Sustainable Activewear: Meet the Canadian Brand Doing it Right ft. Cynthia Savard (ORAKI)

For those who know me, you know that I love being active. Whether hiking in the mountains or Pilates in my basement, physical activity is a big part of how I remain resilient in my day-to-day life. And if ever you have seen me in person or on social media engaged in one of these activities, you have, without a doubt, seen this next brand.

I have been a huge fan of ORAKI activewear for years. Their clothing is all made locally here in Canada and crafted from eco-friendly materials. To top it all, each piece is gorgeous, comfortable and extremely flattering. These really are the only leggings I own!

The visionary behind this remarkable brand? Cynthia Savard.

Before founding ORAKI, Cynthia worked for 15 years at some of the biggest names in the fashion industry as head designer. Determined to climb the ladder, she landed a position in charge of a design team and traveled the world. Exposed to fast fashion and clothes made from animal by-products, she set herself a goal that would determine the rest of her career: to create a sustainable solution to transform this industry. 

It was in 2014 that Cynthia was first exposed to recycled fiber from plastic bottles. At the time, this fiber was still very little used in the fashion industry. In 2016, after two years of research and in-factory trials, Cynthia took the plunge: she quit her job, threw herself into the unknown, and one thing led to another, creating ORAKI.

From designing with cutting-edge materials to reshaping how we think about ethical production and supply chains, Cynthia and her team are proving that fashion can be both stylish and sustainable.

In this episode, we’ll be diving into what inspired her to launch ORAKI, how she’s built a thriving online community with little to no advertising, and her experience pitching on Dragon’s Den. Plus, we’ll explore her latest venture, Akanoma, and the lessons she’s learned as an entrepreneur who’s truly in it for the long haul.

When launching The Resilience Report 2 years ago, I made my wish list of potential guests. At the top of that list in the fashion space was ORAKI. To be able to sit down and chat with Cynthia all about the company was truly a dream come true. Please join me in welcoming the one and only: Cynthia Savard.

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[Host: Lauren Scott] Welcome back to another episode of The Resilience Report. I woke up so excited this morning because, for our listeners who know, outside of having a corporate job, if I'm not working, I'm outside doing sports, hiking, and over the past few years, when doing so, I've always, always, always been wearing the following brand. It is a brand called ORAKI, and today we have their inspiring founder with us. Welcome to the show, Cynthia. 

[Guest: Cynthia Savard] Thank you, thank you so much for having me. Very excited to be here. 

I was preparing for this call and I was doing research. I was so impressed and surprised to see that clothing design is actually something that you have loved doing, and I think you said all the way back starting at 7 years old. So, what sparked that initially and what is it that you love so much about the fashion space? 

Yes, I just remember very vividly when I was young, my mother left me with my grandmother; she kind of went away for like four or five days with her friends, and then she left me with a pad, like some paper in crayon to draw, and at my grandmother's house, you know, back then it was very popular, the Sears catalogs, do you remember? I was like going through the Sears catalog and like picking up the things that I wanted for Christmas, for example, or I don't remember correctly, but I remember seeing all these beautiful women wearing dresses and t-shirts and jeans, whatever. So, I was very, like, I was just looking at them, and I started to draw. I started to draw them on a piece of paper, and then I got very interested in the clothing. Actually, as the day went by, I was just designing clothing. So when my mother came back, she saw all of the drawings, and she was very impressed. And that was a magazine that was also sold at that time called Top Model. I don't know if that exists anymore, but yeah, I started to buy those magazines with my mother, and I was looking at the top models from all over the world and all the pictures and all the dresses. And then I never stopped drawing. I was seven years old and here I am. 

And part of that journey was, I believe it was around 2016 that you actually founded ORAKI. So, you had been continuing to draw and do this clothing design. What was it when you were looking at the space and you thought there's kind of this gap and this opportunity to then develop and launch ORAKI? 

Well, actually, it was not part of my thought when I first started, like yeah, I didn't even ask myself, is there a space for me in the market? Should I do that? I just did what I truly love. Yeah, I just went through with my passion, to be honest with you. When I went into fashion design, when I studied fashion design, I was really, everybody around me was saying I shouldn't have done that because there were no jobs after, and it would be very difficult for me at the end. And I remember in the marketing class at the fashion school, there was a teacher that was saying, look at each other, like, look at you guys, and there will only be two people that are going to be working in the fashion industry. And at that moment, I knew I was part of the two ones that are going to be working in the industry. So, I, that's always been my mindset, you know. I always believed in myself. I don't know why, to be honest, but I knew I would find a way to make it work, even as a fashion designer in the fashion world, but also as a business owner. When I started, I always knew that if I worked very hard, things would work well for me. 

