11: The Clothing Bank

Cultivating intimate conversations with entrepreneurs, reflecting on the heartbeat of their organization.

In this episode we are joined by Tracey Chambers and Tracey Gilmore from the Clothing Bank – a South African social enterprise that partners with fast fashion retailers whose merchandise has been returned by customers or hasn’t sold in a season, as well as appliance retailers with unwanted merchandise, and provides unemployed mothers and men to start informal retail trading businesses.

We’ll hear about how their mission to provide income for unemployed mothers, has become a holistic approach to creating sustainable livelihoods; the importance cultivating relationships and leveraging networks with corporate partners and others; their big big vision to see this model work through the rest of the world, where retailers partner with organizations to create employment for the unemployed through reselling waste merchandise; the challenges and opportunities that have made the Clothing bank what it is today; and shared some advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs and those early on in their social impact journey.

Check out a short animation from the episode here:

The Social Impact Pulse is a project of the Artesan Gateway and the soon to be launched, Their Stories Be Told.

Music by Johnnie Holiday; DDmyzik