[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous guests of Add to Cart, where we ask them five quick questions to understand more about them and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Today's checkout features Anthony Chesler from Thread. Together, Anthony and the team drive social and environmental change by connecting excess retail clothing with people in need. Whether these people are impacted by floods, bushfires, domestic violence, homelessness, their asylum seekers leaving jail, or even impacted by Covid, Anthony and his team hope to give these people back dignity through the power of clothing. So far, they've got amazing retail partners on board, including Surf Stitch, the iconic PE Nation, Beckonbridge, Under Armour, and afterpay. Anthony Cheslov. Welcome to the Checkout. We know that you do great things at Thread Together and hopefully we can learn a little bit more about you and dig up a little bit of dirt.
Anthony Chesler: Okay, I'm all for it.
[Voiceover]: You sound nervous. All right, number one, what is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?
Anthony Chesler: Well, I have to say that I bought a Mankini online, but it wasn't for myself. I bought it for my mate's bucks party and we got him a spray tan at Bondi beach in this Mankini, but I was responsible for buying it online.
[Voiceover]: At least you got him a spray tan. That was nice of you.
Anthony Chesler: It was.
[Voiceover]: All right. Number two, and that I'm assuming that didn't go back like that was done when the Mankini was done. The Mankini was done. Right?
Anthony Chesler: That's it. It was done.
[Voiceover]: Number two, who is your favorite retailer? And I know this is a very tricky question because you've got so many fantastic retail partners.
Anthony Chesler: So, yeah, actually one of. One of my. The clothes that I wear are actually not supplied by one of my. By one of the brands that I always. That we work with. So I shopping at Scotch and Soda, they've actually just upgraded their whole E commerce experience, which has been great because it was a lot overdue if you ask me. But they got some beautiful clothing in store and online and I just, you know, I love the fit and the style and, you know, so, yeah, that would be certainly my favorite retailer and not one that that donates the thread together.
[Voiceover]: Not yet, anyway.
Anthony Chesler: Not yet.
[Voiceover]: Number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Anthony Chesler: I think fast fashion. I think the. If I take. If I put sort of my environmental hat on, obviously, you know, fashion is a huge cause of climate change or environmental damage. I think the second largest. And there's hundreds and hundreds of statistics that are out there. I think as the cost of manufacture of clothing has come down significantly, you can now buy, you know, three or four units of clothing for less than $50. You can buy and you probably wear it once and then throw it out. And that's. It just has a devastating impact on the environment. So if we could reduce the amount of fast fashion coming into the marketplace, I think that would have a benefit on everyone.
[Voiceover]: And from your experience, speaking broadly, do you find that fast fashion retailers are a little bit more frivolous with their stock in terms of they'll over order because it doesn't have that much impact?
Anthony Chesler: I'm not actually sure. I actually had a meeting with last week with Chopo and it was interesting because they asked, they asked a very similar question of me and I said, look, sometimes you get, the retailers just get the. Get it wrong. They get the color wrong, the style wrong. It's a challenge for them. It's not easy. Like you think about, you know, wanting to maximize margin and profit and maximize revenue, but you sometimes get it wrong. And so I think, you know, no one, no one with best endeavors tries to over order.
[Voiceover]: No. No one, no one likes excess stock.
Anthony Chesler: Yeah. So except us, because we're a solution to that problem.
[Voiceover]: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Anthony Chesler: I'd be wrong if I didn't say they should listen to your podcast.
[Voiceover]: Thank you, mate.
Anthony Chesler: But look, I love, I love reading and I love listening and you know, I don't watch very much TV. I've just finished reading a book called the 5am Club by Robin Sharma. You know, he's written a whole bunch of good stu, which I love. He wrote the Monk who Sold His Ferrari to Lead without a title. Just some great stuff to read, easy to digest and really good learning. And he talks about the 2020 formula to get up at 5am and exercise and reflect and just sort of journal and learn. And those are the sort of things that I love doing, sort of exercising, learning and reflecting. The other book that I just recently. So he's got a podcast as well called the Mastery Sessions, which is awesome too. The other book that I've actually just read books by Adam Minter. Adam Minter wrote Junkyard Planet and Second Hand. Amazing to sort of understand sort of the flow of, you know, secondhand product in the, in the marketplace and two really interesting books written by the same author around, you know, the value of secondhand economy. So those would be two books that I would, you know, Highly recommend for people that are interested in understanding. Where do your clothes go when they don't get redistributed? People are conditioned not to put their clothes into a red bin, a yellow bin or a green bin. So they take it to a charity bin. And most of what goes into those bins, it's, you know, less than 5% actually goes back to someone who needs it. A lot of it is just, you know, not suitable for redistribution. But yeah, interesting to sort of follow, follow what happens. Two good books to learn.
[Voiceover]: Great recommendations. Thank you. Number five and the last one I've got for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is
Anthony Chesler: making its way to Thread Together.
[Voiceover]: Nice.
Anthony Chesler: Nice in some way. So, yeah, like whether that's through clothing donation or supporting us philanthropically through their customer base, you know, not, not all of our, not all of our fashion brands have a lot of excess product, but they donate clothing to us. So if, if retailers see Thread Together as the solution excess but support us beyond clothing, we would be thrilled.
[Voiceover]: Brilliant. Now, if you're listening and you are intrigued, head back to the main episode with Anthony talking about Thread Together and how they contribute to the community. That's from a few weeks ago. Or if you've heard enough and you just want to get involved with your time, your talent, your ties, as in connections or your treasure, reach out to Anthony and team via the Thread Together with website. We'll have all the links and all the contact details in the show notes. Thanks for joining us on the checkout.
Anthony Chesler: Thanks so much for having me, Nathan. It was a real pleasure
[Voiceover]: to hear more from Anthony. Jump back into episode 74 where Anthony shares how retailers can get on board and help Thread Together connect people in need with excess clothing that would have previously gone to landfill. There's four ways that retailers can help and I'd love you to check it out and help if you can. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