I'd love now to kind of dive in a little bit deeper and share with our listeners all the incredible sustainable work that you're doing with the company and starting with the fact that, you know, both you and I were just staying off air before we're both based in the Montreal area. And for listeners who are less familiar, Montreal actually used to be known as a hub in terms of fashion design and manufacturing just even a few decades ago, but so much of that has changed with offshoring since maybe like the 80s or so. What was the process like, and what is the process like of being based here, having so much of that offshoring, but then trying to find an ecosystem of suppliers? Was it an easy project? Is it something that's constantly evolving? I'm trying to find local manufacturers because you do not only design, but 100% of your products are also manufactured here as well. 

Yes, absolutely. I would say that when I first started seven years ago, it was much easier because there were more suppliers, more manufacturers here. Now, like some of them have closed, but I, you know, like I, I'm also on Chabanel, like I'm on Chabanel and St. Laurent, which is where the Fashion District was back in the day. And so all the shops that sell, like buttons, elastic, like any types of trims that you would need to make a production, they are centered here in this area. So there were fewer people than before, but I mean, there are still companies around here, so that makes it very easy for me, being here in the district, working with them directly. But also, like our manufacturer, they are not here around us; they are, let's say, in Longueuil, or even like a city or close, Quebec City, such as Beauce. So, there is a very high hand, very nice manufacturer here in Quebec. You just need to find them. You write them, and you try samples with them, and that's what I did in the beginning. I called all of them, I tried samples with all of them, and then you negotiate the prices, and you see their quality, and then you choose with whom you want to work. And, uh, yes, so two of them that I worked with since the beginning, and they are still my main producer, which is, I'm very grateful to have. I mean, we are very grateful to have each other because ORAKI, as you know, is very popular and well-known, people really like our product, so it's kind of a perfect match, basically,

That's amazing that you can kind of support each other as part of that ecosystem. I know one of the main reasons that I initially fell in love with the product is not only that it was made locally but it was around the materials that you were using in the product. And I think at the time, they were primarily focused on recycled material. And I know you've even extended that since then, using creative pieces like dented corn or wood pulp. Have you found that it's gotten easier with time as there's more demand for sustainable type materials, and maybe there's more suppliers, or what does that evolution look like over the past few years because I'm sure it has changed, especially as your volumes have changed as well? 

Yes, when I was actually working for a fashion company before I started ORAKI, there was like a company that came to the office and showed the new fabrics, and by that time, I had never heard about recycled material. And that one person showed me some recycled material fabrics made from plastic bottles back then, and I was really impressed and drawn to it, and I started to make some research. And this guy was from the US. At the time, I don't know, that was kind of a light for me, saying, oh my God, like in my own industry, I can make a difference and do something that is not mass market, and I can actually use recycled or bio-based material, and I was very excited about it. And I tried to implant this idea into the company I was working for, but you know, the cost of it also is more expensive, so it's not that easy. So, back then, it was kind of hard to find a supplier and manufacturer that could work those yarns, but I mean, everything in my life has kind of been hard since I was young, you know. So I'm used to working hard to get something and really find like the perfect supplier that can make your high-hand fabrics. But for sure, now there is actually shows you can go like let's say New York, California, you can actually also go to Paris just to have new suppliers that make, uh, eco-responsible fabrics. So the time has changed, that's for sure. Yeah, so in the beginning, I was just by myself, like calling them and see what they could do, pay for the shipping to receive the fabrics and try the fabric out. And yeah, it was an amazing journey. 

Those must be amazing trade shows. I can only imagine the conversations that you have there, but that's inspiring that it's now become at that level that everybody gets pulled together. 

Yeah, there is fabric made from coffee, from mushroom. There is like amazing technology into fabrics for the fashion industry. Of course, I cannot implement them in ORAKI as much as I wish because sometimes there is fabric that looks more like a leather fabric, or I mean, accessories would be better. But I'm always looking into what's the trend, what's coming with the innovation into my own industry. 

