Canadian brand Norden wants you to rethink your relationship with plastic
“Would you abandon someone who soothed you?” Norden’s promotional video asks over sentimental piano music. In this case, the narrator specifically means a plastic pacifier, which will likely be added to a landfill once the baby outgrows it.
“Let’s give plastic back its purpose,” the video urges. That statement pretty much sums up the mission that has been driving Mayer Vafi, Norden’s co-founder and creative director, since the beginning. The Montreal, Canada-based team was founded with the philosophy that someone needed to demonstrate better business practices. Why not Vafi?
“[We’re] the first outerwear brand that makes it out of post-consumer recycled plastic that’s also B-corp certified and PETA certified,” he bragged.
Vafi got his start in fashion with footwear company Ugg, most famous for its sheepskin boots. It was a job, but it just didn’t sit right with him. He was plagued by the idea that he should be doing something more meaningful to address the climate crisis.
“The more I thought about it, the more I thought things had to change,” he said. “My moral compass was off. I wasn’t well; I wasn’t right. I literally just quit my job, and everyone thought I was insane.”
At least, everyone thought that at first. But as he began to express his moral qualms more often, Vafi began to garner support.
“I wouldn’t stop talking about sustainability and pollution, and my wife said, ‘Why don’t you stop talking about it and do something?’”
That was the push that Vafi needed. He thought through the things that were important to him — environmental protection, veganism, ethical production — and the idea for Norden struck him.
“It was like getting hit by lightening,” said Vafi. “Frankly, I didn’t know much about manufacturing outerwear, but I didn’t know much about selling Uggs either!”
It wasn’t long before he got his first investor to sign on with a simple phrase: “I’m doing something with purpose.”
It worked — though, inspirational as it was, Vafi still ended up working for his investor’s company in an executive role while laying out the blueprints for Norden. He was able to build time for his then-side hustle into his contract, and in the fall of 2018, he asked for a freelance budget.
“[My boss] looked at me the way you would look at a child who’s asking for a Ferrari,” Vafi recalled with a laugh. Still, he got the resources he needed to get product to market by November 2018.
Norden tries to be sustainable in the ethical sense of the word as well, employing families in Montreal to assemble the garments instead of sending them overseas. Its unique materials are also made in part by Repreve in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Like Norden’s mood board brand Patagonia, the company has thought through all stages of its apparel’s life. We didn’t prevent over two million water bottles from going into a landfill just so that our jackets could end up there, Vafi explained. That’s why Norden will buy its jackets back, as well as other companies’ jackets, to either donate or recycle them.
The trade-in program also allows customers to sell an old winter coat for a $100 credit on a Norden jacket. That way, if someone has a moral crisis (as Vafi did), they can exchange a coat that might have animal products for one that is PETA certified.
As it turns out, Vafi’s priorities have resonated with Canadian and European consumers. Its Matias men’s jacket sold out within three weeks, and its Anja women’s jacket won the “Sustainable Achievement” award from the International Simultaneous Policy Organization (ISPO). Now, Vafi is turning his attention to the next market: the States.
“In Canada, its 30 or 40 degrees [Celsius] below zero,” Vafi said. “You don’t need marketing and PR [for outerwear] like you do in the U.S.”
Luckily for U.S. consumers, Vafi finally feels ready to move his marketing efforts south for the winter. Outerwear-lovers can be on the lookout for Norden’s Fall 2020 collection.
