howies® Case Study

"The thing that has not changed since day one is the desire to make people think about the world we live in. This is, and always will be, why we are in business." 
David Hieatt, howies®

West Wales-based howies® operates in the overcrowded, ultra-competitive ‘high-impact’ sports clothing and accessories market. howies® makes clothing for mountain bikers, skaters, snowboarders and anyone who likes getting out into the great outdoors. David and Clare Hieatt started howies® in 1995 from the living room floor of their London flat, launching the brand with four t-shirts. They put their thoughts onto these shirts in the belief that if enough people thought like them, they would sell. And sell they did. The company is now owned by Timberland.

howies® has won numerous international design awards and has been listed as one of the UK’s top ‘ethical brands’. howies® embraces social and ethical responsibility (donating one percent of its annual revenue to environmental and social projects). The company aspires to be a low-impact clothing company and tries to communicate these brand values to its target market. This low impact is achieved through the careful selection and use of organic material where possible, the respect shown for employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders, and the way the organisation interacts with the natural environment.

howies® sources most of its organic fibres from Turkey, where it has its own farms, and uses a vertical production system to grow, spin, knit or weave the fabric. The company has been working like this for a number of years now and has become very efficient.

howies® believes in simplicity and in function, understanding that it is critical to raise designers’ awareness of the benefits of being sustainable and responsible, because design has a key role to play in bringing business into line with sustainability concerns. Currently the company feels that there are relatively few sustainable products; however, this could change if just a few designers led the way in showing the benefits of ecodesign and sustainability.