Kennedy Gray high quality fashion and sustainable packaging from A New Earth Project

https://kennedygray.com/collections/the-graymont-collection

Check out the latest from this high quality clothing brand and how they partnered with https://anewearthproject.com/pages/our-story to use sustainable packaging for their products. 

Thank you https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevintillis/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyn-tally/ for this great episode! 

https://anewearthproject.com/collections/new-earth-approved

Connect with Cory

Connect with Cory on LinkedIn here: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap. 

This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

0:00

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. We're very excited today for, our friend Kevin Tillis. He's the founder of Kennedy Gray, and we also have Lynn Talley. She is the sustainability educator and advocate with a New Earth Project. welcome both of you. Thank you, Cory. Hey, Lynn. Good to see you both. Yeah. Delighted to be here. Thank you for bringing us together. I know the two of you have, worked on several projects together, large social media campaigns and things like that, including very sustainable packaging provided by a new Earth project. so I was excited to have you both on today and, we'll talk about. The success of that program. And, we'll talk about, what is Kennedy Gray but first of all, before we get into any of that business, Kevin, let's start with you. Sure. your background is full of great experiences, including retail and sales. What inspired you to start Kennedy D. Gray? Well, thank you so much, for having me, Corey, excited to chat with you guys and Lynn as well. But, Kennedy Gray started, for me out of a deep inspiration from Family Heritage. a vintage nautical prep meets classic men's wear with a little bit of a artistic character to it. So it's just, a culmination of a lot of things that I've seen and experienced and. A lot of my family's heritage in Northeast Georgia Mountains on a beautiful lake in the mountains, in a rugged, almost a hundred year old cottage that we have is just that architecture, that design, that very rugged nautical prep is what inspired Kennedy Gray. It's also in name is inspired that way. Kennedy is my middle name, but it's also very much tied to that house and to our family. Heritage And Gray is, Is that house? It's graymont cottage, It's inspi inspiration from classic men's wear and nautical prep style in the south where, my family heritage is where I've lived my whole life. That's great. I love the background there. You've got your clothes all laid out and Yeah. we were talking about before we got on, I actually purchased one of your shirts. Thank you so much. The green, that's beautiful. and we'll talk about the packaging later, but I wanted to show the audience how, what great quality the shirt was and how impressed I was with the packaging. so well done there. You're doing thanks. Worth on the packaging for that. yeah. So let's talk about that a little bit. Lynn, can you tell us about the New Earth Project? Can you tell us about, what it was like working with a brand like, Kennedy Gray? Absolutely. I feel like, the privilege that we have is to be able to help carry a brand like Kennedy Gray, who is so thoughtful in what they are creating and putting out into the world from the materials they pick all the way to where we get to come in and help. To make the packaging just as thoughtful to the end. Yeah. And Kevin, I can't remember exactly how you said you discovered a new Earth project, but I believe it was through hearing Wes Carter, who's the president of Atlantic Packaging, talking about what we are all about and something in what he said for you was like, Ooh, yes, I wanna be a part of this. This feels. So connected to your heart and soul and what you're doing. Yeah, and I feel like that's one of the beautiful things that a New Earth Project is doing is really, capturing the full cycle of sustainability all the way into the packaging, that people get to feel before they even, the customers who ordered Kennedy Gray are receiving that feeling the moment that it gets into their hands, out of the mailbox. but I'd love to tap into a little bit of that moment for you, Kevin, when you heard Wes? Yeah. What was that spark for you? Well, it's, cool and I like that in the, my introduction to it is multifaceted and it does run, both angles through Wes. It's, I got introduced to Atlantic Packaging from one of my old previous jobs as I started Kennedy Gray just over seven years ago. But up until this year I've been working full-time alongside it. That's, there's been odd jobs that are, I look back with, a lot of gratitude, but, a moment of never again. And then I also had a few years in more corporate career and business development side, and that's where I got introduced to, to Atlantic Packaging. I was working for. A company in the commercial and industrial scale of solar development on projects. And we, the company I was working for had previously just done the, Atlantic Packaging facility. one or two of the facilities, definitely the Somerville one. So that was an early intro. And as I was in Charleston, surf culture, getting that overlap of seeing a new Earth project and the packaging they were doing thoughtfully for surfboard transportation and whatnot, it was, I got to see it from both sides and really get connected through that, my business and what I was doing alongside Kennedy Gray at the time. And to sustain sc, which is a great group that's an advocate for a sustainable