This is all wrong

Let me preface this rather long post by reassuring you of a few things: I believe in competition; I believe that generally fast and smart should get rewarded and that slow and dumb should not; I believe mostly in sinking or swimming; I believe in the marketplace and in the power of the individual to determine the fate of ideas when presented on a fair field of play.

But, even with all of that in mind, with the recent announcement that Nau - the world-friendly activewear brand - is closing its doors, it seems appropriate to share some thoughts on why sometimes market forces are wrong and why every once in a while, we must act to preserve strong ideas which are, temporarily, at risk of being overtaken by stronger forces.

Nau is a brand that started out of Portland, Oregon and really first rose to national attention at the end of last summer. They are a bunch of ex- Nike and Patagonia guys who were acting on the vision of a guy from Colorado who had an idea that businesses should set social considerations equal to those of shareholders and returns on investment. Going beyond the token 1% contribution of revenue to social causes (nothing against Patagonia and their saintly work with 1% for the Planet), Nau dedicated 5% of every sale to charities that their customers could select - almost $250K in their short life span. They used verifiably eco-friendly materials for all their designs and made the sourcing open to the rest of the industry (it’s usually a huge trade secret). They developed a new way of thinking about shops, where customers who decided to order from the shop for home delivery - thereby reducing emissions related to inventory jockeying - got a 10% discount (thanks BWJ!).

Say what you want about the design style, take a less active stance on what businesses must do to “do their share,” even shout at them for fiddling a bit with the way that people shop for apparel…

But when, on the same day, the newspaper tells us that the price of oil is going to reach $200/bl AND Exxon Mobil posts the second largest Q2 profit in its history AND a company that set out to do the right thing in a way that improves life and living for us all is folding because it can’t get some funding to keep the lights on through a recessionary period - IT MEANS THERE IS SOMETHING REALLY, REALLY WRONG!!!

So here’s an idea for the guys at Nau:

Set up a website called www.savenau.com - I just reserved it and you can have it for free.

Post a letter on the site indicating what it will take financially to keep things going for another 12 months - about 90 days after the election…

Offer a single special share in the company to customers, suppliers, vendors and utility providers who work with you - they contribute what they can.

They get to own a % in that share equal to their contribution so long as the sum gets you near the money you need.

Perhaps your investors will make up the rest knowing that so many people are behind you.

Good luck!

FYI - for a full obit, or for a reason to help them take up the challenge of surviving, check out this piece at Treehugger