FabricAID

FabricAID collects, sorts, and redistributes clothes to disadvantaged communities at micro prices. Our goal is to deliver good quality clothing into the hands of people who need them, while also reducing fabric waste.

The clothing industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. Adding to that, fabric waste constitutes 5% of Lebanon's solid waste. Textiles and Fabric wastes are being found in landfills and in garbage in Lebanon and no one is dealing with this specific issue. In addition, there are no textile repurposing facilities in Lebanon or the Levant area.

By recycling clothes in Lebanon, FabricAID is not only playing an important role in reducing fabric waste in Lebanon, it is also reducing the need to import second-hand clothes from Europe, which carries a huge carbon footprint. 

While tackling these environmental goals, FabricAID is also helping disadvantaged communities to get access to good quality clothing at micro prices through a dignified shopping experience that also empowers them. FabricAID also supports NGOs to get a sustainable income by buying clothes from them and creates jobs, with 65% of FabricAID’s employees coming from underprivileged neighborhoods.

In Lebanon, between citizens and refugees, 2.5 million live in poverty and can't afford first hand clothing. Prices of imported second hand clothes or South East Asian fast-fashion are of low quality and relatively expensive, yet they are the only option for underprivileged communities.

At the same time, more than 3 million citizens in Lebanon are above middle class and have clothes available for donation but they can’t find an appropriate system that can deliver their clothes to those in need. In fact, the already available appropriate clothes for donations exceed the amount needed by underprivileged communities by 1.5 times.

FabricAID bridges the gap between those who have excess clothes and those who need them, while disadvantaged communities get to choose and purchase the exact items they need in a comfortable shopping setting similar to that of traditional retailers.

We organise multiple pop-up markets set up in different underprivileged areas per week, where we talk with our customers and listen to their needs. All of their questions and demands are taking into consideration to ensure we are optimizing the way we are helping them. 

FabricAID collects, sorts, and redistributes clothes to disadvantaged communities at micro prices (between 0.3 and 2 USD per item). Our goal is to deliver good quality clothing into the hands of people who need them, while reducing fabric waste.

We collect new and gently used clothes, shoes, and accessories through our network of smart clothing collection bins located all over Lebanon, by buying items from NGOs who receive clothing donations, and through partnerships with businesses and organizations.

Only items in good condition are selected for redistribution. They are sorted into 46 categories, cleaned, and packaged.

The vast majority of the items collected are sold at pop-up markets that we set up in underdeveloped neighborhoods, and at FabricAID’s own permanent shops.

Clothes that are not fit for resale are sold in bulk to existing second-hand clothing stores. We also shred items into raw materials that can be used in furniture and construction industries.

To empower the creative community, we’ve established our own up-cycled fashion brand, RemAID, a collaboration between local designers, disadvantaged tailors, and international brands, which sells at special fashion exhibitions.

FabricAID is the only enterprise that has created a circular model to collect, sort and redistribute second-hand clothing in Lebanon.

The company developed smart clothing collection bins that are being installed all over Lebanon, currently 40 bins are already installed on the ground. The blue bins are equipped with sensors that monitor the level of clothes and humidity and notify the collection teams when to empty each bin. Each time a bin is emptied, the clothes are weighed and a selected charity receives USD 0.5 per kilogram. 

FabricAID’s bins are the world’s first bins equipped with an independent smart sensor that does not require electricity to provide the central dashboard with the exact GPS location of the bin and the level of clothes and humidity in the bin. The connected dashboard automatically draws collection routes for the driver, drastically increasing operational efficiency.

Furthermore, FabricAID has created a database system capable of tracking every single clothing item in the warehouse or at the distribution channels. The system was developed in house and can track items live allowing FabricAID staff to know how many white male winter socks are available at the warehouse.

The core technology that FabricAID uses is definitely related to the collection of clothes. 