building, economic future in the state of South Carolina. got to be involved in that and got to see, it from two sides. I got to see it as, part of a job that has nothing to do with Kennedy Gray, but I also got to see it through the different lens of. My always obsession of what Kenny Gray is and what sustainability looks like and seeing the that cool packaging, I was able to do a deep dive into, other offerings and I thought, man, that would really make sense for me in the near future. and so finally we've kicked it off and I think we're just starting to scratch the surface, which is so exciting for me to do it with a thoughtful group that, just happens to be in the Charleston community and really impactful there. Yeah, a roundabout way, coming out from a few different angles, but I knew through all that it made sense and aligned with what I wanted to do and the way I wanted to build a sustainable future and longevity going forward. That's excellent. It sounds like it's very obvious to me that. What you're doing is very intentional. It's very thoughtful. You are thinking through the process, to, cradle to cradle, as we say in the packaging industry and thinking about, okay, how is this gonna affect the people that I provide my products to the people that are interested in my clothing brand. And, I think it's, you're creating loyalty through that process. Thank you. but I wanted to ask you, why is sustainability such an important part of your company? It's very obvious. And can you tell us a little bit more about Kennedy Gray? What is it, what kind of products do you have? obviously beautiful shirts and other things like that. Yeah. Well, thank you. So with starting seven years ago, it's allowed me a lot of time to be in the smaller moments, be in the go through challenging times and delays and disappointments that really can hurt and feel, difficult at times, but knowing that they're not dead ends and they're just, an opportunity to lean into that adversity and that refinement and what. And so to go through that and to sit in the season of working alongside Kennedy Gray full time, then now being able to finally go full go. It's something that I've felt a deep conviction for, over a decade now, which is cool and wild to think about that I've been, added with this kind of calling, for that long and just feel like I'm just now really getting to ready to roll. But Kennedy Gray, as I was saying before, is a deeply inspired by family heritage. It's. It's steeply inspired by my life in Charleston and on the coast. it's meant to be classic with a little character. I wanna make things thoughtfully. I wanna make things that I know that I will want in my closet forever. And I think, one of the design factors and the way I create is like. it's a slow burn build of what I've been able to do this far and I want that same product to have that kind of value going forward where I look back on certain pieces and I can look back with fondness and proudness and say that's still in people's wardrobes and people are still wearing it and honest. Hopefully the goal is they like it even more than the day they bought it. And I think that's a filter. I wanna run through all the things I create when you're making material goods. Being able to be small and limber and have to work and just fostering forward with the resources I do have at my disposal at the time, whether that's sometimes better than others. It's like that's not, the calling is to steward well with what I'm given. And so the opportunity hopefully expands and I get to create way more. That's, that's the part that I'm really excited about, but right now it's on my plate is to build well off the foundation that these last seven years have been. To grow and go forward faithfully in that. And sustainability to me is a, something that you can look through on every aspect of my life of how I'm taking care of myself, my business, and anything that goes forward. And I thought a cool thing that Lynn said a moment ago was it the packaging is the first thing that these customers, when they order online, are gonna touch. And that's their, that's the first introduction of what I'm doing. And that packaging. I want it to not be in, a harm to this planet and to this world. And I want it to also be something that the customer is impressed by. And it's been cool to get feedback from people that, that notice that difference of switching from what I was using prior to, the Atlantic Packaging and new Earth approved pr packaging now, and continue to expand on what that packaging looks like. Make it even cooler, make it even more customized to Kennedy Gray. But man, I'm very grateful for the start that we've been able to have this year with that. Oh, well said. Sustainability is not just about packaging, right? It's about, I think in your, it's in your brand. what you're creating is a heritage brand. I think it's, the, I'll pass this shirt down to my son and that is, thank you. That's, one of the kinder things you could say, and that's what I want, I have shirts from my great-grandfather's that are in my closet that. Basically archive. I wear 'em from time to time, but I like to keep them in as good as condition. And some of 'em are hanging on by the thread. But it's like, those are such, influential pieces to me and they're great for me to look back on as I designed forward. I wanted to be timeless, but timeless. if something is, I think is cool that they were wearing however long ago, that's a good, that's a, they did something right with that. So what is it that I can incorporate into. How I want to go forward and going forward is building sustainably. Excellent. Lynn, let's