Declutter

Declutter is an online application supported by an offline infrastructure that will focus on creating an incentive based collection system for used garments. Garments collected will be sorted for reselling, upcycling and recycling. Reselling will happen offline and online. We hope to scale and make declutter a one stop shop to buy used clothing, repair garments or shop for lifestyles products and garments made in all kinds of recycled material. Our aim is to find affordable solutions for the price conscious Indian market while creating more consumer awareness. After operating a circular fashion brand ‘Doodlage’ for 4 years where we work with factory waste on a zero waste model, we have developed a network of consumers and social enterprises that can help scale each of our solutions by shopping or supporting

India till date has no system for collecting and segregating garment waste. This is necessary to initiate circularity in fashion in India. There are several units within the country that can weave cotton or woollen garments back to textile on handloom and power loom, making paper out fabric and more. Additionally, pre-loved clothing is making its way in several economies around the world but for India these practices are far from being accessible. The 440 million millennial strong country is one of the fastest growing economies and with the increase in number of fast fashion brands entering India, it is important to create a brand that can offer better shopping alternative to educated, well travelled and aware consumer. We have operated a sustainable fashion brand at a small scale in India for the last 4 years and have seen this market change, Indian millennial is asking the right questions and are keen to make more conscious choices and we want to work and make these choices available to mass Indian consumer. Building this solution will also allow us to better the living conditions of several under privileged communities with the help of many for profit social enterprises and NGOs.

Fashion like many of its counterparts have scaled unethically; leaving the workers, artisans and farmers especially in production based countries like India at the loosing end of the bargain. While there have been unaccountable jobs that have been created over decades to employee millions of people to join the fashion industry the conditions they live in and the struggles of working with chemical heavy industry are often overlooked to meet the demands of the fast paced industry. 
Our solution works to generate more fair wage jobs for the underprivileged segment of society within India which is still the largest section of our population. By creating a consumer facing brand we also hope to support other social enterprises working to make the fashion supply chain more ethical.
Finally, with declutter we will connect to millions of experience hungry millennial giving them a transparent and sustainable option to buy garments and lifestyle products. Our services and products will give them a chance to do good by just looking good!

To collect used garments from around the country starting with metropolitan cities with the help of local social enterprises and NGOs working with underprivileged communities. These will operate like garment banks. At this level, garments will be separated and cleaned for reselling, recycling and upcycling. Declutter can also help build a basic infrastructure to support operations in these organizations. Once separated these garments will be bought by declutter priced according to their purpose in this second life. Upcycling units to make good looking products will be created at these centers this will include all blended garments that can only be used to make other products with the right finishes we hope to create things made to last. Bio degradable garments will separated and sold to recycling units where they can be made into yarns and be woven into fabrics again. Fabrics from these units will be purchased by Doodlage to make affordable products and garments along with other recycled materials. Everything that can be resold will start with thrift stores created and managed by Declutter. Every store will list and manage their inventory on a central website and application. At scale Declutter can help set up more thrift stores around India by providing an inventory for the same. 

Users can directly log into the application and order a wardrobe declutter in exchange of credits that can redeemed for thrift shopping or buying freshly recycled products from Doodlage. This will also allow us to maintain a massive database and target people according to their reason for association with Declutter. 

Furthermore, we are open to include technological advancements, subscription models and product discoveries as the brand and execution of these discoveries become more feasible but until then we are committed to resolve the issue of no garment collection unit available in India, no store at scale reselling preloved clothing, no large scale sustainable fashion brand working to promote ethically run production units.

We have worked for many years to witness mundane issues in the fashion industry. And came across many solutions that exist within the country. After much research we are pitching a basic idea which will allow us to bridge all solutions under one consumer facing brand. 

Its difficult but necessary and will help manage and divert tonnes of fabric waste from landfills. Doodlage being a fashion brand recognized in the country for it's upcycled and recycled products we have proved over the years our commitment to the cause and are eager to take steps to now create more scalable solutions.

We hope to also incorporate blockchain solutions to create more transparency in our layered solutions.

Being a tech enabled start up we aim to work with AI to understand consumer behavior on our application to categorize consumers according to their activity on the website and application. Allowing us to target the right content to the right consumer. 
We are also keen to work with blockchain experts to help us create more transparency in the collection system and issue currency that can eventually be redeemed at some point with partnering green brands. The possibilities are endless when you have the first movers advantage and with the right funds we would be able to scale the idea to best suit India. The technology involved will allow us to incentivize consumers and help them trace their  green footprint. 

As a 4 year old brand we have spent time in understanding the problem and the available solutions. We hope to build a scalable bridge between the problem and the solutions while generating employment and better industry practices, by creating a consumer facing brand. Our popularity in India on creating upcycled and recycled fashion give us an added advantage. 

Declutter is at an idea stage at the moment but it is an idea that has been successfully incorporated in many countries around the world. In some parts of the work preloved clothing is already competing with sales of fast fashion brands. Our idea while it works along the globally accepted idea of sales for preloved clothing, is very local in its approach to build this brand. 

It is hard to estimate the number of people we will be able to impact in a year with the received funds. We will able to sit on building this into a pilot and a fully scalable business in time.