The company developed smart clothing collection bins that are being installed all over Lebanon, currently 40 bins are already installed on the ground. The goal is for this number to reach 100 by the end of 2019. The blue bins are equipped with sensors that monitor the level of clothes and humidity and notify the collection teams when to empty each bin. Each time a bin is emptied, the clothes are weighed and a selected charity receives USD 0.5 per kilogram.

Right now, FabricAID is collecting clothes through their clothing collection bins, by buying items from NGOs who receive clothing donations, and through partnerships with businesses and organizations. In the future, the company aims to rely solely on their clothing collection bins for collecting their clothes. This would decrease the costs of collection significantly, and is thus the core technology that the company utilizes. 

FabricAID has created a database system capable of tracking every single clothing item in the warehouse or at the distribution channels. The system was developed in house and can track items live allowing FabricAID staff to know how many white male winter socks are available at the warehouse.

FabricAID developed a sustainable solution to tackle the problems of fabric waste and supply of good quality clothing to disadvantaged communities in Lebanon.

Aware of the challenges that clothes collection represents, FabricAID created three ways to facilitate it:

1. Purchasing clothes from overburdened and under-resourced NGOs for $0.5 per kilogram, helping them to alleviate expenses and distribution efforts. 

2. Collecting clothes through our smart clothing collection bins located all over Lebanon. 

3. Cooperating with different enterprises and schools to collect more clothes while raising awareness about the problem. 

Once clothes have been collected, they are sorted into over 46 categories and cleaned in our warehouse, which has a capacity of processing 1,000 kilograms per day. Clothes that are appropriate for reuse are sold either through our own permanent shops or through our pop-up markets established multiple times a week in disadvantaged communities, for prices ranging between $0.33 and $2 per item. FabricAID also sells clothing in sorted bales to pre-existing second-hand shops in Lebanon and Syria. 

FabricAID has completed some collaborations to recycle pieces of clothing that are unfit for reuse, such as up-cycling them together with students from ESMOD Fashion School or, with the Orphan Welfare society, shredding them into tiny pieces for them to find their way into furniture.

In less than two years of operations, FabricAID collected 60,000 kilograms of clothes, sold 50,000 items, benefiting 8,000 beneficiaries through 50 pop-up markets. Moreover, the company set up 40 clothing collection bins around Lebanon for sourcing clothing.

In Lebanon, 2.5 million people, between citizens and refugees, live in poverty and are unable to afford decent clothing. The company's goal is to serve all these people by providing them low cost, decent, and good quality clothing collected through FabricAID.  

Besides this, we also are able to serve the more privileged class of society, who don't know what to do with the clothes they do not use anymore. 

In the past year of operations, FabricAID was able to serve 10,000 beneficiaries through setting up 50 pop-up markets, where 50,000 items were sold.

FabricAID plans to expand all over the MENA region in the following years, the first country to which the company will expand is Jordan. In 2020, FabricAID will be fully operational in Jordan. In five years’ time, FabricAID will hopefully be operational in multiple countries in the MENA region. 

From a financial point of view, FabricAID will reach break-even during the third quarter of 2020, and thus be fully sustainable.

FabricAID's main activities, such as the pop-up markets, permanent stores, and the collection of clothes will continue to be expanded and enhanced. 

Besides this, the company will focus more on the up-cycling of clothes. We already did a collaboration before with ESMOD Fashion School and the NGO Sawa for Development and Aid, called RemAID. Together, we turned good quality clothes that could not be sold into unique and fashionable vintage attire. These items were sold at a fashion show put on by FabricAID to middle-class customers, for prices ranging between 100 and 200 USD.

FabricAID also wants to open a vintage store in Beirut; this could generate more revenues than our normal second-hand clothing, give FabricAID more visibility, and attract another pool of customers.

A risk our business model might face, and already faced in the past, is cash shortages. Since FabricAID is a capital intensive business, especially at its developing stage, and since the impact investing community is rather underdeveloped in the region, cash shortages are possible to occur. In order to prevent them from happening, we apply for many competitions and focus on becoming sustainable as fast as possible.

