Reknit
We offer the conversion of old knit clothing into a new item each month. You can pay $30 and ship your old sweater off to my mom, and within a month, receive something new. The item each month is determined by the users via a simple poll on the site.
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Like your name (Haik Avanian) – whats your history?
I was born in Armenia, and moved to the US with my mom & sister in 1995, so that explains my name.
For those who dont know – could you give us a quick run through of how Reknit works?
We offer the conversion of old knit clothing into a new item each month. You can pay $30 and ship your old sweater off to my mom, and within a month, receive something new. The item each month is determined by the users via a simple poll on the site. After the abundance of orders in the first month, we’ve been limiting orders to the first 30 each month just to make it logistically possible to handle.
Its a charming notion – who came up with the idea?
My mom had always had the idea of starting a small custom-knitting business online, and this past winter she came up with the idea of incorporating the recycling aspect. During the holiday break when we were all together, I decided to distill the idea down to a 1 week project just to get something going, and it sort of took off on its own and has been going strong since.
We love seeing good ideas take shape – social enterprises and projects that make life simpler – you got a favourite/s? Anything that acknowledges the importance of experimentation and improvisation is great in my book.
Really love the simpleness and authenticity of the site – how would you describe your design/life approach?
Simplicity was really important with this project. If the process was too complicated, it would come off as intimidating to those who aren’t familiar with knitting. Also from our end, if we had more than one product at a time, with lots of variable options, it would be extremely time consuming and hard to pull off. Starting off with the bare minimum has allowed us to get the project going and learn how to improve it as we go from month to month. Our printable label is a good example of this. It started off as just an address form with some decorative illustrations. After the first month passed and packages began to arrive from both january and february, to make it easier to organize them without having to open up each package, we added an option on the label where the customer could check off their item/style/size/etc. (shippinglabel.pdf). I also enjoy the fact that the actual designing of this was not very time consuming or rigorous.
Got any future plans for Reknit – will we see other family members joining the team?
We’re constantly talking about the future of this project. I think we’d all be completely content if it continued as it has been…Even if the orders dwindled to a few a month, the maintenance on the site and overhead are practically non-existent. We’ve also talked about a separate site that would allow for other knitters to start small reknitting operations.
Reknit
We offer the conversion of old knit clothing into a new item each month. You can pay $30 and ship your old sweater off to my mom, and within a month, receive something new. The item each month is determined by the users via a simple poll on the site.
Like your name (Haik Avanian) – whats your history?
I was born in Armenia, and moved to the US with my mom & sister in 1995, so that explains my name.
For those who dont know – could you give us a quick run through of how Reknit works?
We offer the conversion of old knit clothing into a new item each month. You can pay $30 and ship your old sweater off to my mom, and within a month, receive something new. The item each month is determined by the users via a simple poll on the site. After the abundance of orders in the first month, we’ve been limiting orders to the first 30 each month just to make it logistically possible to handle.
Its a charming notion – who came up with the idea?
My mom had always had the idea of starting a small custom-knitting business online, and this past winter she came up with the idea of incorporating the recycling aspect. During the holiday break when we were all together, I decided to distill the idea down to a 1 week project just to get something going, and it sort of took off on its own and has been going strong since.
We love seeing good ideas take shape – social enterprises and projects that make life simpler – you got a favourite/s?
Anything that acknowledges the importance of experimentation and improvisation is great in my book.
Really love the simpleness and authenticity of the site – how would you describe your design/life approach?
Simplicity was really important with this project. If the process was too complicated, it would come off as intimidating to those who aren’t familiar with knitting. Also from our end, if we had more than one product at a time, with lots of variable options, it would be extremely time consuming and hard to pull off. Starting off with the bare minimum has allowed us to get the project going and learn how to improve it as we go from month to month. Our printable label is a good example of this. It started off as just an address form with some decorative illustrations. After the first month passed and packages began to arrive from both january and february, to make it easier to organize them without having to open up each package, we added an option on the label where the customer could check off their item/style/size/etc. (shippinglabel.pdf). I also enjoy the fact that the actual designing of this was not very time consuming or rigorous.
Got any future plans for Reknit – will we see other family members joining the team?
We’re constantly talking about the future of this project. I think we’d all be completely content if it continued as it has been…Even if the orders dwindled to a few a month, the maintenance on the site and overhead are practically non-existent. We’ve also talked about a separate site that would allow for other knitters to start small reknitting operations.