🧦Straight Outta Europe
Made in Portugal, Doechii Billboards Woman of the Year, Nigel Sylvester x Jordan, Ravel's raise, Tony Touch at Aimé Leon Dore, Arvin Goods...
Happy Sunday,
We were told this week that you have to mention a topic in marketing at least 17 times to consumers before they understand what you are doing. 17 TIMES! What? Makes sense, though, so much content, so much product, and so many “experts,” influencers, athletes, and famous people…. you can’t keep up. On the brand side however, certain topics are like the song the radio has played a million times; you think everyone knows it and no one wants to hear it again. So here it is again, maybe for the 17th time. From 2022-2024, we worked on re-sourcing our socks out of China and into Portugal. Primarily, it was because our main material, recover fiber, is produced in Spain, and moving raw materials around the world is very inefficient. Not Ironically, it was also because we were scared of the geopolitical trade issues and the effects on our business from a possible second Trump administration. But most importantly, it was because we had found a reliable partner in Portugal who could make high-quality socks for us.
*Added bonus: if you’ve been to Portugal, then you can imagine it’s pretty easy to come up with a reason for a work trip😉.
“Made in…” is the buzz right now given what is going on with global trade. We made the right decisions for the company, and considering the current situation, having our two manufacturing stories be “Made in Europe” and “Made in America” sounds pretty good. European manufacturing, and specifically Portuguese textiles, are known to be some of the best-made items in the world, the biggest brands you can name comb over Portugal for materials and production that are generations in the making. We introduced the recover material to our knitting partner, and they have worked very hard for a few years now to help us perfect our socks. It can be surprisingly complicated to make such a basic product, but we feel we have finally really nailed it. Over the next few weeks we are going to start to roll out some new colors for spring. You’re going to hear about new socks, Portugal, and how great we think it all is at least 17 times!
Enjoy the news below, and have a great week!
Hope you enjoy today’s Clean Up. We would love to hear from you. Comment here on substack hit us on social, or email us at info@arvingoods.com. Have a great week. Cheers,
Team AG ✌️🧦
Stories Of The Week…
Design
Doechii named 2025 Woman of the Year by Billboard - AP
The rising rapper Doechii has earned the title of Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year, landing her in the same company as Taylor Swift, SZA, Lady Gaga and as last year’s honoree, Karol G.
The news arrives just one month after Doechii won the Grammy for best rap album, only the third woman to win in that category.
When it came time to give her award speech, the tears were immediate. “This category was introduced in 1989. Two women have won, Lauryn Hill —” she said, correcting herself. “Three women have won. Lauryn Hill, Cardi B and Doechii.”
Now she will be honored as Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music Awards on March 29. Previous honorees include Madonna, Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande.🎤📰
Fashion
Nigel Sylvester Just Dropped His Spiciest Air Jordan Collaboration Yet - GQ
There’s nobody doing it quite like Nigel Sylvester. The BMX icon blazed a pretty singular trail throughout his career, eschewing competition for a career driven by social media, video logs, and leaning into the artistry of his sport rather than the competitive elements. Who needs a gold medal at the X-Games when you’re a household name on your own terms? Sylvester’s career has crossed with the worlds of hip-hop, basketball, fashion, and of course, sneaker culture.👟🧱🚲
Industry
Ravel’s technology teases the spandex out of tossed apparel to enable enviro friendly recycling - GeekWire
As the sayings go, you can’t unscramble an egg or un-ring a bell. But Seattle startup Ravel has accomplished a similar feat in pursuit of clothes recycling.
The company on Tuesday announced it has raised an undisclosed sum of pre-seed funding to expand its deployment of a proprietary, planet friendly technology that unwinds the components of fabric blends.
Ravel has targeted the textile fiber known as elastane, which is also called spandex or Lycra. It’s added to athletic wear, jackets, jeans, underwear, socks, t-shirts, gloves and every other category of apparel. Even in small amounts, elastane creates big problems.
“It lets things be stretchy. It lets them recoil,” said Ravel CEO Zahlen Titcomb. “It’s great, but it also makes all that clothing not recyclable.”🧦👨🏻🔬
Entertainment
Tony Touch at 214 Mulberry Aimé Leon Dore - YouTube
The OG Tony Touch live from one of our favorite brands store in NYC. Enjoy! 🗽🔊😁
'The Clean Up' is a weekly newsletter that mixes in some Arvin Goods news, products, as well as stories we saw during the week that are worth a share. From books to podcasts, sustainability to business news, we try to keep it interesting, and fun. If you are not a subscriber, sign up and join everyone who receives The Clean Up directly in their inbox every Sunday.