GUIDED MAKERS BLOG
GUIDED MAKERS UPDATES, CLIENT SPOTLIGHTS, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT NEWS & MORE
BLOG
What the EU Digital Product Passport Will Actually Require From Your Brand (2/3)
Part 1 covered what the DPP is and why it exists. This post gets operational — breaking down the specific data your brand will need to collect, verify, and maintain, and where most brands are already behind.
The EU Digital Product Passport: What It Is and What Every Apparel Brand Needs to Know (Part 1/3)
It's already law. The apparel-specific requirements are still being finalized. This post covers the foundation — what the DPP actually is, why it exists, who it affects, and where the timeline stands today.
When the Brand Outlasts the Values: What the Everlane-Shein Deal Tells Us About Building to Last
Shein's acquisition of Everlane isn't just a business story. It's a case study in what happens when brand identity gets separated from the structure meant to protect it, and what one founder is doing about it.
You’d Hire a GC for your house. Why not for your brand?
We're getting some foundation work done at our house. The advice was immediate and unanimous: hire a general contractor. Someone responsible for managing and overseeing the project from start to finish, coordinating labor, materials, subcontractors, timelines, and compliance. Of course we will. It's expensive, and we have no experience in construction.
That decision took about five minutes. So why does the same logic get ignored when someone starts an apparel brand?
This or That: Organic Cotton Edition
When it comes to choosing better materials, organic cotton is often held up as the gold standard but what makes it different, and is it truly the more sustainable choice?
With Earth Month here, it’s the perfect time to slow down, look closely at what we’re putting into our products, and explore the impact of our sourcing decisions. Today we’re diving into a “This or That” comparison: organic cotton vs. conventional cotton what’s real, what’s marketing, and what matters most for brands that want to do better.
Let’s break it down by category
What Is Sustainable Fashion? Can it be done?
In our blog “Greenwashing, Forever Plastics & the Messy Truth About “Sustainable” Fashion” we broke down what sustainable fashion aims to be: thoughtful materials, responsible production, durability, transparency, and waste reduction.
But the question we hear right after that is always the same:
“If sustainability is this complicated… what should brands actually focus on?”