And then beyond materials, I know many of us in the sustainability space are also trying to rethink packaging, and that's another piece that I love when we receive, as customers of ORAKI, we receive, let's say, our leggings. Instead of having a plastic tag on there, it's wrapped with a hair elastic, and then you use pins, and you even have recycled cardboard as your tag to use as a bookmark. All of these things, I just think it's so creative. And for our listeners who are maybe entrepreneurs or business leaders who are trying to rethink packaging, do you have any tips or recommendations as to how they can maybe get started on how they can think outside the box in terms of tackling packaging waste? 

Sure. I mean, depending on your business, for me, when I first started, I didn't want packaging, like I wanted no packaging at all. So there are things that you don't have a choice to have, such as a hang tag or like a poly mailer that you're going to send the package to the customer. But otherwise, I mean, there is so much packaging all the time, like in, like let's say in high-end, a fashion company that you have like a satin paper, and then you have a sticker, and then you have a box, and the box is in another box, and you know. So there is so much packaging that is going into, um, I'm going to say recycling bin, but most of the time, it's really garbage. So for me, it's just part of the process not using any packaging or, or if I'm using packaging, I need to be very careful of what I'm doing and try to reuse this. Each piece needs to be reused. That was like in the very first beginning. I really thought out how can I reuse all the packaging that I'm going to be using for my brand. Like the elastic, for example. I don't know why this idea came to my mind, like I need something to attach the hang tag to the clothing. Oh, I thought about an elastic, so I make it clear that you can reuse it for your hair. That's just an example, but otherwise, all of our poly mailers are made from recycled material also that is recyclable, and there is no, you know, when you receive the goods, they are not packed in another plastic bag because right, and each t-shirt is in a plastic bag, and then you receive your package with like a lot of pieces of garment that they all wrap itself in a plastic. Very important for me not to use it and just, as an example, but I try to be very careful about that. 

That makes a ton of sense, and I know another area where you try to reduce your waste is that of not producing too many pieces, and your approach has been very transparent as well that you'll do shorter runs so as to avoid that surplus. Was that something that was already kind of at the heart of your business model when you decided to set out, or was it more kind of a necessary thing to scale? What did that look like? 

When I first started, it was more like a financial thing because like I didn't, to make big productions, but at the end, the message is the same. It's very important not to have so much inventory. It's not to overproduce and try to see what's the demand. That's one of the things that's very hard in the company right now when we do our orders, and we try to have the exact perfect amount of stock. I'm sure this is a struggle for many entrepreneurs out there, but for us, it's important also not to keep inventory. That's why we don't have like a Black Friday or big sales. Although we're going to have a sale now at the end of January, but otherwise, it's like once or twice a year, we have a sale because we don't really need it, and that's very also interesting for the client because the client received the style, and they have this, you know, that it's not like 5,000 people wearing the same t-shirt or hoodie. And as a business perspective, it's always nice also to make sure that you have your cash back, you know. When I do like a launch, for example, I do a launch, in five minutes, one style is sold out. So for me, it's always nice to have a quick run of the styles and just, you know, not get stuck with like many things, and it makes it very special. And this is our business model. I don't know if it's going to change, hopefully not because it's going very well for us this way. I like this business model.

And you can definitely follow along on the enthusiasm for the different launches on social media. To Cynthia's point, sometimes you sell out in a matter of minutes, and you see all of these comments online. There is such a strong following, so hats off, first of all, to your marketing team. They've been amazing to deal with, but they're also incredible at content. You've created this real community online, and it's allowed, from my understanding of doing the research for this episode, that you actually haven't had to invest too heavily in advertising because there's been such strong word of mouth. How have you thought about building this community and nurturing it over time because it certainly seems like such a great support network that you've built up? 

