Customer Appreciation Post – Sìoda
For our latest addition to our ‘Davpack Talks To’ selection, we interviewed an incredible eco-friendly company called Sìoda. Sìoda is a sustainable business that rents out high-quality and fashionable designer clothing at an affordable price. Pieces can be paid for as a one-off rental or consumers can pay for a subscription, earning 4 clothing items per month. The company was created by two women – Naomi and Alex – based in Stirling, Scotland as an effort to lower the fashion industry’s impact on the environment whilst also addressing the social injustice of the unaffordability of quality clothes. Since Sìoda’s launch in December 2020, both Naomi and Alex have helped countless women enhance their wardrobes and increase their confidence for special or important occasions such as weddings and interviews. In this blog, Davpack will delve into the background of Sìoda as an interview with one of the owners – Naomi – will reveal their inspiration for the clothing business and why it was so important to align it with an environmentally-friendly ethos.
The Thought Process Behind the Business
According to Naomi, Sìoda was born for environmental reasons. Due to her background being involved in environmental regulation, Naomi was keen to help change consumer behaviour within the fashion industry. The majority of shopping sustainably means second-hand clothing, swapping with your friends, charity shopping or having hand-me-downs from family. However, this all depends on whether people are the same size as you and because all women have such different body types, finding clothing that fits can be a difficult process. Naomi and Alex have both experienced this first hand due to Naomi being 4’11 and Alex being 5’10. Finding pieces nearby from friends or charity shops in places with smaller populations like Stirling was complicated for both of them in reason to their height and styling differences, alongside charity shops not usually stocking obscure sizes as they do not sell as quickly as the more mainstream measurements. Alex and Naomi noticed this struggle with their own shopping experiences and many others – this is where the idea for Sìoda stemmed from. An easy way to online shop sustainably and to consistently end up with clothes that they feel good in. Naomi further expressed that “it is all well and good leaders saying to people ‘you need to do more to live sustainably’ but the options aren’t there for people or the options that are there are often more complicated, more expensive, quite frankly just not as enjoyable” so our leaders need to find more to set up new ways to encourage environmentally-friendly lifestyles – such as renting clothes instead of buying new – and make it harder for customers to do the wrong thing.
Inequality of the Fashion Industry
On the Sìoda website, it states that the company is ‘committed to improving the way UK society consumes fashion and tackling some of the challenges caused by inequality’. During the interview, Naomi explained part of the reasoning for this aspect of Sìoda was born out of her own personal experience. After being born into a low-income household in a council estate in Bradford, Naomi and her family moved to a wealthy town in Scotland – Dunblane. Once settled in Scotland, her mum – like too many others today – juggled multiple jobs as a single parent and found herself going into debt so she could provide clothes that would help keep her presentable in her new hometown. Naomi experienced some of the social impacts of inequality throughout her youth, such as when shopping with friends, who would be treated differently by shop assistants because it was clear they were more affluent. Or whilst being interviewed for jobs by higher-class brands, her treatment would be extremely contrasting to how people acted towards her during interviews with budget brands. Naomi said “it didn’t particularly bother me personally, I am a pretty confident person, that kind-of washes over me. But it made me very aware of the issue and I know a lot of people do struggle with being judged or held back in that way.” She further went on to say that “it is a sad fact, but it is true that we are judged within seconds of meeting people and that shouldn’t be how it is. When you go into an interview knowing that how you’re dressed impacts how employers will respond to you, your confidence is lowered right from the start, putting you on the back foot. So it is very important to us to try and tackle that.” That is why affordability was – and still is – such an important feature of the business. Sìoda aims to offer premium, designer clothing at a decent price so those on lower incomes can access quality clothes in a convenient, dignified way like everyone else. The pieces offered are meticulously laundered, using eco-friendly methods, to ensure they always arrive in immaculate condition. Naomi and Alex want to further improve the accessibility of their clothes; they are also “working to establish partnerships with social justice organisations that do work with people in poverty, to offer our clothes out to those who need them.” Sìoda donated 5% of their first year’s revenue to Women’s Aid Glasgow, to support them in their efforts to tackle social injustice.
