Sunday conversation: The choices behind building an organic clothing business with Amanda Barthelemy

When Amanda Barthelemy became a new mom, she started paying more attention to the labels of baby clothes. Wanting to buy organic clothing for her daughter, she became limited to natural, oatmeal-colored options. She was more interested in dressing her daughter in bright pinks and purples. So with the help of her husband, she launched Colored Organics in 2007. The company prides itself in not only selling organic bodysuits and T-shirts, but that its products are certified to be sweatshop free by Fair Trade USA. Today, the clothing line is sold mostly through 6,500 wholesale customers in 74 countries. Earlier this year, she also started selling directly to customers through the company's website. And Target.com picked up her line for one season this year, too. Now she's in discussions with Target and other retailers for future seasons. Barthelemy works out of her Lake Elmo home. But as the company has more than doubled it sales in each of the last few years, she's looking for office space for her and her 12 full-time and contract employees. This fall and spring, the company is also planning a big expansion in its product line to add things like hats, cardigans, leggings and sweatshirts.

Q: So what was your concern about nonorganic clothing?

A: I was doing a lot of research and a lot of the issue with conventional cotton is the farmers are exposed to so many chemicals, herbicides and pesticides. That was a huge concern for me. I felt good having my daughter supporting the organic industry. And also, because the organic cotton isn't grown with any herbicides or chemicals, the organic cotton lasts longer, is softer and less brittle.

Q: So it's an issue of worker safety for you?

A: When it comes to organic foods, a lot of it has to do with the chemicals that are traced through the food. You can consume those chemicals and that's where it's unhealthy. When it comes to organic clothing, a lot of that is washed out through the process, but the big concern is the workers who help construct it. So I wanted to make sure it's not a sweatshop environment and that there's no children working in that environment. They are paid fair wages. They have transportation to and from work. They have health ­benefits and they have meals provided to them.

Q: When did your products begin rolling out?

A: It took a couple of years to get it up and running. It started off as a wholesale business. To me, it was really important to supply these colorful vibrant clothes so other moms or other companies could buy the products and put their own creative embellishments on the clothing and then resell them. This was a time when the economy wasn't great so I thought it was a great way for other moms to start side businesses or to supplement their income. So it was really rewarding and fun to see what other people were doing with the Colored Organics line. Some companies we started working with in 2008 are still with us today.

A: We have a lot of brick and mortar. We also have a lot of online retailers that sell our product. A lot of companies in Australia, Europe and South Africa.

Q: Do you work with a certain farm or supplier?

A: We've been working with them for four to five years. Everything is done in India. It's a vertical supplier. Everything other than the farming is done right at our supplier. They are not outsourcing. We're not working with middlemen. We're working directly with the workers. So when we go on site, we actually meet the workers. We see our products getting constructed. My husband is going over to India at the end of August to see our fall and spring items in production and to get more pictures.

Q: How long has Zulily carried you?

A: Zulily is more of a discounter. So it's a way for us to get old inventory — if we change the logo or the label or slightly change the product — a way for us to sell the product at a discounted rate.

A: At first, I was a bit skeptical because we do have so many wholesale customers who in turn sell our products or embellished products. So for me, I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt their businesses by going to a large retailer because I knew our prices would have to be lower going to a large retailer such as Target. So we altered the fabric to not be as high-end quality (for Target) as we sell for our wholesale program.

Q: How has it gone with Target?

A: It's been good. We're currently in discussions for future seasons, so we'll see what comes from that. Right now, Target seems like they're pushing into a lot of organic products and organic foods, so that's really exciting for us.

Q: Did you find being on Target.com gave you more exposure?

A: Our big concern was that we would receive a lot of negative feedback from our wholesale customers. And really I didn't see any negative impact, which was really, really exciting to see. I remember going back and forth with my husband, going 'Is this the right move for us? Is this something we want to do?' Because I'm concerned about all of these smaller businesses and not necessarily about [making] a ton of money off a big retailer. I wanted to make sure we continued our great relationships with the 6,500 we have around the world. But we didn't get any negative feedback, so that to us solidified that we can continue working with large retailers and still work with more of the small boutiques.

A: It's about a $4 dollar difference. Our wholesale retail price is $14 for a bodysuit, and at Target it was $10. But Target orders such a high volume that we could also get the price down.

Q: What has been one of the most challenging part of the business?

A: Growth. Keeping enough inventory in stock for companies that grow that we don't foresee growing. We have wholesale companies that all of a sudden gets picked up by somebody or they have tons of followers on Etsy and all of a sudden they are ordering hundreds of products a week or a month and we didn't forecast for that.