How marathon changed my life and launched a global business

This morning of Sept. 12, 2017, delivered one of those surreal life moments in our household. BCorporation announced their global list of ‘best for the world’ companies and Kusaga Athletic is right there, rubbing shoulders with Patagonia and other iconic ‘passion for purpose’ businesses. We couldn’t be prouder.

Reading through the list of businesses threw my mind back to a balmy night in Singapore in 2010. I was at dinner with my wife Jane, one of her colleagues Jen, and Jen’s husband Matt. The conversation turned to running and Matt suggested I run a marathon with him. Oh, but not just any marathon, maybe a nice flat one such as the Singapore marathon. He asked me to run the Great Wall marathon with him … in China!

Just to provide a little perspective of this race, it’s 42 hot kilometres up, along and over The Great Wall of China. And for a little more punishment, there are over 5200 steep, ancient steps to climb.

I said no, nope, nah, not interested.

And then I signed up for it on Monday morning.

Matt and I ran the event and crossed finish line. I cried, he cried. We built a friendship that day. That friendship and experience would soon create a global business.

I went on to finish more events all over the world (and cried a few more times) and at each event, I was given a finishers’ or event shirt. Event shirts are awesome — they have big pictures or slogans telling everyone that you finished this badass event.

Unfortunately, those shirts were poorly made — they didn’t fit, the material was scratchy and after a few runs the aroma of sweat sunk in and no amount of washing seemed to get rid of it.

So I asked around and other athletes said the same thing. They hated their shirts.

Could I Solve This Problem?

Inadvertently, I had discovered a problem that needed a solution. I wondered if I might just have an idea for a new business.

Full disclosure now.

My wife has been buying my clothes for a very long time. Apparently I have no fashion sense — who knew? To be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested in fashion, I knew very little about fabrics and I had never given much thought to how my clothes were made.

So we had an Idea, but between us, both television industry veterans, Matt and I had zero knowledge of the fashion industry, so we put our heads down for several months and began researching fabrics. By the time we came up for air, we had a plan to create future fabrics — not just improve cotton and polyester, we wanted to reshape the fabric industry, pretty much start from scratch with a new fabric that put the environment and athlete performance as our top priorities.

And so Kusaga Athletic was born. Suddenly we had more than an idea for a good business, we had an idea for a good business that would also do good for the world.

What we have come to understand is that maintaining a certain mindset or belief will guide how you approach your business and the decisions you make every day. When we first started, we didn’t fully understand the concept of a circular economy, but as it turned out, we were building a business that operates along that methodology. The concepts of no waste, re-use and recycle of materials, and the attitude of use and give back to the land are all part of our daily business practice and principles we continually discuss with our suppliers.

From this attitude of no waste we were able to re-align our global supply chain using technology and a collaborative approach. We reduced 10% of fabric wastage simply by applying a smarter template from original design concepts through to cut and sew. And we challenged industry standards, for example the convention of wrapping each garment in its own plastic bag is wasteful. So rather than use one hundred plastic bags for one hundred t-shirts, we use one. Across the production of tens of thousands of t-shirts, that simple change makes a significant impact.

As our business grew, so did the the opportunity to develop, along with our suppliers and clients, global carbon offset programs. These programs matter because individual and corporate contributions fund real world programs. As an example, one of the carbon offset programs Kusaga supports is through our transport partner for a pig farm in southern China. The farmers were regularly cutting down trees to use for household cooking and heating. The carbon offset Initiative funded the infrastructure to enable farmers to harness the methane gas produced by their livestock and redirect it for their heating and cooking. As a result, the farmers reduced tree clearing and had more time to focus on their business and the prosperity of their township.

Best For The World 2017

It’s exciting to be one of the many businesses around the world adopting a more mindful approach to operations — creating products that fulfil the needs of consumers but manufacturing with a mindset that ensures less impact on people and the planet.

Fast forward three years and it’s hard to believe we’ve just been included in the Honoree list of BCorp businesses that do good for the world. We are proud to be a certified BCorp and proud to have instilled a passion-for-purpose culture in our business.