talk about packaging. Let's talk about sustainable packaging. What, you've worked with a lot of brands in your career, as an influencer, as a sustainability advocate, as a, you're very multifaceted person. I'm very impressed by you. let's talk about what misconceptions do a lot of these brands have about sustainable packaging. Yes, I am so fortunate that I have been able to work with, just such incredible brands, but behind the brands are genuine, kind, thoughtful humans like Kevin. So I feel so, so fortunate and I feel like the misconceptions really are. One of the main ones is that it's more expensive, that it's going to, it's gonna cost a lot more. And that's, most of the time really not the case. It's either equal or there's some adjustments that can be made so that it might even be less. And the process that we take people through is really, I feel like a kind of a collaborative process. Like we're really there to help folks navigate, making either, the transition or if they've already made the transition, how to maybe, provide a packaging option that might optimize or be even better for them. And we're really invested in that process. And Kevin mentioned. he's, it's a kind of a, in stages and phases, right? he couldn't do everything all at once. and that's exactly perfect. Like we can help through each phase, in each stage. Beautiful thing is too, we, get to help cast the vision for the future and, Part of what we are very immersed in too is the changes that are being made in the, the packaging space with regulations like EPR, where we help brands to stay, in the lane of being able to. what's the regulatory, space, the legislation that's coming in, that they are complying, that they are ahead of it, right? We're giving them the future, really the future choice options, like are there for them. yeah, I feel like it's, the misconceptions of it being, too expensive. that they're too small, that they can't make the changes right now. and we really help them to know that it doesn't matter how big or small they are, that we can help them make the changes. And we are keeping ahead of the things that are happening world or, in our country, nationwide from a PA packaging perspective. It doesn't have to be difficult. It doesn't have to be custom, these items. And I wanted to show off your packaging here a little bit, Kevin. this is the package that I received. It's a new Earth, approved. It's curbside recyclable, and very easily, opened. And then on the inside. Is Ave Back, which is also New Earth approved. Super excited for those are, we're working on implementing that going forward into, from the beginning. yeah. Yeah, these are great. They're stock items, but you made them look custom with your little touches in my, the package that I received was a handwritten note. postcard. And I think I just thought, okay, this guy cares. this is really cool. I, what an honor. It just felt like, I was part of the family and, I wanted to thank you for that. So packaging is a way to connect with people, I think. would you agree, Kevin? Yeah, absolutely. And thank you. And you are part of the family, so thank you for supporting. That's exactly right. That's fantastic. It's a partnership and you don't need to know everything about packaging. And I think that's a common misconception with brands is that they have to know all the details about everything. you don't, you can reach out to a Earth project or Atlantic Packaging and you can find out what's appropriate for you. Today and what you need to be more sustainable. here's four different options. We can try them all. yeah, well said Kevin. how have your customers reacted to your packaging? have you gotten feedback other than mine today? yours has been the most gracious I will have to, admit. But there's been, yeah, it's been cool to see. It's not like everyone's going to reach out to you and go outta their way and say, I love what you did. Thanks for making the switch. It's amazing. But there's people that have ordered prior and had seen the packaging I was using prior that was not a new Earth. And then there's people that have ordered since. And, yeah, I've gotten some cool messages and just like noticing the details and seeing the kind of thoughtfulness put into it, which is always exciting. But. To me, it's, that's, you're not always gonna get that feedback, but knowing that in a way of just kind a thought like these raindrops are making is what makes these oceans. And it's the small details where can I win and do the right small thing thoughtfully well, to build really the intentional foundation that I want Kennedy Gray to be planted in, rooted in before, no matter what is ahead. Be secure and sound in this foundation to sustainably grow and go forward. And I said it, and I probably already said it here, but longevity and sustainability just are married to me, it's like I want this to go forward Forever and beyond me. And I also wanna be able to do it forever. So how am I gonna sustain some worth that longevity to consumers that are given every single option, every single day. Are inundated with it. And so playing a game that is not some revolutionary pro product, it's getting into a world that is already messy and unsustainable. So how can I be, authentic to myself, but also go forward in a unique way and packaging in all sorts of things. Sustainability is that route? That's great. one more question for you, Lynn. How does the New Earth Project, go about helping companies meet their packaging goals? As far as sustainability goes, we really take the approach of getting to know and understand what the goals are and what