Something else we have to consider are FabricAID's major competitors and/or substitutes, which are NGOs doing free clothing collection and redistribution campaigns, and wholesalers who import second hand clothes and sell it to thrift shops in Lebanon. 

Regarding FabricAID's competitors and/or substitutes, it should be noted that FabricAID has a competitive advantage in the market because suppliers currently sell imported used clothing to second-hand shops at prices ranging from 5 to 12 USD per kilogram. Meanwhile, since FabricAID relies on the capacity of local donors (an opportunity still untapped), prices were radically reduced to an average of 3.2 USD per kilogram while providing a much better quality. This explains how FabricAID will overcome these barriers.

Regarding the cash shortages, the company aims to become sustainable as fast as possible by installing the smart clothing collection bins all over Lebanon as fast as possible. This allows the company to lower its cost of clothing collection and to not rely on third parties in the collection of their clothes. Therefore, we apply to different competitions in order to reach our goal.

Currently, the company employs 15 people full-time and 2 people part-time. 

Our management team consists of 6 people, 5 of them come from Lebanon and one of them is from Syria. 

Our other 11 employees work on the ground, in the pop-up markets, in our permanent store, and in the logistics department. They all come from underprivileged areas.

Hussam Hanouni, our CTO, is a software engineer and has experience in coding and IT infrastructure development, which make him the perfect fit for his role in FabricAID.

 Lynn Abi Aad, responsible for the marketing and communications of FabricAID, graduated from Académie Libanaise Des Beaux Arts in Graphic Design in 2D animation and she created FabricAid's brand identity, visuals, and social media.

Omar Itani, FabricAID’s CEO, is an Industrial engineer with a vast experience in social impact initiatives and entrepreneurial endeavours locally and internationally. His previous experience and his persistency prove how well he fits as a CEO.

Tamara Ghandour, our head of Retail Distribution, has a background in business and a MA in fashion entrepreneurship from the London College of Fashion. She previously worked in both high-end fashion retail with Harrods and in the NGO field. 

Nour Bassam, our head of CSR and Sourcing, has a huge knack for fashion (she studied design at the Lebanese American University) and her previous roles at various humanitarian and environmental organizations gave her the strategic communication skills needed for her position. 

Adnan Al Taleb, our Logistics Officer, has a degree in Mass Communications from Jinan University and was employed at local humanitarian organizations, which gave him the right knowledge to efficiently work with disadvantaged communities. 

Furthermore, we have 11 indispensable employees working in our warehouse, our permanent shops, pop-up markets, and in our logistics department. They all come from underprivileged, mostly rural areas.

Our primary partners include high schools, universities, and a big number of companies located in Lebanon. We partner up with them to install our smart clothing collection bins and to organise "clothing drives". These clothing drives do not only provide us with a big number of clothes, but also raise awareness about the problem regarding second-hand clothes and fabric waste in Lebanon. 

We are currently collaborating with Toters, Uber, and Wakilni who provide free transportation of clothes from their clients to FabricAID. This is not only very helpful for our logistics, but it also gives FabricAID more visibility and works as a marketing campaign for us.

Besides this, we have 20ish partnerships with different NGOs throughout Lebanon from whom we buy used clothes, which gives them a reliable source of income.

The company's very first collaboration was with the capacity building NGO Dot, with who FabricAID trained 12 people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and eventually employed 8 of them full time. This is not our only collaboration regarding the training of our employees and more will definitely follow in the future. 

Your business model describes how you provide value to the populations you serve, both in terms of impact and in terms of revenue. You can summarize it through who your key customers and beneficiaries are, and what product or service you provide and how you provide it.

Our primary target market consists of disenfranchised refugee communities, all age and gender. We estimate there are 2.5 million people who cannot afford quality clothing in Lebanon, and another 75 Million people in the MENA Region where we are aiming to expand. Our secondary target market are middle-class consumers who have excess clothes to donate or are interested in up-cycled fashion items and furniture.

