Back in 1995 David Hieatt and wife Claire set up Howies, a clothing brand with a conscience. Hardly seems possible, but after 8 years they own a label that's able to brave the ethical minefield and prove that man is meeker than mountain and that respect for our surroundings brings more riches than any commercial commerce conductor… all this and they still make a living from the experience.

Steal-Life - What inspired you to start up Howies?
David Hieatt - We grew up with all these brands around us and as we got older we started to realise they didn’t care about the same things we cared about, they didn’t really stand for anything we could relate to and so we thought we we'd try and do something ourselves. It was only ever supposed to be a hobby really, then we found that it was more fun than our real jobs. All in all it took us five years of doing Howies part time before we could give up our day jobs to do it full time.

SL- Where does the name come from?
DH - It comes from Claire’s maiden name, Howells.

SL - Was the ethical philosophy there from the initial Days of Howies, or was it something that developed later?
DH - We always wanted to run a nice company and find ways of doing things that have low impact on the environment. We actually stopped T-shirt production for six months in order to source organic cotton T-shirts. That cost us a lot of money but it was worth it. We now use all organic cotton for our T-shirts and even though they're twice as expensive than regular stock, we don’t pass this cost on to our customers.

SL - So is there a particular message?
DH - What we really want to achieve is to make people think and to stand for something. So many brands don’t stand for anything, they're one-dimensional. Its like friends, you wouldn’t really want to hang out with someone if you didn’t know what they stood for would you?

SL - Was it hard at the time you decided to take this approach to execute your philosophy?
DH - No because we have always had this kind of approach and this is the way we've always wanted to do things. We'll continue to stand for things we believe in.

SL - How do you see Howies in relation to other fashion brands? Or even to the fashion industry as a whole?
DH - Well, we’re not really into fashion. I think that 'fashion' equals consumption beyond necessity. We don’t try and be all worthy or change our values to fit in with what's fashionable. We want to be around in 15-20 years and we want people to really like Howies and know what we stand for.

SL - Would you ever use a traditional marketing tool of the fashion industry like a catwalk show for example?
DH - We don’t do adverts but we love creativity and enjoy doing things other people haven’t done before, like the Bike Cut Up exhibition. We did do a trade show last year because our agent said it would be good for us and stuff. In the end it really wasn’t and we won’t be doing one again!

We do two catalogues a year because we really enjoy making them and we do invite some of our shops to come canoeing or biking or something so we can fill them in on what we’ve got planned for the future. But really we're pretty low-key.

SL - Explain how you source materials and ethical construction techniques?
DH - We’re basically into quality and prefer to use natural fabrics whenever possible. We choose materials for good reasons, like 100% NZ Merino wool for our hats, The sheep have evolved so the base layer of their wool doesn’t hold smell, because they trap less smell they need to be washed less, meaning it creates less impact when people wash them less than they may do with other materials.

We do also use manmade materials but only if they're the best material for the product. Our bags are manmade so they will last and not just fall apart. We have just employed a production person too. They will help to source materials we like as well we techniques to use to make a better product, as naturally as possible. We wouldn't try making something rainproof out of a cotton weave, its better to use gore-tex for example.

SL - Have achieved what you set out to?
DH - Not yet, we still have some stuff we need to do. Right now we're on a journey from tiny to small and I do think we're helping to make people think. We basically want to build our company and develop our range our way. We don’t mind how long it takes as long as we manage to build a strong company.

SL - How do now you see the future of Howies?
DH - We'll build up a strong team and carry on as we want to. It's going to be interesting as we don’t know where our journey will take us. We want to look back in years to come and see that people love Howies… Because if they do, we’ll know we made the right decisions.

www.howies.co.uk