031. Sierra Brodleit and Arjen Laan: A Candid Conversation Between Brand and Supplier

This week we are doing something we’ve never done before: talking to a brand, and their supplier, together! Relationships between brands and suppliers can be contentious, but it doesn’t have to be that way. And our guests this week prove it.

Sierra Brodleit is Director of Operations & Finance for ChicoBag. Chico Bag is a registered B-corp whose mission is to eliminate single use waste, especially plastic. As part of that mission they sell reusable shopping bags and totes. Arjen Laan is the CEO of Pactics, a manufacturing company in Cambodia. Pactics makes the reusable shipping bags and totes that Chico Bag sells.

Together, they paint a picture of the Pactics/Chico Bag relationship. How did it come about? How do they work together? And how is this different to other brand-supplier relationships they’ve experienced? What are the conditions that made this relationship possible?

Want to dig deeper ?

Find out more about ChicoBag.

Check out our interview with the owner of Pactics, Piet Holten.

We loved this article by Margaret Heffernen, the author of Uncharted, a book that explores how forecasting fails us and better ways of living, working and thinking in the face of uncertainty. If this article leaves you craving more, we recommend checking out her Ted talk, too.

And last but not least, check out Kim’s article on why shared risk the key to radically transforming the fashion industry.

Check out the report by Transformers Foundation.