A new Australian designed brand of men’s outdoor clothing has recently launched to Australian adventurers.
Wild recently chatted with the founder of Soartd, Tim Howes, about what led to creation of the business.
“I’d just finished another decade in the corporate life, and like many others like me, I started to consider what was next. I reflected on what else I was really passionate about in life and also on whether I might be able to do something that would make a positive difference to others.”
“There were two major themes that kept resonating for me. The first was what is often referred to as flow or the connection between yourself and your environment. The second theme was minimalism and living simply.”
“It was really from these seeds that the idea of Soartd emerged. The inspiration for the name Soartd came from a compilation of the words soaring – or the feeling of smoothly ‘flying’ by riding natures energy waves, and sorted – meaning everything having its place.”
“I realised that my ability to find or stay in flow was mostly influenced by my mind-set, the environment, and the clothes I was wearing. Having a clear head, with less stuff in my life, and less on my mind, made it much easier to be in, and enjoy, the moment.”
“Owning less clothes, but instead ensuring those that I did possess could be used across a broad range of activities, that those clothes would provide comfort and freedom of movement, made a big difference to how fully I was able to engage in an activity and find my flow.”
“I spent more than a year in development, designing and testing the clothing range for Australian conditions. I searched globally to find the right fabrics, components and suppliers. I personally spent three months in Vietnam supervising the production of the clothes. At the end of 2017 Soartd launched with an initial collection of thirteen styles.”
“At Soartd we provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee on the clothes we produce. We’ve designed them to last more than ten, and we wish to inspire outdoorsmen to trial and wear them repeatedly, with the absolute confidence that the clothes can be returned at any time within the first year of their use, for a full refund.”
“Now I’ve set myself the mission of encouraging more outdoorsmen to find flow through exercise, outdoor adventure and travel. To support that mission, I want to provide a coordinated but minimalist collection of high performance clothing that is designed to be super functional, flexible, comfortable, easy and durable.”
“My challenge now, is to encourage and inspire others to venture out and find flow, to declutter their wardrobes and steer clear of fast fashion. And when they do need more clothes, to trial the Soartd range, and hopefully feel the quality and appreciate the comfort, simplicity, utility and durability offered through the Soartd collection.”
“Our future vision is to continue to inspire and share flow experiences and to fully engage with our customers to provide them an ever improving but still very minimalist collection of the highest quality outdoor clothing, with a level of service second to none.”
Check out the Soartd website here.