[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
[Voiceover]: Today's checkout features Laura Youngson, co founder at Ida Sports and organiser of the highest altitude soccer match ever. Laura and the team at Ida Sports have designed the first football boot, which has been specifically designed for women's feet. Only a couple of years old, Ida Sports has already sold out of their first range. They've got a distribution deal with Dick's Sporting Goods and they had Isabelle Dawes kick a winning goal in their boots in the AFL W Grand Final.
Nathan Bush: All right, Laura, we've got five quick checkout questions for you to learn a little bit more about yourself. We've heard a lot about Iter Sports, but we're going to learn more about you. All right, number one, we. What is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?
Laura Youngson: Good question. To be honest, I just love browsing Alibaba and looking at weird stuff and new products. So perhaps not necessarily a weird thing, but I'm really open to like, oh, my God, that's a weird thing. Let's just try that. And is it dodgy? Does the website look dodgy? Brilliant. Let me go for it. So I'm really keen exploratory shopper.
Nathan Bush: You're on the cutting edge of weird stuff, then?
Laura Youngson: Yeah, totally beautiful.
Nathan Bush: All right, number two, get lost for days. Who is your favorite retailer?
Laura Youngson: Oh, to be honest, people, I really look up to Patagonia. We always talk about this. Can we be the Patagonia of shoes? Like, can you make really amazing quality products that last for ages and can you start looking at that kind of what materials you're putting in and then what the whole life of the product is, as opposed to just the life when the consumer is using it? So I love what they do, I love their culture and I think it's a real inspiration for us.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, you definitely got the same sort of vibes and feel as Patagonia. Like looking through the website and the history behind why you do what you do. That's a good one. Number three, which retail fad do you wish was history
Laura Youngson: fast fashion? I just, it's having been to the trade fairs and seen the amount of stuff, stuff we consume as humans, I think we need to really think more about how we're doing this because it is not sustainable for the planet. So can you hold onto clothes for longer? Can you reuse clothes? Can you use Kind of better materials in the first place. That whole thing needs to change, and it needs to change pretty rapidly. And if it's not changing with the retailers, we need to legislate for it because it is imperative that we. We stopped that.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it was funny. We spoke to Anthony Chesler, who heads up Thread Together, which is a organization that takes excess stock and gives it to people in need. And he said, one third of fashion ends up in landfill.
Laura Youngson: Yeah, it's mad. And there's. I just don't think there's any need. So, yeah, we need to change that whole practice.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Agree. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Laura Youngson: So, yeah, one of the things that I really love a real vintage. Well, first podcast, How I Built this with Guy Raz. There's something for everyone there and you just dip in, dip out. I've learned so much from that podcast. But one of the vintage books I absolutely love and I go back to is Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop. So she wrote this book in I think it was 2000s, called business is Unusual. And it is jam packed full of useful stuff. So I don't even think it's in print anymore. You're gonna have to find it secondhand. It's amazing. And she's really a pioneer. And you look back now and you go, wow, she was so ahead of the time.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, she was cool. Really, like. Cause is it. She's linked to the Lush story as well, isn't she? I hope I got that right. I don't know.
Laura Youngson: Maybe they were inspired by her. But the whole Body Shop ethos, just the way she set up her supply chain, like, so we can nerd out on that. The way she set up her supply chains, paying fair wages for materials, looking at consumer products, looking at the future of how consumers will consume products. Yeah. And the way she writes about it, it's very much no compromise if you're trying. We're trying to do something big and bold and change an entire system ideologically. And she's really an inspiration for that.
Nathan Bush: Yep. Now I'm going to give one of your things a plug. You did an amazing ted talk at TedX Melbourne a few years ago around how you took two teams of women up Mount Kilimanjaro to play the highest game of football in the world. So if anyone's listening and they want to check out more, because we never even got to that story, really. We glossed over it. Go check out the TEDx talk from Melbourne that Laura gave. It's fantastic. All right, last question. I've got for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is circular. Brilliant.
Laura Youngson: Yeah. It's got to be sustainable. It's. Yeah. I go back. This is the. The core of. Of where the world is changing. We have to think better about this and really reuse, reduce, recycle.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us, Laura. It's fantastic.
Laura Youngson: Thank you.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Laura and her co founder, Ben, jump back into episode 80, where they share how they designed the first football boot for women with no previous footwear experience. They also dive into how they got their international wholesale distribution deal and how they onboard athletes as a key part of their marketing strategy.
Nathan Bush: Thanks for listening.
[Voiceover]: And until next time, keep adding to cart.
