We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ian Mcnamara a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ian, thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?
I moved across the country for a job at a tech company about a month after graduating from college a couple years ago. I got laid off three months later. It was a shock. I had barely settled in.
At first, I tried to quickly find a new job, but nothing clicked. I decided a couple weeks later that I’d drive back home.
While I was working, what eventually became MARO, was just a small thought in the back of my head. I had always wanted to start a business, but it was more of a vague idea than anything else. How to start was a challenge.
Once I got home, reality sunk in. I remember thinking about how I could turn this into a good thing, potentially the best thing that’s ever happened to me. We’re not quite there yet, but I was able to turn it into a good thing.
I booked a flight to Portugal and visited garment factories. I spent hours reading all about the apparel industry and its problems. I spent almost a year self-educating and learning before I sold a single product.
It wasn’t always comfortable. There was a lot of uncertainty. There were times when I’d start applying for jobs again, get invited to interviews and then back out. I even got a job offer that was really hard to turn down. I almost went to grad school. There was always a need to have some sort of backup plan.
But the most freeing thing was to not have any backup plan. To fully commit to doing what I wanted to do, despite most people not getting it right away.
I don’t think I would’ve been able to do this had I not decided to go all in.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the founder of MARO. Our goal at MARO is to make natural athletic and casual clothing with a holistic approach. MARO is a shortened form of marrow, which means the inmost or most essential part. It also means strength and vitality. At MARO, we care not only about how our apparel performs or looks on the outside, but what it’s doing to us on the inside.
For too long, clothing brands have used petroleum-derived materials like polyester and nylon as the basis for their garments. These materials are disastrous for the environment and for the human body. Yet, despite that information becoming more and more available, many people still want to wear them. Our goal is to convert people to naturally-derived clothing and create garments that perform just as well as what people are used to while having a positive impact on their health and the health of the planet.
We want to help everyone find their inner strength.
It’s because of our holistic approach that we started with organic cotton toe socks. Our feet are our foundation. They are our first contact with the Earth. Modern footwear restricts our feet. It’s unnatural. Toe socks provide a way to protect your feet from the elements without unnecessary restriction. They allow the feet to exist as nature intended them to.
I personally couldn’t find any organic cotton toe socks that weren’t blended with significant amounts of polyester or nylon, so I decided to create them. We’ve since added 100% plastic-free boxers, using a natural tree rubber waistband instead of the industry standard spandex waistband. We’ve also done the same for both men’s and women’s shorts and will continue to create more products with our holistic and circular design principles.
We offer customers 10% back when they return their items to us after their use with the goal to limit the amount of our garments that end up in a landfill.
We are a full circle apparel company.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The first quality is perseverance – the ability to just keep going even when facing uncertainty. There’s a lot of that when starting a business.
The second is a humility. I entered the clothing industry without any previous experience. There’s a lot I have to learn. There are companies much bigger than mine that I think are doing a lot of harm. If I’m serious about having an impact, I have to detach myself from the early results of what I’m doing, because what feels like success right now really doesn’t make a dent.
The third is irrationality. If I didn’t believe I could challenge big companies like Nike, Under Armour, and Lululemon one day, there’d be no chance it would happen. And a 0.1% chance is better than a 0% chance.
For people just getting started, my advice would be to 1) make sure you really believe in what you’re doing and 2) if you really do believe in it, just keep going.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I’ve realized the best thing to do is just make a decision. The sooner a decision is made, the less time there is to feel overwhelmed or worried. Make a decision and commit to it. If you make the wrong decision, so be it. Just keep moving.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wearmaro.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/wearmaro
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/wearmaro
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/wear_maro
Image Credits
First image of the guy holding the socks is from Barefoot Will on Twitter: https://x.com/Barefoot_Will_
The other images are from models that we hold the rights to use.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