In the meantime, through Doodlage a brand that works to Upcycled factory waste into short collections, we serve close to 5000 people a year (as the average price of piece $65 higher side for India) which could be multiplied manifold as the brand reach is much higher ( we have close to 250,000 impressions weekly on each of our social media channels) if we are able to scale to reduce costs for Indian mass market. This is evident in a considerable hike in Purchase during bi-annual online sale. In 5 years we aim to serve with just Doodlage 80,000 people and reach a lot more given the addition of Declutter and it’s database.

If we are able to raise funds for Declutter, building a strong collection system and taking steps to to introduce retail channel for preloved clothing. 

Social media marketing; celeb and influencer associations supporting the cause

Scaling production for Doodlage to invest more in recycled fabrics

Associating with brands and corporates and making them collection centres as a part of their CSR

Developing a website for Declutter, and franchise mode for B&M shop fronts. 

Diving deeper to understand blockchain and AI and their implementation for the success of the project

Infrastructure to build this system need considerable investment and we want to start the process with pilots

At no point do we want to become the part of the problem while scaling up

Investment in consumer education via branding and collaborations could be exhausting as our key market remains a developing country, however global sales and access to their market might speed acceptance in India.

All these barriers can be worked around step by step. Post the pilot stage we hope to approach the government to support in helping us expand in smaller cities for skill development centres and subsidies to ensure minimum investment in building infrastructure while grow.

Just for Doodlage we have close 15people in the team and outsource garment, fabric and paper production from 5 social enterprises working with fair wages and women run factories. Our factory waste is sourced between 10-15 large scale production house depending on the requirements of the upcoming collection. 

Our work on Doodlage has made us only more committed to find more effective solutions for the massive market in India. 

We understand well the solutions available and some to connect the same faster given the right funds

Our brand is already well recognised in the space of ethical fashion. 

Khaloom a fair wage unit in Bangalore India - to source recycled fabrics made on handloom

Geetanjali woollens to source fabric made from post consumer garment waste imported from Europe and America. Most of this recycled fabric is exported to several Scandinavian countries currently. 

Anandi enterprises- for recycled cotton polyester for knitted and denim fabrics 

Pratibha syntex vertically integrated factory with fair trade practices and excessive use renewable energy we source fabric waste from their but are talks to partner for production while scaling up.

Silaiwali and upcycling artist for upcycling things that cannot be recycled or resold

Many other export houses around delhi for sourcing fabric scrap

Craft boat for making paper

Mastering India for making our garments  to name a few organisations we currently work with.

Our aim to make circular fashion accessible to a global millennial audience with a focus on India, where the options to make sustainable lifestyle choices are very limited. While working on our product and services we aim to help provide better living for the under privileged segment of our society.

Our solution allows users to get rid of the excess garments from over flowing wardrobes. It allows the Instagram generation to buy good quality preloved clothing for much lesser than a fresh garments, flaunt it a few times and donate back. Helps us reduce the environmental impact of fashion. create a transparent system with block chain. Create a lifestyle space for all things circular and zero waste with Doodlage using all recycled and upcycled fabric produced. Help local communities learn new skills and prosper. 

Our profits will be re-invested in expanding the pilot to other cities and make circular fashion accessible around the country before investing in the global market.

After raising a debt fund or equity investment, followed by strategic partnerships the company will create a financial sustainability by selling various products and services in a global market through e-commerce and local market through offline pop ups, store fronts and e-commerce.

Under Declutter we would Incentivize customers donating clothes with shopping credits valid for purchase on Doodlage. 

These clothes will then be sorted into 3 broad purpose categories: 

Recycling - The garments that can be recycled into new yarns can be sold to partners like Geetanjali Woollens, Anandi and more. As the demand for sustainable fabrics is on the rise this will allow them to source locally instead of importing for all their requirements

Reselling - Creating  B&M thrift stores with a heath cafe and repair centre that would be a goto place for all garment fixing or discarding. Franchising thrift stores to likeminded people. Allowing them to create their own cool ecosystem. But providing them with the stock to buy. 

Upcycling - All garments that are  unfit for either Recycling or Reselling will be converted Converting the  into a series of lifestyle accessories, home furnishings with collaborations with NGOs which will allow benefit them and allow them to gain financial stability with our design inputs.

Doodlage will shift the focus from post-production waste to post-consumer waste. We would buy recycled cotton and wool (from producers like Geetanjali and Anandi) for regular production and creating an array of fabulous lifestyle accessories, home and stationery products from post-consumer waste for a global market.

We feel MIT Solve is an ideal platform to pitch and deploy our solution to a wider audience of the world.  We are looking for funds and partners at scale to invest in creating more channels and effectively working on post consumer waste management. 

We would like to partner with a Global Retail Brand to increase our footprints and create more accessible touch points. 

The money from GM Prize on Circular Economy will be utilised in creating an application and partner

- Create an App to allow consumers to declutter their wardrobe.

- Tapping into mass retail brands to help create collection centres around India 

- And bear logistic costs as their support to making fashion more circular

- Collaborating with NGO and Recycling Centres