Yeah, when I first started, I just kind of showed everybody what I was doing. They saw me in the manufacturer with like fabric rolls, fabric-making machines, suppliers. I brought everyone in my journey when I first started, and this was not a thing back then. Now on TikTok, let's say everybody's doing it, but back then, nobody was doing it, and I was actually talking to the camera or Instagram, Facebook, whatever, saying the real thing. Sometimes I even cried, you know, like I have highs and lows, and I shared everything with everyone. So everyone was really drawn to my experience of what I was doing, and they actually also saw that I cared. Like, you know, when I'm making a shirt, a long sleeve, a legging, whatever, I made sure the fabric is perfect, the print is on point, the cut and sew is perfect also, and the fit, everything when you're going to receive your piece of clothing, you'll make sure you'll love it, and they would it would stay with you for a long time. But I feel like people were really, uh, got attached to me and to the whole process and to the company and to the message and also the difference I was making in the world. In the beginning, I had a lot of, I had to talk about many things that people really didn't understand, and that people got some, some frustration with quantities, for example. That was a good point that you brought, but in the beginning, like having not a lot of inventory got me a lot of hate, but that really understood that I'm here to stay, and this is what I want to do. Like I want to produce in small batches, you come with me, or you don't, and it's really your choice, but you'll be very happy having this high-quality sweater that not everybody has. 

It's so refreshing, and I think you've hit the nail on the head in terms of we just feel like we're kind of following along on your journey. I remember one time in particular, I think it was that there was a launch that had been communicated, and then I seem to remember you explaining that you received the product, and it just wasn't up to standards, so you had to just say, hey, I know you're interested, I know we talked about this deadline, but it's going to have to get bumped because it's not at the standard as to what I'm looking for. 

Exactly. I remember the product listings you were talking about, but yeah, also, I make them choose some decision that I have to take in my own business. I ask my people, like, how do you feel about: I have this product, it's not in my standard, I don't know what to do with it, either I give it to a shelter and people that need clothing, or I don't know, like, you want to buy it at 50%, you know. I try to just see like what would be the best, so they are also part of the journey, and they also like what they think is very important for me. We're doing it together, so yeah, it's been a crazy ride. 

And as part of that crazy ride, you were recently on Dragon's Den. So, for our American listeners, that is the Canadian version of Shark Tank. And not only were you brave enough to go on, but you were also brave enough to then watch the recording back and then film for social media. So was really brave of you on both fronts. What was that experience like? And then I'm super curious, how has it changed your team's day-to-day, if at all? 

I think the words that you use, brave, is such a powerful word because that's how I felt, honestly, when I went there, you know. As an entrepreneur, you have to do everything that's out there for you. You have to knock on all of the doors, and this is such a great opportunity to show the rest of Canada, like your product, and who you are, and what you do. But at the same time, you know, it's, you don't have the control over what's going to be shown on the TV, and it's hard, to be honest. If you go to Dragon's Den, it's not for the weak; you have to be prepared, but you have to be really, really strong, and you have to believe in your product, no matter what they're going to say, and how they are going to react to any questions they ask and answers they receive. So, I am feeling strong, to be honest with you, like I'm really like, but I felt like in the cage with them, and like that was a bubble, and I feel like I don't know, they probably love me very much, but they showed like all the best parts, but that was some part when I was there in the real world that it didn't go well that much. And that's what going there was one thing, but the wait in between, like going on the show and watching the show on the TV, it was probably like five months, and yeah, I got kind of like, I didn't sleep. Oh yes, I was thinking about how they are going to show if is it my business going to survive, and like I was asking me like all this time. I would say that the weight was more painful than actually going there. So that's why I watched the episode. Like, I, I cried, like I cried, that my marketing director, like I was so relieved and happy that they showed like all the best part, some part was okay, but I mean, overall, like I think the company was well showed. 

Amazing. And again, hats off to you for doing that. I think just putting yourself out there, and it's so much part of being an entrepreneur and clearly just running the successful business of ORAKI was not enough because you also have recently launched another business that is super exciting, and I know you've shared with your audiences very much a dream that you've had and been wanting to execute on. So could you share, guess two things, maybe, what is this new business, and then what made you want to kind of go above and beyond, and while everything was going well with ORAKI, you now also create this new baby of yours, for a lack of a better word? 

The new business is called Akanoma. We make boots, shoes, sandals, accessories such as bags made from recycled material. So the message is the same; it's just a different type of product. I've always loved shoes, boots. This is like something I, you know, I've always dreamt of designing. I remember when I was 24 years old, I was like living in a very small, tiny apartment, and I didn't have anything, but I had a dream of like designing shoes, have this company of shoes, and I started to draw actually shoes and talking to suppliers and things like that, but things change, and like I changed my mind, and I did other things, and you know, I had other kinds of businesses back then, but I always have it in my mind, you know. 

