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https://www.barrons.com/articles/good-company-rainwear-label-baxter-wood-takes-an-eco-conscious-approach-to-fashion-01621534896

Business partners and fiancés Kweku Larbi and Sarah Smith recall a trip they took to Ghana, in West Africa, when they were stunned to see unregulated plastic waste all over. Trash was strewn on the side of roads, plastic items were thrown in the street after use, and waste washed up on riverbeds and lakes.

It was during that trip in 2018 when their sustainable rainwear label Baxter Wood was born.

The pair centers what they call an “eco-conscious” approach, committed to sustainable clothing production while creating accessible, comfortable designs. The company is also committed to supporting environmental education opportunities for children in non-industrialized nations.For Larbi, 27, all of the waste and pollution he and Smith saw on that trip harkened back to familiar images from his childhood. He was raised not far from Ghana’s largest landfill, and says that when it would rain “you would smell the whole garbage filling into your home.” 

He grew up with an interest in design and fashion. His mother’s business took her to places like Dubai and across Asia, where she would import materials for fabrics ultimately sold to designers in Ghana. 

Larbi worked in their family business from about the ages of six to 15, selling fabrics to women for wedding dresses and formal wear. After high school, he headed to the U.S. for college, earning a degree in civil engineering. 

But his interests kept gravitating back to design. He worked a year and a half on bridge design. Fashion kept calling, and he left his job, traveling throughout Asia to better understand the production side of the industry. What stood out the most were the questionable ethics behind production.

“You’d walk into the room and see fumes, these fumes could kill someone,” Larbi says.

Smith, 26, grew up in Indiana, part of “a family full of entrepreneurs.” She studied accounting, became a Certified Public Accountant.

When Larbi and Smith met, their personal connection melded with their professional interests. He asked her if she wanted to be a part of his nascent idea for a sustainable, ethically minded fashion company, and she told him “not until we are engaged.”

“It had to be something permanent,” she says. “It was kind of like this amazing thing that I wanted to help out in, to be a part of a company that was doing something meaningful, with this mindset of caring about the people and the planet.” 

The brand is focused on stylish rainwear, offering men’s and women’s raincoats and Chelsea boots. 

While there is plenty of rainwear on the market, Larbi says the inspiration behind the brand is very personal. 

When he first left his engineering job after college, he was initially inspired to start a philanthropic nonprofit back home. He worked with a documentarian from BBC Africa and produced a short piece on a young boy named David he met along the shores of the fishing community of Jamestown in Accra, Ghana. David was sleeping in a boat, working on the docks unable to afford a primary school education. 

“On the beach where I met David, there were a bunch of people in raincoats and rain boots, I think that planted the seed for raincoats subconsciously,” he says.

Baxter Wood’s men’s and women’s Trawler Coats sell for US$140, while its Chelsea boots are marketed at US$125, according to the brand’s website. 

“Your fashion can go beyond where most products are today,” Larbi says. “The products themselves can be great, but then they can also play a role in fixing something real in this world.” 

Beyond that, Larbi and Smith say they also want you to just feel good wearing their coats and boots. 

“They are just comfortable raincoats, you can wear your rain boots just walking around the house,” Smith says. 

Baxter Wood’s products are created from recycled materials. The lining of their raincoats are made from rPET polyester, which is a fabric that’s woven from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. About 22 bottles are used for each of these jackets. 

The boots consist of sustainably grown Amazonian rubber. This is a sustainable alternative to the petroleum-containing synthetic rubber used for most competing boots. The rubber is also sourced from FSC-certified plantations in Sri Lanka and is vegan and biodegradable.

“The biodegradable aspect is unique to our boots,” Larbi explains.

Smith and Larbi also have a buyback program for their customers: Customers who bring any rubber boot or old rain jacket from your closet receive a US$30 credit toward a new Baxter Wood purchase. If it’s a jacket, Baxter Wood will patch it up and donate it. The company also donates shredded boots to a facility in Michigan that uses the material for turf or punching bags.

Baxter Wood also donates 10% of profits to nonprofit One Percent for Education, which offers environmental education programs to children in developing countries. 

As a young company, Baxter Wood is still finding its footing. Smith says there is still a lot of room to grow. 

“Right now, we just have the raincoat and the rain boot, but I think that as we continue to launch and grow and get sales, I think we would like to introduce one or two new lines,” she says. “We don’t want to overwhelm the consumer. I think staying with the ones we started with and tweaking it a little bit and bringing in a few new items, I can see that in the next five years.” 

Business partners and fiancés Kweku Larbi and Sarah Smith recall a trip they took to Ghana, in West Africa, when they were stunned to see unregulated plastic waste all over.

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