The fixed cost of procuring our clothes is 0.5 USD per kilogram and the variable cost is around 0.33 USD per kilogram. We sell clothes to second hand shops for an average of 3 USD per kilogram. In our own stores and pop-up markets, we sell each item for an average of 1 USD, since each kilogram makes on average 4 items, 1 kilogram generates 4 USD. Thus, FabricAID generates roughly 3 USD of profit out of every kilogram of clothes collected.

Suppliers currently sell imported used clothing to second-hand shops at prices ranging from 5 to 12 USD per kilogram. However, since FabricAID relies on the capacity of local donors (an opportunity still untapped), prices were radically reduced to an average of 3.2 USD per kilogram while providing a much better quality.

To finance its growth, FabricAID is currently relying on equity impact investment, which is, on its turn, invested in the sourcing department and the distribution department of the company. 

The investments in the sourcing department mainly go to the installation of smart clothing collection bins all over Lebanon, the development of our logistics to get the clothes from the bins to the warehouse and from the warehouse to the pop-up markets or permanent stores. It is really important to invest in the sourcing department right now, since this allows us to lower our costs remarkably, which will increase our profits. 

In the distribution department, the money will mainly be used to open new permanent stores, to enhance our brand image and our existent stores, and to increase the number of pop-up markets we are organizing. This will make FabricAID more visible, thus attract more customers.

FabricAID is also planning on opening a vintage store in Beirut, where vintage pieces will be sold for higher prices, allowing the company to make more revenues and to attract another pool of customers.

All the revenues the company is currently making are reinvested in the company to ensure FabricAID's growth.

Applying to Solve will give the company a lot of exposure, something we could definitely use. It also allows us to make more connections with other entities that are working in the circular economy field, which gives us opportunities for future collaborations. 

A part from this, FabricAID's main focus right now is to expand its capacity. The grant will be used to scale up the amount of clothes collected and the amount of clothes distributed, which are two essential factors to increase the company's profits. 

For the clothes collection target, FabricAID will, through the grant, be able to invest in more smart clothing collection bins to be installed all over Lebanon, which is essential for the company's sustainability. The company will also be able to develop the logistics department, by investing in a new truck and new employees.

From the distribution side, FabricAID will be able to organise more pop-up markets, and enhance the decoration of its stores. We will also open a new store in the area of Tripoli, which is one of the poorest cities of Lebanon where many people could benefit from FabricAID’s products. 

In the future, we would like to partner more with fashion retailers and/or fashion brands. These two players often have a big amount of unsold stock, it would be ideal for FabricAID to be able to partner up with them and collect some of their unsold stock. This would also give them a good name, showing that they care about fabric waste and social inequality. 

Besides this, we would also like to partner up with fashion designers for the up-cycling of the items we have that are unfit for sale. We did a previous collaboration with ESMOD Fashion School and the NGO Sawa for Development and Aid, called RemAID. Together, we turned good quality clothes that could not be sold into unique and fashionable vintage attire. These items were sold at a fashion show put on by FabricAID to middle-class customers, for prices ranging between 100 and 200 USD.

The project went well and we would like to develop our brand RemAID, this time with actual fashion designers and not with students, since this would ensure a better quality of the final product, and allows us to sell it for a higher price. 

FabricAID's main focus right now is to expand its capacity. The grant will be used to scale up the amount of clothes collected and the amount of clothes distributed, which are two essential factors to increase the company's profits. 

For the clothes collection target, FabricAID will, through the grant, be able to invest in more smart clothing collection bins to be installed all over Lebanon, which is essential for the company's sustainability. The company will also be able to develop the logistics department, by investing in a new truck and new employees.

From the distribution side, FabricAID will be able to organise more pop-up markets, and enhance the decoration of its stores. We will also open a new store in the area of Tripoli, which is one of the poorest cities of Lebanon where many people could benefit from FabricAID’s products.