The progression into designing up-cycled garments has been a natural one.

I come from a family of recyclers. I watched my Grandpa, Dad and Uncle put everything into making a living off scrap plastic. Established in the 1980’s, Cryogrind was one of the first Australian companies of its kind, and remains family run to this day…all be it, like every other local manufacturing industry – challenged by the pressure of cheaper offshore competition.

When I look back now …watching my dad overcome the challenges of producing a commercially viable product using waste materials must have had some impact on me. Until recently I’ve just thought his work was sciency, and something I would never understand. Plus when I was younger my brother and I were paid to clean the smoko room on the weekends – I didn’t need to know much more !

I realise now what my family were doing was ground breaking at the time.

Now when we talk about his work – having to produce a Recycled, Australian made, bubble-gum scented kids gumboot, to the exact PMS c/way specified for a major discount retail chain (of course at the right price), I realise we share a lot of similarities in our craft.

This week I have read a lot of inspirational posts about the fashion revolution. This post is my pledge to supporting a better, healthier fashion industry.

I’ll be the first to admit when I launched Good Sport I wasn’t producing garments from disregarded fabrics, nor was I manufacturing locally. But 3 years on I have learnt – the world is full of unwanted, unloved, price pointed clothing… and that’s not what you all wanted from me.

Last year we created a very small quantity of Up-cycled bomber jackets, and manufactured a small portion of our products locally. This year our collection will be 70% Up-cycled (100% made in Australia), the remaining 30% of fashion will be a combination of local and offshore production – both family run factories who have been with us since the beginning.

Over the coming weeks, during our busy production period we will be documenting and posting more about our ethical processes, fabrics and our suppliers.

– Scrap PVC stock at Cryogrind