Ecologically-minded and health-conscious consumers can’t buy locally produced, organically sourced cotton underwear quite yet. But come February 2014, if Courtney Ross’s business plan holds true, they’ll be able to.
It was unfortunate, Ross said, but ultimately it helped to point her in a direction that she didn’t even know she wanted to go.
“Leaving what probably was the best job in the world for me was sad and a little bit scary,” Ross said. “But it was one of a lot of little life events that really directed me toward (establishing) this (business).”
Two events, in particular, provided the most definitive hint: Within the space of a week, friends twice asked her where they could find organic underwear. The queries were the germination of a seed that already existed.
Unabashedly progressive, Ross and her husband, Scott Harriman, live as environmentally conservatively as possible: He bicycles to work each day, she drives a fuel-efficient compact car, they burn wood for heat, raise their own vegetables and keep egg-laying hens.
So, naturally, the next step would be to produce their own epidermically-friendly organic undergarments for sale, right?
The concept, Ross concedes, is not new.
“It’s a smaller subset of the growing consciousness of buying organic,” she said. “It’s been around, but it’s just not on the forefront.”
Yet, she believes it could prove to be. Likewise, she’s convinced Spiffy Knickers will be a popular and lucrative niche — as long as she develops and manages it wisely. To that end, she’s currently finishing a 12- week course in business management and marketing through the Maine Centers for Women, Work and Community program. Putting an administrative head on her body of retail experience already has proven valuable, and has given her a bit of confidence to know that she can do this.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been this excited about the responsibility of being a business owner,” she said.
With a planned business launch in February, she’s now laying the framework of materials acquisition (two organic cotton producers in North Carolina), production line (a new professionalquality sewing machine has been ordered and will arrive soon), inventory and labor (two friends have agreed to work as independent subcontractors to help create and fulfill the initial orders).
Distribution will be done both direct-to-buyer and through online ordering, payment and shipping.
A friend designed the logo, for which his compensation was several jars of Ross’s home-canned pickles, some kale, a batch of fromscratch cookies and a garden fresh squash.
Ross owns the Internet domain www.spiffyknickers.com, and she’s already met with attorneys to discuss trademarking her brand name.
All that remains now, really, is to make and sell the undies. But other than the heady concept of better stewardship for our planet, what is the purpose of organic underwear?
It’s all about the skin, really.
“People forget that the skin is the largest organ of the body,” Ross said. “It’s very absorbent, and whatever you put on your body is absorbed through the skin directly into the bloodstream and it bypasses the liver so it doesn’t get cleaned up.
“Where on your body is a more precious or vulnerable place to pay attention to what you cover it with?”
Of course, it’s also about style and comfort: Organic underwear traditionally is bland and ugly.
Ross would prefer it to be comfortable and exciting.
“I want to make underwear that is colorful and comfortable, attractive and designed for the woman who’s going to wear it,” she said.
Women’s undergarments will be the first to emerge from her machine. Bikinis, hipsters and thongs — yes, thongs — will be the first patterns available.
Men’s and children’s will come later, she said. But women are the primary target market.
“Black, white, beige and cranberry — those are all the colors that other companies seem to gravitate toward,” she said. “I’ll offer black and white, too, because they have their places. But I want to make bright, vibrant colors — pink, navy blue, teal green and bright yellow, too.”
Spiffy Knickers will offer a wider range of sizes than usually are found, as well, because fit is everything: “It’s important that the underwear fits well for what women do, too,” Ross said. “I’m a gardener, and I hate it when underwear rides up or sags down when I work in my garden.”
Spiffy Knickers’ official launch doesn’t come for another four months. Still, her sewing room is bedecked with bolts of colorful cloth, and she’s bustling to get started with inventory, refining her business plan and plotting breadth of marketing and distribution.
jtleonard@timesrecord.com
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