Sustainable Luxury

Elvis & Kresse are the ultimate in reuse & recycle. They rescue old fire hoses from the fire station, transform them to amazing luxury items, everything from belts, wallets to suitcases. They donate 50% of all profits to The Fire Fighters Charity. I asked them a series of 5 questions to find out a little more about their eco business. 1. What inspired you to want to repurpose

fire hoses?

The fire-hose themselves were what inspired us. It was the reality that these beautiful, heroic hoses would otherwise go to landfill that meant we had almost no choice. We had to start a business in order to rescue this beautiful material and save it from the ground.

2. How did you go about getting the hoses from the fire stations?

We collect it from regional fire stations - which have teams to repair, maintain or decommission hose - about four times a year, or whenever the hose piles up.

3. Who inspires you, business or personal?

There are some people whose work, books or example have shaped us. To name three? Rachel Carson, Wangari Maathai and Ray Anderson.

ELVIS & KRESSE

WWW.ELVISANDKRESSE.COM

4. What advice would you give a young entrepreneur?

The best advice, the onl y advice I can give is that you have to find the probl em you want to devote your l ife to and become an expert in that probl em. You need to l ove it from every angl e and be wil l ing to adapt your thinking and methods to work on sol utions. Start with a probl em - add commitment, open-mindedness, stubbornness and curiosity - and sol utions wil l fol l ow.

5. What are the biggest challenge in your business?

The first chal l enge we faced was manufacturing. We bel ieved that the hose woul d work as a textil e, but there were no processes in pl ace to transform it. We had to design and devel op a 6 phase system... and that was just to get to the textil e phase. Then we had to work out how to real l y make it shine in product form. Over the years we have had so many other chal l enges, way too many to count, but that is part of the process. There is never enough time in the day, you wil l make mistakes, but if you stay curious and keep l earning, and you l ove to adapt then it is al l worth the whil e. A big TH AN K You to El vis & Kresse.