Making Waves - Tyde Collective by Hayley Rewi

I have had the absolute pleasure to ask recently launched Tyde Collective owner Hayley Rewi some questions for our brand new series of Making Waves! Read on to see what she has to say about Tyde, her top tips for a sustainable lifestyle, and more!

Tell us a little bit about you and your business?

Kia ora cool humans! My name is Hayley Rewi, I am twenty years old and have a personal labour of love called Tyde Collective; my sustainable swimwear business. I currently spend my time between studying towards a Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Communication Studies in Auckland during the year, and thrive when the water gets warmer and sun peeps out in the summer - working full-time as a surf lifeguard and spending time with whanau and friends on our beautiful coast. 

 What inspired you to start your sustainable business? 

Tyde came to life when I was fifteen/sixteen after learning about the detrimental impacts of the fast fashion industry and unethical supply chains on people and the earth. I was working part time at Glassons at the time, so it was a big wake up call for me when I was confronted with the sheer volume of textile pieces (and ALL the plastic packaging each piece came in, YIKES) that churned through the store to conform to fast multi-seasonal releases. As someone who spends more time in the water than out of it - I live in swimwear, yet I felt my values and consumer decisions conflicted each other. So, I handmade swimwear from ‘deadstock’ fabrics that would otherwise go to waste in landfills after their designers used them in fast fashion manufacturing runs. This was a way for me to upcycle fabric into something I could share with loved ones, and that is how it all begun!

Tell us about where your bikinis are made and the materials you use?

Sustainability is so much more than a marketing ploy, a box for firms to tick or a PR enhancer. Prioritising sustainability is meeting the needs of the present generation without jeopardising future generations ability to meet their own needs. The way the collective is living is far from this, offering an opportunity for some rad shifts in the way we interact with mama earth and each other. I think that understanding a business’ processes from start to end offers huge transparency and accountability for ethical decision making and sustainable practices. By designing products to fit within a circular model, Tyde commits to closing the loop on fashion and textiles by using only natural or recycled fibres to bring you products to be worn over and over again. In doing so, our swimwear is now made from a regenerated nylon material, 100% derived from waste such as fishing nets, carpets and fabric remnants.

When products arent handmade by myself, time has been taken to create a relationship with the team who makes our pieces over the months of product ideation, development, prototyping and manufacturing. Being in contact with our makers of this summers collection almost everyday has made this design experience incredible. We are proud to know that our bali factory and team maintain equally high standards of ethics and environmental responsibility as we do here at Tyde. When our factory engages in anywork, the following framework is checked:

• What are the working conditions like? Is it clean? Well lit? Does it appear to be a place that cares about the environment and its people?

• How are the workers treated? What are their hours? Are they cared for as if they were valuable, as if their personal health and safety are a concern to the company?

• Are the workers paid a living wage? Is healthcare available? What about holidays and paid time off?

• What is the quality of the products? Do they look as if they were built with pride and care? Or do they look like cheap, throw away type products?

• What is the supply chain? Do the decision makers care about where the raw materials come from? Do they care about the environmental impact?

Transparency and sustainability are two values of mine that I have transferred to Tyde, and you can find out more about this on our website!

What are your 3 top tips for someone wanting to live more sustainably?

I think the biggest one would be that a shift in conscious consumption is a shift is consciousness. Reshaping our normal to be one that is mindful and in synchronicity with the planet can happen in little simple ways, but gets really exciting and powerful when we make bigger waves:

• Understand your diet and aim to remove dairy, red meats and commercially caught fish

• Strive to live off of renewable energy

• Build or repair your home with local raw or upcycled materials

• Switch to a bank and kiwisaver scheme that is socially and environmentally responsible

•  Be mindful with water; how much you use and what you put down the drain

I highly recommend understanding your ecological footprint through this quiz I found a year or so ago, it really paints a vivid picture to which areas of your life you can improve on!

https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en

Do you have any sustainable idols that you look up to for your business and personal sustainable goals?

Ooooh thats a good one! And yes! 

1. My boyfriend Carl! With his genuine passion for protecting and enhancing mama earth, I have learned alot from him around the impacts of human activities on different ecosystems, biodiversity, soil health, community wellbeing and the key industries responsible. Being able to froth over plant based meals, upcycled or packageless goods, local produce, and off grid tiny home designs together is pretty cool!! Whether it is picking at his science brain, giving him hauls of my new eco-friendly finds, or letting him roast me when I’m about to buy something i dont need (a fortnightly occurrence :// ), I love having him to keep me accountable on my journey of paving a sustainable lifestyle. 

2. The crew behind Sea And Soil - a non profit collective cultivating a regenerative earth as stewards of land and sea. There are so much epic educational resources the team behind Sea and Soil share on their independent platforms that encourage me to do more reading and research into regenerative ecosystems, permaculture, soil health and biodiverse landscapes. Their surf inspired approach to food sovereignty and community building is incredible and I would love to help facilitate something like this in Aotearoa in the future! (once I learn how to garden first haha). I find their work inspirational; to go back to our roots in creating a connection with where our food comes from, to live in synchronicity with nature and create self-sustaining systems that will out live and serve us all.

Quickfire!!!

Tea or coffee?

• Has always been tea but have been making a BOSS iced coffee recently, so will have to be that! 

Long walk or fast run?

• Long walk

Reading or podcasts?

• Podcasts

Winter or summer?

• SUMMER !!!!!!

Sweet or savoury?

• Oooooohhh Ahhhh Woodfired pizzas with a beer are quite possibly my favourite things in this whole world so savoury it is!

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I would love to thank Hayley for joining us on our first edit of our Making Waves series. Hayley is an incredible boss lady and is most definitely making waves in the ethical swimwear movement.