MOREHEAD, Ky. (FOX 56) – “Doing Denim Differently”. That’s what New Frontier, a clothing brand out of Morehead, is looking to do with its jeans.
New Frontier is the first Kentucky-based company in to produce a product utilizing circular denim.
“We built it brick by brick to this point,” said co-founder Jared Ravenscraft. “Ultimately wanting to get into sustainable and circular products. It is just to change the industry because fashion’s dirty, it’s one of the biggest polluters in the world. So, we want to do things differently and, you know, lead from the front.”
The store has been working with sustainable fashion suppliers, including a company out of the Netherlands for the last two years to create denim products out of recycled materials.
Making denim products from recycled materials is nothing new, but Ravenscraft — who co-founded the company more than five years ago out of a garage with his brother Joshua — explained, these denim products are some of the cleanest in the entire market.
100% pesticide-free, organic cotton, 94% less water, 75% carbon dioxide.
In a press release following the lines launch in late April, the brand explained the following:
“Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop, and manufacturing a typical pair of jeans requires more than 1,800 gallons of water — roughly 104 showers.”
Ravenscraft said to be pushing the envelope in the fashion industry, means a lot.
“You know, you think of denim, denim is, American,” Ravenscraft explained. “Kentucky’s kind of a blue-collar place and especially being in eastern Kentucky. So, denim was just the first launching point for us. To reimagine, you know, our part in the fashion industry and what we could do to change the game and change it in a positive way.”
The Ravenscraft brothers are products of Morehead, so to be able to also be revolutionizing an industry from their hometown adds a little more weight as well.
“Launching this from Morehead, Kentucky, from eastern Kentucky, it means more, you know, a region not known for sustainability per se.,” Ravenscraft outlined. “So, you know, there’s some weight to it for us to represent our area and represent this region and be a part of that renaissance that’s going on.”
Ravenscraft says the ongoing renaissance in the region is referred to as an “Appalachian Renaissance.”
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He describes it as more and more artisans, musicians, designers, etc. from eastern Kentucky, staying in eastern Kentucky to hone their craft and show the world their talents, rather than going to New York or Los Angeles.
“It’s a new day in our region,” Ravenscraft described. “You know, there are a lot of young folks and people staying home, you know, staying where they’re from, building businesses in their towns, launching their careers, whether they’re an artist or they own a small business, but, you know, reimagining what’s possible and creating new things and whatever lane of business, you know, there’s a wave and there’s the energy there.”
All of this hard work led the brand to be named the 2023 Start-Up of the Year by SOAR.
“Appreciate all the work that they do and Hal Rogers, you know, supporting businesses in eastern Kentucky,” shared Ravenscraft. “But for us to receive that, it’s cool to be noticed. But we know there’s more work to do. So, it’s just kind of like a pat on the back to keep going.”
To learn more about New Frontier, check out their website here.