Reduce.Reuse.Teecycle.
All photos courtesy of teecycle.org
Trends come and go like the seasons (literally). In the fast-paced, multi-billion dollar fashion industry, nothing is “in” for more than six months and before you know it, it’s time to get rid of those gladiator sandals (so last year) and trade-up for something newer, better and hotter. Whether we want to admit it or not, this industry is wasting valuable resources: money, energy and the environment.
Tim Cigelske, founder of the online t-shirt repository Teecycle, believes that one can be fashionably responsible. Teecycle is a website with a mission to promote sustainable fashion by reselling used and vintage t-shirts, that way they end up on the backs of new owners – not in landfills. The best part? One dollar of every Teecycle purchase goes toward the restoration of Milwaukee’s rivers and trails.
Originally from Beaver Dam, Cigelske and with his wife Jess, created teecycle with the mission ” reduce, reuse, teecycle,” making everyday essentials like clothing both affordable and sustainable. I caught up with Tim to chat about the site, its mission and its goals for the future.
The long story is I was flipping through a copy of Rolling Stone and was kind of dismayed with ads for $25 t-shirts with a slogan from a movie or punch line-of-the-week. (Napoleon Dynamite, anyone?) I knew I had better shirts from rummage sales and thrift stores. That’s when the light bulb went off. At the time there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a substantial site that’s devoted exclusively to used t-shirts.
My wife Jess has been involved since the beginning with ideas and now she does more of the day-to-day operations. She’s always pushing me and tells me if an idea needs work – or sucks. She was the one who told me that the original name — The Shirt Recyclery—was awful.
How did you start the process of creating Teecycle?
We won a $4,500 prize from Pepsi for having “a unique business idea that they feel would make the world a better place.” It was pretty simple. I recorded a 60-second snippet for their “What’s Your Pitch?” contest, and before we knew it we were picked by a panel of judges as the grand prize winner. It’s allowed us to make business improvements (a website upgrade, for one), buy more shirts and do more printing on blank shirts. Currently we’re entered in Marquette’s annual business plan competition.
How do you go about finding these shirts? Are all shirts one-of-a-kind?
Sort of. There’s only one of each shirt that we put up on the site, which means whoever orders a shirts gets the one-of-a-kind teecycle shirt. Of course, at one point those shirts were part of a larger batch, but now they’re rare and a lot harder to find, unlike a rack full of shirts in a department store.
There’s no real secret to [finding the shirts]. It just takes a lot of time combing through piles and piles of shirts at thrift stores and rummage sales to find a winner. A surprising thing happened since we started, though. Lots of people mail us or drop off their own used shirts, which has been very cool to see.
What are your future plans for Teecycle?
World domination? Seriously, I’d like to spread the word about used t-shirts and bring Teecycle to a larger audience. We’re working on a new business plan that would involve vintage retailers on the site.
Why is your mission important? What do you want people to understand about your fashion philosophy?
My fashion philosophy is that simple is good. I don’t know anything that can make such an instant statement about your personality than the right t-shirt. I’d wear t-shirts all the time if I could.
To find out more about Tim, Jess and Teecycle, visit their website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