the company is already using. or the brand is already using. And then of course, we have a, an already, very robust, excellent catalog that we can share what's available and then like I already mentioned, helping to make sure that. It is aligned. the choices that we're making are aligned with where the brand is at that moment, and being able to, make it's, a smaller, just starting off brand may say, okay, right now, a mailer is what I'm gonna invest in to add to my, my full vision and. The cus the customization that's available, like the amount of capabilities that we have is so great. We can take it so far, but to keep that overwhelm from happening where a brand may not be able to go into the full customization with full print logo on it. Then there's other things, like I've seen brands do stamp or stickers or, things like that to, to make it feel or to show their full brand represented on the packaging. So the process is really just like. Stepping in with a handheld experience from beginning to end. And the phrasing that keeps coming back to me over and over again is really a collaborative partnership. Like, and it's very fam like, we are family. Like, if Kevin reaches out, we're like, yeah. Like, what can we do? How can we help? We're here for you. We're in this together. So that's really the, without getting into like the technical step by step that goes, that's really the feeling and the energy, the thought, the vibe of the process. It feels like that for sure. and I agree, and I think Kevin's had that experience. And I do wanna ask you, Kevin, I've got two more questions for you. Yeah. one, any new products coming out that you can show off? Two. What's the best way to buy these great products? Love both of those questions. I'll start with this. The latter, the easiest way for no matter where you are, is on my website at www.kennedygray.com. GRAY family name. that's a great spot to see what I produce so far, throughout the rest of the year. Hopefully I got some cool, unique kind of artisanal products. I'm gonna drop as I work on. Future capsules and lines, which is really exciting for me. I have a fun remainder of the calendar, but, like I said, working alongside Ken Gray full-time, these last seven years, up until the beginning of this year, it's been a really beautiful season this year to really lean into what it looks like to go and grow forward. I am very excited for new products, but, stuff that's in realm that I'll be putting on the website I haven't even started promoting yet, but cool. New have very Braves inspired retro green underneath cotton ripped. Stop this, without just going into fold. This, I made this weekend with natural indigo dye and, really fun. Did it with these. cool ladies that do indigo die and are, textile designers. And, that kind of sparked from an interest a year ago when I started reading a book called Indigo Girl that my mom got me. And it's all based around Charleston and it's this story, semi truthful, semi fiction, but the Revolutionary War and what Indigo Natural Dye was. And I just sunk my teeth into it 'cause I felt. They're talking about where the boats were coming in and outta Charleston, and I lived right there and it's like I could visualize exactly where they were. So my, interest for Indigo die and the natural sustainable dies of that sparked, and then this opportunity came about. and we're gonna make a little collection using products that have already created that are amazing natural fiber cotton fabrics, and I'm gonna do a few limited run indigo dye that I just like, that just got funky with putting things on to see how it turns out. beyond that there might be some new development products that, I have been sitting on design-wise that I'm very excited to, to have and go forward that I think are really, Symbolic and really embody what I want Kennedy Gray to be of that classic men's wear with a little modern character, but ode to the past and also future thinking and artisanal and creative. And I like collaborating with great artists. And, so yeah, I think there's a lot of fun things ahead, but it's been fun to be in the season of work with what you have and I have some good product and like, let's do a few fun things outside the box with it while this season presents that opportunity to do it well. Yeah, hopefully some more fun stuff coming. Exciting, some cool events, popups throughout the rest of the year and, excited to continue on. I can't wait to get one of those hats. Thank you. This is, I, this is by far my favorite one so far. It's, it's cool being, being a Braves fan myself. That's old school I grew up in Marietta, Georgia, just south, outside of Atlanta, so a lifelong Braves fan also went to Ole Miss, and it's the same colors, in the very least, I should have a few friends from growing up in college that'll appreciate. Hopefully a few more beyond that, but yeah, I'm excited. So creating, thank you, Kevin. Products is the part where I'm ready to, I'm excited to be able to sink my teeth in, but building a sustainable foundation is so monumental and impactful and important. Before I go and take any step forward is. Be sound and be stable and be sustainable to ready to go forward and grow forward in that way. well done. So yeah, lean into that. Thank you. Thank you sir. Thank you Kevin. Thank you Lynn for being on. Really appreciate you both. This has been excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. This has been great. I enjoyed it. Great to meet you. great to chat and thank you. And thank you for joining the KG Family and shopping and, yeah, very excited for what's ahead. Thank you, sir. Thank you.