Hey starter! Read on for…

1. Nine months ago in FS I interviewed my friend Paul Noble of Spiritland, one of the earliest and most influential listening bars in London, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary. In what can only be called The Best News Ever (for me, at least), Paul and biz partner Sophie Uddin just opened up the latest Spiritland in the brutalist environs of the Barbican (…where I live). Never leaving this place. Check it out when it opens.

2. Meanwhile in Athens is 1OAM, “a sanctuary for modern life.” Love this type of multi-use hub: “It’s possible to eat fresh bread and cinnamon rolls (in the café and bakery); inhale Greek island scents and shop for oils, candles and ceramics (in 1OAM apotheke); bed down for the night (in four 1OAM Lofts); and take a bath with a view of the Acropolis (in the Penthouse).”

3. In Milan, I’ve been reading about The Situation – not the cast member of 2000s cult-classic MTV series Jersey Shore, but the new 400-square-meter building dedicated to fostering and guiding creative talents from underrepresented communities. Very cool.

4. Extremely invested in the journey of Doris Hồ-Kane, who’s building the beautifully blue Bạn Bè, NYC’s first Việt-American bakery. 💙

5. Over in Sausalito, California, sailor-turned-seamstress Emma Casey makes awesome bags from repurposed sailcloth, under the brand Landfall. She writes beautifully about her adventures crisscrossing and exploring the world’s oceans – and her subsequent business journey.

6. And if one of you doesn’t scoop up this 18th-century farmhouse and artist’s studio in Brittany and turn it into the HQ of some incredibly cool and creative pursuit, I seriously might. €315,200. Your accountant might not approve, but we will.

In partnership with Faire

You know the feeling… You wander into a cozy, pitch-perfect shop – a stationery store in a beach town, or a vinyl-and-books spot that also pours an excellent flat white – and think, “I could do this.” (Spider-Man has his spider-sense; we’ve got our starter-sense.)

Judging by For Starters’ reader survey, plenty of you are daydreaming about your own shop. But stocking it for opening day is as stressful as it is exciting. It’s a huge investment before you’ve made a single sale, and the fear of unsold stock is very real.

So for the next 4 Fridays, we’re going to stock a For Starters shop together – and work out what it really takes to build an opening inventory, with Faire lending a hand. 🛍

Faire is the online wholesale marketplace where indie shops buy from 100,000+ vetted brands worldwide. 700,000+ shops use it to stock up on home goods, apparel, beauty, food and more. (FYI, wholesale means buying straight from brands to sell in your own shop, so sadly that candle for your coffee table has gotta wait.)

Here’s the cool thing for starters: because opening a shop comes with so many upfront costs, Faire offers eligible retailers up to $20K in 60-day payment terms, interest-free, to stock up before they open. Your shelves fill up now, and you can sell before the invoice is due.

Next week we’ll work out what it costs to stock. Then we’ll go brand-hunting, and on Oct 30th we’ll ‘open’ the doors. First, you pick the shop:

MTTR (short for MATTER) makes jeans from waste materials, and was shortlisted in the sustainable design category of the 2025 Dezeen Awards (from 4,300+ entries). And yet Bob doesn’t quite believe in sustainability. Or at least in the way we normally use the word. As you’ll read below, he prefers to talk about responsibility.

The North Wales-based biz owner also avoids calling MTTR a business altogether. He prefers to call it a question or even a publishing company – a nod to the gorgeous printed catalog he makes in place of posting on social media. He ships it to a growing list of friends, creatives and others around the world.

And sure, some of them might buy a pair of jeans one day. But as Bob explains, that’s not really the point. And I believe him. Here’s why…

Several years ago I went through a period of illness, which led me to take the difficult decision to leave a much-loved job, working for a much-loved denim company. And it was during a time of recovery that I started to think about starting my own denim brand.

It was an idea I’d had for many years, but the question I’d always ask myself was this:

“Given we’re already drowning in waste clothing, does the world need more jeans?”

Of course, the answer is no. Especially when you understand the environmental impacts of the global denim industry.

Thanks. Jeans are one of the world’s most popular garments, so that’s going to come with a heavy price tag in lots of different ways, from garment workers to the environment and resources, which that video captures quite nicely as well.  

I basically realised I was asking myself the wrong question. The question wasn’t: Does the world need more jeans? It was: “If I’m making something the world doesn’t need, how will I make a difference?” That was the starting point for MTTR.

Well… it took over two years to get to the start line. So let’s just say I’ve not broken any records for getting a product to market!

And in those two years whilst I was trying to get the jeans made, I left some people feeling disappointed and indifferent about MTTR, because I overpromised and underdelivered. That didn’t feel great. I needed to learn from that.

Not a perfectionist, an optimist! I was just convinced it wouldn’t take as long as it did. That was perhaps my first business lesson. But I’m reminded of this great quote by the long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie: “No race begins at the start line.” There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears just to announce to the world that you are here. 

That there’s a reason why no-one makes a 100% easily recyclable jean using 100% recycled cotton. Because it’s 100% hard!

