Praveen Premkumar and his team have been scouring the market for leftover materials – materials that could be used to make bags and accessories that would otherwise land up in landfills. One of their sources is a government-authorised car scrapping unit in Haryana. Most of the bags made by their startup Hugo Artur Leo LLP and sold under the brand ‘No More’ at NoMoreOfMore.com, get their webbings from the seat belts of scrapped cars. Another source is a harness manufacturing company, whose material is strong enough to hold up people hanging from buildings.
The website went live on 19th May after nearly a year of groundwork, says Premkumar, one of three co-founders. He underlines that ‘No More’ is ‘not another greenwashing thought’ but a commitment to make use of things discarded at factories to create a fashion brand that lasts.
Admittedly, the market is ‘not yet there’, but he believes that there is a large enough addressable audience for the business to be profitable in months. And there are some things going for ‘No More’. Since they are made from leftover and recycled materials, no two products are the same. Every piece, by default, is exclusive.
“It took three to four months to figure out how to play around with the materials,” explains Premkumar, a declared advocate for sustainability and climate change, and Chair – Climate Change at CII YI Gurugram.
The brand is also offering free lifetime repairs (paying only shipping cost) backed by its confidence in the product quality and commitment to sustainability. An ‘Assured Buyback’ programme promises a 25 percent discount voucher on the next purchase on the site.
Accessories start at Rs. 3,750 while backpacks start at Rs. 6,750. The Co-founder believes there is a market of conscious consumers who want to make a difference, even at this price point.
“We don’t want to scale and sell millions of bags. The objective is to stick to a niche and do multiple products. We want to make a real difference. Around 95 to 98 percent of raw materials used are upcycled, recycled (and other such) materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. On every product there is information on the material used and where it has been sourced from. It is completely transparent,” he adds.
The threads and zips used are also from leftovers and discards. Says Premkumar, “It is not just the fabric. We keep looking at new sources for all the materials. We are talking to various suppliers, including car companies.”
The intent of the bootstrapped company is to break even, which it hopes to in a few months, not grow the valuation like a typical investor-funded D2C startup wooing consumers at high acquisition costs.
‘No More’ intends to sell on the brand’s own platform and not on mass online marketplaces. If at all it gets onto other platforms, it would be on a high street store like VegNonVeg.com, explains Premkumar. He believes the ‘influencer’ route has been abused and states that word-of-mouth is likely to help the brand. The brand will have a play in the lifestyle / fashion space. The advertising and marketing efforts haven’t begun yet.
“It’s a niche proposition and word-of-mouth is what we want. I would cringe if an ‘influencer’ promotes our product. But we would love to collaborate with people who genuinely believe in the cause and the brand. We are in talks with a few people from the fashion space,” says Premkumar.
On the potential for partnership with a larger brand or company, he avers, “We wouldn’t mind that happening as long as the big label adding their capability is equally invested in the thought and it is not just a marketing gimmick. We need to be involved in the process and keep the quality in our hands.”
