After a decade working in the textile industry, Caroline Cockerham and Laura Tripp knew that they wanted to do something different. They saw the environmental challenges of production, including toxic chemicals, long supply chains, and trend-based products destined to quickly end up in landfills. When they launched a startup of their own, called Cicil, they wanted to build something more sustainable.
They also questioned a basic premise of business: Is innovation always a good thing?
They’d seen other companies chase it. “Often, from our experience working in big brands, ‘innovation’ was synonymous really with newness, and it was fueled by the marketing machine,” says Cockerham. “You know: sales, sales, sales. Give us something new so that we can tell another story and make more money.”
But supposed improvements in technology aren’t always positive. In the world of textiles, for example, coatings on rugs or sofas that are designed to repel stains are often made with PFAS, the toxic “forever” chemicals that are linked to health problems. More broadly, it’s not unusual for tech to have unintended consequences; at the biggest scale, the technologies that made the Industrial Revolution possible led to climate change. The demand for electric cars is impacting water supplies and biodiversity in South America as lithium mining booms. There are countless other examples.
The churn of new technology continues, and it’s hard to argue that work should slow on new climate tech, for instance, even when it isn’t perfect. But some companies, like Cicil, are also returning to older techniques and deliberately choosing slower production methods over speed.
The company makes wool rugs, working with local supply chains and traditional manufacturing methods. The wool is undyed; to make shades of gray, the designers mix black and brown wool that otherwise couldn’t be used. It’s a “slow home” brand—similar to slow fashion, aimed at producing well-made items with a simple aesthetic that people keep for decades rather than replacing whenever the next trend emerges.
The designers started with the material, rather than creating a design and trying to source materials from around the world. They met with a co-op that works with small wool farmers in upstate New York, and found wool that wasn’t always getting used because it was a little too coarse for things like sweaters. “It doesn’t have a really well-established market,” says Tripp. “And often, because it’s produced in small batches by small farmers, they don’t have a place to sell their wool, and it ends up getting composted or even burned. We’ve been able to unlock a supply chain that really pulls together this material that is often going to waste and turn it into something that’s really high value.”
A third-generation textile mill in North Carolina, with some of the last remaining wool-carding machines in the United States, processes the wool. It’s washed, but otherwise untreated. Then it’s braided in a way that’s similar to how early pioneers made rugs from scraps.
Wool is naturally antimicrobial and stain resistant. “We’re really letting the material do the work there, versus adding something on that’s not necessary,” says Tripp. “We’re trying to simplify things as much as possible and ask the question, Why do we need to change this?”
That’s not to say they’re rejecting every new idea. Traditionally, black wool hasn’t been used because it couldn’t be dyed (hence the negative connotations of “black sheep”). By blending it with other shades of wool, the company can save it from being discarded. Innovation isn’t always bad, they say, but it has to be deliberate.
Other companies are also championing low-tech approaches. Golightly Cashmere, for example, hand-looms beanies and sweaters in a knitting studio in New Mexico, and offers repairs for life. In a completely different industry, some startups are bringing sailing ships back to cargo delivery. In Germany, DHL now uses more than 17,000 cargo bikes and trikes to make deliveries instead of trucks. (To be fair, the electric bikes have more advanced technology than the bikes that might have been used for deliveries in, say, the 1920s.) On farms, “regenerative” agriculture techniques that are becoming more common are copying ideas that were common in the past. Some architects are turning to ancient strategies for cooling homes without energy. And others, like Cicil, are returning to older production methods for home goods.
“Standard manufacturing is designed to be fast, cheap, and uniform,” says Carly Nance, cofounder of The Citizenry, a home goods store that works with artisans around the world. “The overwhelming majority of textile production does not consider factors beyond that, and it’s clear this recipe has taken a larger toll.” The retailer works closely with its suppliers, including women from Afghanistan who needed to find new routes to ship handwoven rugs after the Taliban took control.
The Citizenry pays artisans, on average, two to three times more than fair-trade standards. For it to meaningfully grow, more consumers will have to stop thinking of products like rugs as cheap and disposable. Nance thinks that’s starting to happen. “The only way to replace ‘fast manufacturing’ is a larger consumer shift to investing in fewer, better things and trading up for quality craftsmanship,” she says. “Fair trade, artisanal craft comes at a different price point, and consumers are starting to appreciate that. There is a revived interest in heirloom pieces that are made to be passed down for generations.”
Through careful planning, Cicil has been able to keep its prices comparable to competitors. (One six-foot circular rug is $869.) But like The Citizenry, it wants consumers to value “the literal number of hands that have touched this product, from the field through the factory to bring it to the customer,” Tripp says. “We hope that by telling that story and really bringing that supply chain to light, the customer will understand the value as we do. It’s important to pay people fairly for their labor and to price the product what it’s worth. We’re really trying to shift to that mindset.”
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