That’s largely down to the fact that the denim, detachable buttons, and labels I needed didn’t exist when I set out. That was a shock to me because I thought I could just ring up a mill or a button supplier. The industry wasn’t set up to make the kind of product I wanted to make.

Exactly. Take the waistband label – a tiny little detail on the jeans. The only label supplier who would consider making a label from 100% recycled cotton (and not polyester) told me I would need to buy over 3,000 metres (or two miles) of fabric to meet their minimum order quantity. That’s a lot of labels. 

The numbers are astronomical for something that’s so small, because no other jean brand uses recycled cotton on their jeans. So, every element of the jean – hardware, fabric – had to be sourced and started from scratch which took a long time.

No doubt, there’s been plenty of hurdles to overcome. I was blessed to have the help and support of Mohsin Sajid and Sadia Rafique of the denim design consultancy Endrime. Easily the hardest-working and most forward-thinking team in denim.

It’s a slow list-building model. And again, this is another great business lesson I learned. I made a bunch of jeans and then I sold a bunch of jeans and now everyone I know and everyone they know now has the jeans. And now I have no jeans, so I have to find more people! And I don’t really do social media…

Yes! That’s exactly it (laughs).

I’m not anti-tech. The thought of holding a little mic to my face and saying “Hey guys!” just sends me cold. And the idea of endlessly feeding the Insta machine doesn’t appeal. That audience isn’t really MTTR’s followers; they’re Meta’s users. And Meta can put them out of reach at the touch of a button. I much prefer a slower offline conversation.

Thanks! Yes, with lots of help from photographer Jim Marsden, designer Jim Sutherland, artist Rebecca Kaye, and writers Nick Parker and Mark Shayler, I produce a small seasonal catalog (or CTLG as I call it).

It seems to work. Off the back of the CTLG, Sir Paul Smith invited us to meet him (and talk denim) at his amazing office in Covent Garden, which turned out to be the greatest day of my working life. 

And without trying to sound too cute, that's real engagement.

And it’s not really trying to sell anyone anything. The world has plenty of jeans. It’s about giving someone value without expectation. Print is powerful.

Sadly, thanks to ‘sustainability marketing’, a very clear and guiding principle has become the accepted term for: we’re-doing-something-vaguely-better-for-the-planet-whilst-also-doing-lots-of-really-dumb-things-but-we-think-our-customers-and-shareholders-will-like-it.

So I prefer to focus on responsibility. And a responsible place to start is for us all to agree that the most sustainable jean is the jean you already own.

If you’d asked me that a few weeks ago I would have said Sir Paul Smith… tick! I’ve got a long list of creative trailblazers I’d love to meet: regenerative fashion designer Christopher Raeburn, zero-waste chef Douglas McMaster, biodesigner Dom Bridges, environmental designer Finn Harries, and British fashion designer Margaret Howell (to whom I also send the MTTR CTLG). 

Mrs Howell is such a brilliantly consistent and creative designer who makes clothes for life, not seasons or trends. And much like Sir Paul, is a national treasure. ☼

→ Want to get on MTTR’s catalog mailing list? Head here.

Building a company in 2026 → Everything is distribution (above)

The Row → Whatever they’re doing, it’s working…

Pizza beans → Who among us will build the first pizza beans food truck?

Going viral → A dream for some, a nightmare for others.

Bulletin → A fast & visual way to save links and share lists of links, made by FS subscriber Tim Masek.

Tasteful → “An exclusive one-day summit that brings fashion and food together,” with some FS subscribers as speakers. In NYC next week.

Where indie shops go shopping → Notebooks to tinned fish, all from vetted brands at wholesale prices. Eligible retailers get 60-day payment terms, interest-free, so your shelves fill up before the bills do. *In partnership with Faire.

Does every founder need a following? Signals

The buyers will see you now. How a small group of kingmakers became the most watched people in menswear. Wimpy

Meet the designer behind some of LA’s coolest cafe branding, A-frames, and interiors. Of All Places LA

What is LinkedIn? William Davies

27-year-old started a run club to meet new people – now his NYC side hustle brings in $640K a year. Make It

58.6% → The rise in CD revenue in the first half of 2026. (Related: “If you can’t hold it, you don’t own it: why media fans want to escape algorithms with CDs, DVDs and vinyl.”)

Online Ceramics x Wikipedia

And a big shoutout to new FS subscriber Holden Bonwit, co-founder of Canada-based SparkBlocks. CEO of the biz Mark Vaughan invented the toys he wished he’d had as a kid: electronic building blocks that click right onto LEGO bricks. They’ve got real working circuits, but no wires and no soldering. He and Holden raised CA$638K on Kickstarter last year. Welcome to For Starters, Holden!

Tell your friends. Thousands of biz-builders around the world read For Starters every week. Thanks for being one of them. Know a starter who might enjoy it? I’d appreciate it if you forwarded this email to them!

Brand partnerships. Want to talk to the next generation of small biz owners? There are a limited number of sponsorship slots available for 2027 → Let’s talk

What are you working on? I love featuring subscribers, so get in touch and tell me your biz dreams → [email protected]

—DG