Flipping the script on exploitation in fashion
Designed in Bangladesh, Made in Europe.
We launched a sneaker as a disruptive statement to mainstream fair fashion and shine a light on creativity in Bangladesh
When was the last time you bought a sneaker designed in Bangladesh and manufactured in Portugal? Or any other product for that matter?
Probably never. Unfortunately.
That's precisely the idea behind DESIGNED IN BANGLADESH, MADE IN EUROPE.
We kicked off 2023 by launching a disruptive vegan sneaker to challenge the fashion industry’s cliché of designing in so-called developed countries, then producing unethically, unsustainably and unfairly in the Global South.
We helped introduce the কাঁঠাল Kamthala, made by eco sneaker brand ekn with a launch campaign and global PR strategy
As the reaction to the recent faux adidas stunt at Berlin fashion week shows, younger generations are increasingly demanding meaningful change by brands - not just greenwashing.
Working with the unknown
Our main challenge was that ekn is a relatively unknown brand outside of Germany, and the designer Rokaiya is pretty much a completely unknown Bangladeshi designer. Until now that is… Also as the campaign is inherently critical of some of the fashion and retail industry’s practices, many publications we contacted were conscious of not wanting to critique their major advertisers. Despite this our ambitions were sky-high.
Next level persistence
Through our knack for storytelling and by mobilising a team of PR experts across Amsterdam, Munich and Miami - plus a lot of persistence - we pushed the cause of fair fashion significantly further into mainstream thinking through this disruptive campaign.
And this is just the start.
To date, we managed to get 48 articles in leading publications reaching an audience of 1.7 billion globally. We’ve got the sneaker onto German TV, plus many articles all across the German media landscape, including Esquire, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Vegconomist, and an interview in Business Punk. Added to that we placed international features in the likes of Fashion United, Trendwatching, Adweek, Ad Age, Muse by Clio and many more. Our US team even managed to get ekn’s founder an interview in Bloomberg and an interview with the (previously) unknown designer, Rokaiya in Forbes. A career changing, possibly life changing opportunity for our ambitious designer.
Read some of the articles below
Or check out the media report here with links to all the press
