Designing a Sustainable, Fashion Brand with Hamilton Perkins

“The future should be sustainable materials.” After years in finance, Hamilton Perkins discovered his new calling while shopping for a bag. A bag that he couldn’t find. This led him to found Hamilton Perkins Collection, a certified b-corp that crafts bags from recycled plastic bottles and lined with repurposed billboards. Talk about an engaging brand story! We explored all of this and more on this week's On Brand podcast.

 About Hamilton Perkins

Hamilton Perkins is the founder and President of Hamilton Perkins Collection, an e-commerce retailer, offering designer travel bags at an affordable price, while holding the highest standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

Hamilton Perkins Collection has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Post, and Money Magazine. Hamilton Perkins Collection has hosted trunk shows at Bloomingdale’s and was the winner of the 2016 Virginia Velocity Tour business pitch competition hosted by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Prior to starting Hamilton Perkins Collection, Hamilton was an Investment Advisor at Merrill Lynch and, earlier, worked as an Analyst at Bank of America. He has also served in a leadership capacity with various non-profit organizations and has been recognized for his volunteer work and service hours assisting low-income populations. Hamilton is also a contributing blogger for The Huffington Post.

Episode Highlights

“It started with a personal problem, really.” The story of the founding of Hamilton Perkins Collection starts with the founder. “I was looking for a bag that I couldn’t find. I realized I was going to have to create it.”

“I’ve always had an aesthetic.” While he worked in finance, Hamilton was always into fashion and design. “My background played into that. I’d also seen all of the waste in packaging and materials.” There had to be a better way!

“The future should be made of sustainable materials.” That’s why Hamilton Perkins Collection uses recycled bottles, vinyl, and billboard in their bags. The bags are also cut and sewn in Hatai.

What’s the biggest brand problem Hamilton Perkins Collection faces? “Style with a purpose can be hard to communicate.” A big focus of Hamilton’s work is stressing that people can have fashionable bags from sustainable sourcing.

To learn more, go to hamiltonperkins.com, where guests of the show can save using promo code on brand. Thanks, Hamilton!

As We Wrap …

Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community …

Recently, Joe Morris gave us a shout on Twitter for our episode featuring Michael Brenner.Thanks for listening!

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