How Project Repat Built a Million-Dollar Business from Unwanted T-Shirts
What happens to your old t-shirts after you donate them? The answer might surprise you – and it inspired one entrepreneur to build a business that’s keeping textiles out of landfills while creating meaningful products people actually want.
Ross Lohr, founder of Project Repat, joined us on Green Tech Pulse to share how he turned a simple observation into a thriving sustainable business that’s made over a million memory quilts and employs 100 people at fair wages in North Carolina.
The Hidden Journey of Donated Clothes
Most people assume their donated t-shirts go to someone in need locally. The reality is quite different.
“When you donate a shirt to Goodwill or Salvation Army, a lot of those shirts end up overseas,” Ross explains. “They maybe get resold in places like Kenya or Tanzania through these massive markets, or if they can’t be resold, unfortunately they will end up in landfills.”
This global textile trade creates a staggering waste problem: 5% of all waste on Earth comes from used textiles. Ross witnessed this firsthand during a trip to Kenya, where he saw locals wearing American high school t-shirts – shirts that had traveled thousands of miles from their original owners.
From Problem to Solution: The Birth of Project Repat
The idea for Project Repat came from a simple observation: people have closets full of t-shirts they can’t wear anymore but can’t bear to throw away.
“Every time you run a road race or when you’re in high school you get all your band shirts or sports shirts or jerseys uniforms,” Ross notes. “We kept hearing from people that they wanted an easy way to put all those shirts together in one place and keep them memorable.”
Project Repat’s solution is elegant: customers send their old t-shirts, and the company cuts and sews them into custom quilts. Each quilt preserves memories while giving old clothes a new purpose that lasts for years.
Building Sustainable Manufacturing in America
While many companies outsource production to cut costs, Project Repat took a different approach. They partnered with a worker-owned factory in North Carolina, where employees become part-owners over time.
“The workers there really care about making an excellent product but they also care about doing so in a really efficient way because they own the company,” Ross explains. “They know the more efficient they are at making this product, the more money they stand to earn.”
This model works particularly well for Project Repat’s business because handling customers’ meaningful t-shirts requires extreme care and attention to detail. One mistake – mixing up someone’s shirts with another customer’s order – could be devastating.
The company has developed sophisticated tracking systems to handle 2,000-3,000 custom orders weekly without errors. Each box gets a tracking barcode, and workers follow strict protocols to ensure no mixing of orders occurs.
The Challenge of Scaling Custom Manufacturing
Managing thousands of highly personalized orders presents unique challenges that traditional e-commerce doesn’t face.
“Modern e-commerce is built to sell a product you ship it out,” Ross explains. “We have a process where somebody orders and then they need to send us their materials that we work on. That is a very different process.”
The company has built custom backend systems to track each package through every step of production, allowing customers to see exactly where their quilt is in the process. This transparency builds trust when customers are shipping their most meaningful possessions to a company they’ve never met in person.
Creating a Circular Economy with Scrappy Socks
After making over a million quilts, Project Repat faced a new challenge: what to do with all the leftover fabric scraps. The solution became their second business line.
“The sort of dark secret of the t-shirt quilt making process is that we can only use the square on the front of the shirt or the back of the shirt and then you have all this excess material or scraps that you can’t use,” Ross admits.
Rather than sending these scraps to recyclers who would break them down into car mat material, Project Repat invested in research and development to create Scrappy Socks. The process involves shredding the scraps down into fibers, respinning them into yarn, and knitting socks – all done in the same region where the scraps are collected.
The Reality of Sustainable Business
Ross offers a refreshingly honest perspective on why customers choose sustainable products. While environmental consciousness is growing, it’s rarely the primary purchasing decision.
“I honestly don’t think that’s enough people to make a business like ours grow,” he says about environmentally motivated buyers. “I think people buy from us first and foremost because it’s a product that they really want at a good price, and the sustainability side of it is kind of like a pat on the back they give themselves after the fact.”
This insight highlights a crucial challenge for sustainable businesses: products must compete on quality and price, not just environmental benefits. Many sustainable fashion brands struggle because they position themselves as premium products with premium prices.
“If you see like the world’s most sustainable t-shirt and it’s a $100, like it’s probably not going to fly,” Ross observes. “Meanwhile the average American’s struggling to make ends meet.”
Lessons for Sustainable Entrepreneurs
Project Repat’s success offers several key lessons for entrepreneurs looking to build sustainable businesses:
Start with a product people want: The environmental benefits are important, but they can’t be the only selling point. Your product must solve a real problem customers are willing to pay for.
Price competitively: Sustainable products need to be accessible to mainstream consumers, not just wealthy environmentalists.
Build systems for scale: Custom manufacturing requires sophisticated tracking and quality control systems, especially when handling customers’ meaningful possessions.
Consider the full lifecycle: Look for opportunities to use waste byproducts, as Project Repat did with Scrappy Socks.
Align incentives: Worker ownership creates natural incentives for quality and efficiency that benefit everyone.
The Future of Textile Recycling
Ross sees significant opportunities ahead for textile recycling and sustainable fashion. With millions of Americans still unaware that services like Project Repat exist, there’s substantial room for market education and growth.
The company is exploring additional textile recycling opportunities beyond quilts and socks, always looking for ways to keep more materials out of landfills while creating products people actually want to buy.
Making Memories While Making a Difference
Project Repat proves that sustainable businesses can thrive when they focus on creating genuine value for customers. By turning meaningful old t-shirts into lasting memories, they’ve built a company that customers love while diverting significant textile waste from landfills.
The key to their success isn’t complicated: they identified a real problem, created a quality solution at a fair price, and built systems to deliver consistently. The environmental benefits, while important, are the result of good business practices rather than the primary selling point.
For entrepreneurs looking to build sustainable businesses, Project Repat’s story offers a practical roadmap. Start with a product people want, price it fairly, build systems that scale, and the environmental benefits will follow naturally.
Ready to turn your old t-shirts into something special? Learn more about Project Repat at projectrepat.com
Listen to the full interview with Ross Lohr on Green Tech Pulse wherever you get your podcasts.
About Green Tech Pulse
Green Tech Pulse brings you practical stories from entrepreneurs and innovators building profitable businesses while helping the planet. Each episode features real conversations about the challenges and opportunities in sustainable technology and business practices.
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