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Nathan Yun and Rex Zhang’s revolutionary idea to shake up the fashion industry started with a pair of socks.
The longtime friends, who’d teamed up on a couple of other business ventures before, were deep in conversation in early 2020 when they realised the textile space “hadn’t really been reinvented for decades”, Yun says. Yes, styles of clothing had changed. But Zhang knew from his background working in textiles that the fabrics used to create our garments had remained the same.
They decided it was time to fix that. While other fashion brands typically source off-the-shelf fabrics to fit their design ideas, the duo wanted to flip that way of working on its head. Yun and Zhang launched their own clothing brand, Paire, and set out to develop their own fabrics from scratch, each designed to be perfect for the garment type they wanted to make.
That’s where the socks came in.
“Because we were limited with funds, we wanted to just start with something really small,” Yun says. “If you think about it, there are so many problems with socks. They smell. They get overheated in summer. They’re too cold in winter. They get holes in them. They slip off your heels. There’s not enough support in the arch. There are so many problems you can solve with materials and the design.”
On a mission to make a better sock, they created a fabric they called CoolBlend*, a mix made up primarily of Australian merino wool and organic cotton certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard. That blend of fabric keeps you cool in summer, warm in winter and, best of all, has moisture-wicking, odour-preventing qualities. With it, Yun and Zhang created what they say are “the world’s first stink-free socks”.
Yun says: “We wanted to use that product as a proof of concept, to show that a better product made with sustainability and ethical practices in mind can have a market, even at a slightly higher price point than fast fashion. So it was really a statement against fast fashion – that people would buy better products rather than just going for cheap, low-quality products.”
The statement resonated. Four years later, Paire has sold thousands of those perfect pairs of socks, and launched more than 60 products made with seven different trademarked materials, all of them designed to be better for consumers and the planet. The brand has served more than 150,000 customers, amassed more than 40,000 Instagram followers and earned $17m in revenue. Its range includes T-shirts, loungewear and underwear.
Recently, it has expanded into activewear, another sector of the fashion industry in desperate need of reinvention. To avoid the use of polyester or nylon, from which conventional activewear is typically made, after two years of research Paire created a new fabric, BioFlex*. It’s softer, faster drying and more moisture wicking than conventional activewear fabric, Paire says, and a lot better for the planet.
“It is 50% made from corn waste,” Yun says. “The corn stalks that we just throw away and burn, we took all that waste and spun it back into fibre. Then we did heaps of R&D to make that into a usable bio-nylon.”
By Paire’s side since the start has been its banking partner, NAB, which has helped it grow from a small startup with a big idea to a thriving business.
Zhang says: “We were with NAB from the first day. They really want to help our small business grow, so they let us know at every stage what options we have – like a business loan, an invoice loan, help with the exchange rate. That’s been very important for us, because as a fast-growing business, we need to take those financial options into consideration for our growth plan.”
For now, the duo plans to continue growing the Paire range, while always staying true to the company’s ethos of creating better, more sustainable basics.
“We will never design pieces just for you to wear once or twice a year,” Zhang says. “We do the things that you want to wear every day, and that are definitely suitable for you to wear every day.”
Yun adds: “And that you’re able to wear for years to come as well.”
It’s a simple mission statement, but one that’s refreshingly different.
Zhang says: “[Other brands] care more about what the jacket looks like or what the dress looks like; they care less about how comfortable the underwear is. And so that actually gives us a big space to think about how we can improve and bring out better products.”
NAB supports Australian businesses to grow and do things differently. For more business stories, insights and the latest economic data, visit NAB Business Research and Insights.
*CoolBlendTM BioFlexTM
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