Lindsay Lorusso: Nudnik Is a Circular Fashion Company Using Technology to Upcycle Pre-consumer Textile Waste Into Our Line of Genderless Kidswear

Nudnik is a circular fashion company using technology to upcycle pre-consumer textile waste into our line of genderless kidswear.

Tell us about yourself?

We’re twin sisters who spent a collective 20+ years working in the waste business before starting Nudnik.

We worked for Wasteco, our father’s waste management company, so you could say we’ve literally grown up in this business!

It felt natural to spin off into our own thing! We truly believe waste is the greatest resource of our time and are on a mission to show that we can upcycle successfully at scale!

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Be kind to yourself, you’ll get through this! One of us has kids and the pandemic was really tough on parents! Building a startup, dealing with global supply chain issues while simultaneously supporting kids in virtual school was difficult.

What problem does your business solve?

Fashion is a massive contributor to climate change and 20% of all fabric used to make clothing becomes pre-consumer textile waste, which is what we use specifically for our kidswear. By upcycling waste we are saving so many precious resources that using raw materials would otherwise exploit!

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Coming from the waste industry we saw textile waste as a growing global concern and we wanted to be creative and see if we could find a better way to utilize it and divert it from landfill.

Nudnik really started out as a think tank and the concept took some refining but we have gotten it to a place that’s pretty special. People want clothes, that’s never going to change. We want to make the most sustainable clothing possible!

What is your magic sauce?

Our technology is pretty special. We’re able to solo hundreds of tons of complicated fabric scraps into our range of styles, instantaneously!

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

The big picture idea over the next couple of years is to extend sizes up to adult and create products for additional lifestyle categories like pet and home.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

When the pandemic hit we lost our main manufacturer overnight. It took some time but we were able to build new relationships and a strong network of new partners through our broker GNN Trends.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

We have a higher than average repeat customer rate which proves that once you’re a customer, you’ll come back over and over again! If you have a kid in your life, support us by purchasing something from our website!