in the industry,” he says.

The idea behind launching such a brand occurred to Kothari while working for a tech company in the US when he read about Indian farmers’ suicide issues. “I did further research and learnt about the core reasons like dependency on genetically modified seeds and pesticides and taking a lot of risk is forcing farmers to commit suicide. At the same time, I realized that many players are now switching to organic farming and fair trade practices. This was the solution and way for forward to escape the traps of conventional farming,” he explains.

When Kothari came back to India he realized grassroot level workers like NGOs and farmer groups are helping farmers directly. But there was a gap in the retail sector and on the consumer front. “They could not find appealing organic cotton clothes. The ones which were there were more Indianized or ethnic wear but not western clothes like a T-shirt or casual wear or daily wear. So we realized this was the missing link.”

The company started with T-shirts as to enter the market because they found it to be a nice open canvas to put different designer prints on. “But the main role for us as an enterprise was to create a consumer movement in India for organic fair trade cotton. We want go beyond T-shirts and start with kids’ wear, infant wear, lifestyle products and give more clothing options which are sustainably made. That’s our vision,” states Kothari. While the main focus has been online presence, the brand also sells through designer stores who buy the products and resale them. It also has boutiques in Goa, Mumbai, Ahmadabad and Delhi apart from 10 stores across four countries. The brand is exported to Australia, Austria, Germany and Japan.

Commenting on their future plans, Kothari says, “We want to go beyond organic and want to help not just the farmers but the entire community. We as a company are also committed to fair trade, which means giving farmers ethical standards for working and fair prices that they deserve and also pay extra or a premium for building of the entire community.”