Ben Ayers

I’ve just been flicking through the Howies Summer catalogue and although there were some nice enough togs, it was the other stuff that really grabbed me. These guys get it. They’ve created a brand that makes you want to write about it. Hell, they’ve created a brand that makes you want to sell up, move to New Zealand, grow veggies and get your car crushed into one of those little cubes you see on the road tax adverts.

It’s the extra stuff that Howies are doing, aside from selling clothes, that is really exciting. There’s so much to say about these guys and it’s tempting to draw comparisons with Innocent, but I’ll resist and just focus on this really interesting little nugget. They’ve announced that they’re organising a day of lectures at the Howies HQ in Cardigan, Wales. Here’s what it says in the back of their beautiful catalogue:

The Do lectures will be all about getting a handful of speakers down here in the hope that they may inspire you to do something. To give you the tools and the desire to change the things you care about.

If we are worried about the environment, what can we do? If we want to change how businesses are run, what can we do? If we want to reduce our carbon footprints, what can we do?

A look at the website confirms that there will be 20 speakers at the event including Michael Braungart, co-author of the Cradle to Cradle, architect and ecologist Ken Yeang who is the author of Eco Skyscrapers, John Grant, author of The Green Manifesto, climber Andy Kirkpatrick, blogger and all round interesting bloke Russell Davies and Andrew Whitley, author of Bread Matters.

I’d be really interested to hear what they have planned for the day and the actions that will come out of it. Let’s hope they’ll be doing some live blogging, tweeting and videoing!

This event, which kicks off on 4th September, sounds fantastic and will no doubt fill up fast. For more info or to apply for a place contact alison@howies.co.uk, explaining what you can bring to the party.