This effort to consider customers’ feelings whilst creating the business has paid off for the two women. Naomi revealed that a lot of individuals explain why they rented the clothes and how it improved their self-confidence whilst wearing them, whether for a special occasion or in their day-to-day life. This consistency of positive feedback has given the company a boost and shown why Sìoda’s rental service is important for so many women.
Sìoda’s Helping Hands and Biggest Successes
Sìoda’s website features a ‘Wall of Thanks’ where the team express their gratitude for companies that have given Sìoda a helping hand with launching and becoming the business that it is today. The first organisation to do this was the charity 2050 Climate Group. Based in Scotland, they work to empower the younger generation. Naomi did a 6-month course with the 2050 Group, called ‘The 2050 Young Leaders Development Programme’ which helps individuals evolve their leadership skills within the climate sector. The programme teaches the participants how to engage with politicians, friends and family, along with how to get ideas off the ground and improve their success. Naomi further went on to say “it really is a fantastic course. They also have a funding pot to help people who do have ideas to get them off the ground”. Once Naomi started to attend the programme, it helped her realise that she did truly want to start Sìoda as a business, the charity also gave her money to set up the initial website. Naomi stated, “this money was enough to get the ball rolling and set up our funding campaign which got us enough money to start buying in clothes and creating the website that you see today. We owe a lot to them.”
Whilst discussing the proudest moments of the company so far, Naomi expressed how launching in December 2020 was the first proud moment. However, Sìoda also received a lot of notice for its sustainability efforts in the runup to COP26 – The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference – Sioda won a VIBES award, in recognition of its environmentally friendly practices. The company was invited to be a part of the Scottish government’s ‘Let’s Do NetZero’ COP26 campaign, and separately Naomi was one of 26 UK individuals honoured on Scottish Power’s COP26 Green Power List in acknowledgement of her personal and professional efforts to tackle climate change. During the interview, Naomi explained how the recognition of Sìoda’s sustainability endeavours is incredibly important. “There is a lot of greenwashing, not just the fashion industry, but in businesses as a whole. So to be able to say, these environmental experts have recognised us and agree that what we’re doing is the right thing for the planet, it is really helpful to be able to put that forward to customers as evidence that we are the real deal.” Customers of Sìoda can enjoy all of their designer pieces without having to worry about false environmental claims and be assured by the awards that when you’re looking for something new to wear, renting from Sìoda is better for the planet than cluttering your wardrobe with more new stuff.
Why Sìoda Chose Davpack
Naomi revealed that she was already aware of Davpack as a packaging supplier from a previous job and was seeking out a sustainable courier packaging option that was attractive for customers. With cardboard being a relatively low-impact option for parcels, she was looking for something also made from recycled material rather than virgin, and Davpack’s name appeared in her search. “What I’ve loved about Davpack’s product beyond its recyclability is how sturdy the box is; we’ve been able to have it sent out and brought back again up to 4 times depending on what the weather has been like. They’re not just single-use boxes and we love that” Naomi further explained that she appreciated how we confirmed that our boxes were made in the UK, improving the sustainability of the packaging due to not having extra air miles on pallet shipments. Sìoda uses our 75% recycled Brown Mailing Boxes which Naomi stated as being “easy to use” for the customer and allows consumers to send clothes back to them without difficulty.
Davpack is always happy to hear that we can help our customers fully protect their items, enabling countless businesses to have happy customers themselves with undamaged items! If you are interested in the cartons that Sioda uses, shop online at Davpack now. Connect with Davpack’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn for a chance to be included in future blogs!
To find out more about Sìoda and how to rent their clothes, click this link: https://siodauk.com/
Rick Stanford
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