Mark Bloom (aka Joe Komodo) is the founder of the eco-responsible ready-to-wear and accessories brand
[ KOMODO ]
Year founded: 1988
Design and office location: London, England 🇬🇧
Raw material sourcing location: China 🇨🇳 ; Hong Kong 🇭🇰 ; Nepal🇳🇵 ; India 🇮🇳 ; Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 ; Java, Indonesia 🇮🇩
Manufacturing and production location: China 🇨🇳 ; Hong Kong 🇭🇰; Nepal🇳🇵; India 🇮🇳 ; Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 ; Java, Indonesia 🇮🇩
Meet the founder
The summer of 1988 is a period Joe will never forget. As the Acid House music genre takes hold in the lives of young Britons, Joe, then a teenager, flies to the East Indies in search of rare, colorful fabrics.
Returning to London a few years later, an innovative idea comes to mind. He starts cutting up his old jeans and a jacket, arranging the pieces on his kitchen table. That's how his first fashion piece is born! For about a year, he has it reproduced in a workshop in London's East End and sells his design in jeans stores in the West End.
It was in this euphoric Acid House counterculture, with its addictive music, vibrant dress code, and iconic smiling yellow smiley face, that Joe decides to found his brand: Komodo. His brand evolves and eventually gains recognition from international artists (Spice Girls, Take That, Jamiroquai...).
Over time, Joe and his team find ways to improve the brand's environmental and social impact. A way of working that seems fairer to him. Yet, at that time, the language of ethical fashion was not so well recognized.
Today, Komodo is known for being a pioneer in its industry. How? By prioritizing innovative materials and production in socially responsible certified factories. All this, without ever straying from its original story, inspired by travel.
About the brand
Komodo is an eco-responsible ready-to-wear and accessories brand, which has aimed to be ethical since its creation in 1988. Sweaters, jackets, pants, t-shirts... The brand offers collections of sustainable clothing, without a negative impact on the environment.
The eco-responsible impact
The British brand prioritizes innovative materials made from natural, organic, and recycled fibers (cotton, recycled plastic, Tencel, linen, bamboo, rayon (artificial silk), hemp, and wool). It collaborates with SA8000 and GOTS certified factories in Indonesia, India, and China, which ship part of the goods by sea in order to reduce the brand's carbon footprint.
These are family-run, human-sized businesses, in which the people involved in every step of the process are treated with respect, receive a fair wage, and work in comfortable and safe conditions.
Komodo is also a socially committed brand. For many years, it has supported and raised funds for numerous charities and social and environmental projects. A member of 1% for the Planet, it stands alongside the Sumatran Orangutan Society, which restores tropical forests by purchasing and repurposing palm oil plantations. Not to mention the Tibet Relief Fund, for which Komodo raised funds in 2016 to finance the reconstruction of a school in an isolated village in Tibet after the earthquakes the previous year.
The brand's values
♻️ Recycling ↓
Some of the materials recommended by the brand are recycled, such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) for example.
👤 Craftsmanship ↓
Komodo clothing and accessories are made by skilled artisans.
🌀 Zero plastic ↓
The brand no longer has single-use plastic in its supply chain.
💎 Limited edition ↓
The brand produces in limited editions.
🌿 Organic ↓
The brand prioritizes organic materials such as cotton, which is GOTS certified. (quality certification for organic and eco-friendly textiles)
👐🏽 Social and solidarity impact ↓
Komodo is a member of the 1% For the Planet movement. It raises funds for charities and associations fighting for social and environmental causes.
⚖️ Fair trade ↓
All the brand's production is designed in socially responsible certified factories that guarantee decent wages and working conditions for all its employees.
✅ Certified ↓
Komodo is GOTS certified and a member of the Soil Association, a British charity that is transforming the way Great Britain eats, farms, and cares for the environment.
🏠 Made locally ↓
Products are designed within a small radius of kilometers from the sourcing locations to the production locations.
[ Some call it ethical fashion, we just call it common sense. ]
