Naadam Cashmere' Success

Naadam Cashmere is a socially responsible, integrity driven brand that focuses on high end cashmere sweaters and accessories for men and women. They have seen tremendous success in their launch and through their kickstarter online fundraising campaign. I had a chance to catch up with the co-founder, Matt Scanlan to learn more about the company and the inspiration behind it all.

Times Square: What is the inspiration behind Naadam's brand integrity and being a socially conscious company? How do you think that this makes you stand out versus other major retailers and high-end designers?

Matt Scanlan: The inspiration for the brand grew out of the initial efforts. We actually started as a philanthropic company and were especially driven by Mongolian nomadic herders. The founder lived with them and found out that they were struggling to maintain the culture, due to the ever-changing climate. The fact is that if these people can't maintain a herd, they can't feed their families. Their lives revolve around their herds.

A lot of cultures don't know how to do anything else other than the trade that has been in their family for years. This is a traditional kind of lifestyle- herding livestock. We ended up buying the cashmere fiber- raw materials from the herders and it just made sense that we decided to make sweaters out of it. We love fashion and looked at it as a serious interest. In the end, it was exactly who we were. Early on, we would design things that we wanted and have strategy meetings in order to get feedback. The meetings were very informal but extremely informative. They were basically small focus groups that we tested on friends, so we grew very organically as a company.

Giving back and caring about where the things you make come from is truly the epitome of integrity and quality. If you're going to sell something in the industry, quality has to be at the forefront. We also make things that people want. We don't claim to be geniuses of fashion design, but we care about what we make, who we make it for and who we source our raw materials from. We like to think of our styling as contemporary and we design a new collection based on what we're interested in. Our identity will always reflect who we are and the generation that we come from.

TS: The brand is based on the concept of the owners of the company being self-named "urban nomads". Can you tell us exactly what that means?

MS: It kind of evolved over the lifetime of itself and it was in response to the generation we reside in. We currently are living in the midst of a job market that really doesn't exist and is sporadic. We have people moving around the country to find better living and job opportunities. They're quite nomadic. We are moving and acting differently and that is now a part of everyday lifestyles.

The collection is fashioned after mirroring that lifestyle. We don't want to cross hairs with what Mongolian nomads do, but we're living a comparative lifestyle, from the base and end of the supply chain. The 'urban nomad' is always in coffee shops with their laptop, in the park, office, hustling around, riding their bike, being their own boss, etc. We have friends that are part of that lifestyle; like a surfer that joined the navy and another who is a traveling journalist. That is where the inspiration drew from. It's who we want to be and who we want our customers to be. Every sweater is named after a friend, so they're personal as well.

TS: Out of all fashion categories, why are sweaters the focal part of the brand? And why cashmere?

MS: We started with this desire to be philanthropists. We realized that the people that we were helping were harvesting the best fiber in the world. It's an unbelievable material. We have a similar sense of style and love sweaters. I personally have about 200 sweaters in my closet. It was super organic and the concept really started to come together.

We are very interested in where we get our materials from. We want to change the way that the industry is working. Small changes and caring about the people and who it is that is manufacturing, not just the product, should be at the forefront of retailers more often. We're in a global economy where people all over the world are connected. We'd like to help to connect those dots.

We had all these pieces in place and pretty much taught ourselves everything since we didn't have fashion backgrounds. We did a lot of work and research before we could make something that we wanted to call Naadam. We landed with sweaters because of the material and the way it all came together. It felt like it represented who we were, generationally.

Our fall collection will premiere soon and we will be expanding a little bit. Currently, we're looking at multi seasonal collections and some lightweight pieces that offer more versatility. We brought in our first designer who is freelancing for us right now. As a small company, little things make such a big difference. We never lose our passion. Every day is new and exciting. We're in a new area and phasing things to figure out our next moves as a brand.

TS: Where does the word Naadam come from?

MS: Naadam is actually the name of a Mongolian festival that has been going on for thousands of years. Nomads and city dwellers come together to celebrate heritage and culture. Our goal is to help preserve the culture, the value, the beauty of the people and to keep them herding. That is a celebration of all that we are trying to protect and honor. They have amazing ancient arts featured there like archery, the longest horse race, ancient games, wrestling and so much more. The determination and strength behind the people is what prompted us to name our brand after their festival.

TS: Where can we purchase your sweaters and accessories?

MS: Right now we have two boutiques carrying the accessories. We recently shut down our ecomm website in order to revamp it. We are currently pushing sales efforts through kickstarter. The goal is to invest into the business more through that campaign.
Over the course of the next 6-8 months we are looking to expand the brick and mortar side of the business in NYC, DC, Boston etc. and doing some trade shows in the fall and winter. The goal is to build another e-comm and deliver high quality at a lower price. We never, ever sacrifice quality but we want to provide our consumers with a price point that they can appreciate as well.

You can find Naadam on Facebook and Twitter and visit their website to learn more about the brand in its entirety.

Qiana L Williams

Singer/songwriter and author, Qiana Williams uses her professional fashion background to report on the hottest in trend and style for men and women, beauty and more.

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