So why did I choose to do it now? Is because I feel I got a bit stressed out with the not that I mean, it's going very well, everything is going well, it's just at some point, I was like, oh my God, if something happened to my baby, you know, if something, my baby, like what am I going to do, and what I'm going to rely on. I have 20 employees, and I just felt if I have something else, maybe like maybe I, I can rely on that thing too. So, and also, like creativity, I want to do other things. I mean, I have so many other dreams, not just like business-wise, but I, I mean, we have one life, like I want to take all the juice, you know, all the juice of life, and live my best life, and this is a dream of mine, and I mean, I'm healthy, I have the money, like I have the team, let's do this. So I started to, it's been three years actually, I'm working on Akanoma. I can't believe we just launched this now. That journey was very, very hard, actually. It was harder than ORAKI. 

Is that just because it's a very different world of suppliers, or what makes that more challenging versus perhaps more in the ORAKI world? 

Few reasons. I think that I'm also like a fashion designer; I've been in the fashion industry for like nearly 20 years now, and, uh, I, I'm not in a shoe industry. So that's why I made a lot of mistakes that I wouldn't do if I wasn't in that industry before, and also trying out suppliers because it's not like you find someone and this is like the perfect match, and you go going into production with them. You have to try them out and do a sample. For us, it took us like four months, okay, so we did some samples of supplier four months each, few thousand dollars also into this, and time, but, and I was not satisfied, so even after like a year and a half, I was not satisfied with anybody. So I was very discouraged, and I wanted to quit, but yeah. So eventually, I found someone else. I was like, that's going to be my last one, let's try this supplier, and it's going to be my last one. If it's not working, I'm going to close. I'm not going to do anything about it. Wow, this will be a message from the universe saying like you are already so busy, stay with so, and then yeah, when I received the first sample with this supplier, I was, I was very like, oh my God, this is so beautiful, and the fit is amazing, in the fabric, and the communication also, communication is very important. So everything was perfect. I was like, that's it, I'm doing it. Yeah.

Well, I'm sure so many people are happy that you were able to see it through, and I can now see all the different collections coming out. You did mention of kind of keeping that energy, and I, I know it cannot be easy being an entrepreneur. You're mentioning you have 20 people relying on you, and there's the ups and downs, and especially trying to be an entrepreneur in the sustainability space probably has its own set of challenges. So have you found any tools over the years that have helped you keep on coming back to the work as a leader, as a visionary for your brand? 

Yes, I mean, there will always be like hard phases, even in your personal life. There are things we cannot avoid. I had in the past, I have now, I'm sure you do also, like everybody has like, it's, life is not perfect. It's not like clean water, but I also feel the same in the business, to be honest with you, like I feel you have like many, honestly, my work is just to settle, to find solutions for problems. Every day I come here, I just have problems, and I, I need to find solutions. That's why I'm here. I feel like I'm good at finding a solution in my personal life and also in my business, and I don't mind doing that. So yeah, when you accept this is life and that's is how things going to go, and sometimes you are in the phase like everything is going well, and you just like, thank, thank this guy or thank God or whatever is close to your heart that, like, for me in the business, it's the same thing. Like some weeks are amazing, and I'm feeling on top of the world and I'm feeling the best entrepreneur of the year, and sometimes I feel like I just want to, you know, go sleep with trash and my, this is, and you know that thing is working out. So this is like the high and low of the entrepreneur life, but I love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

And a special angle to the entrepreneurship really is the sustainability piece. I was wondering as well, you're mentioning up top as to how your passion for fashion design started, but what about the sustainability piece? Was that always part of it as well, or is that something that evolved over maybe the time prior to founding or, what did that look like? 

Yeah, it's a question that I read made me think how that I started to like care for the environment, and I don't know, like when I was young, I'm from a family where we were eating meat like all the time, and I just felt like I didn't want to eat meat anymore. I was very like drawn to animals, and I didn't want to eat them, and I was very, very young. Like I remember my mom was making pizza, and for me, she was putting like broccoli and carrots and not with it on the pizza. So yeah, and then also like, I'm from Rimouski, close to the St Laurent, like actually see the Saron River from my house, so we all, all like playing around the river or playing in the forest and playing in nature all the time. So we are very connected to it. I mean, when I was, um, I think 15 years old, I stopped eating meat completely, and now I'm 41, and I haven't eaten meat since then. Being a vegan, and then a vegetarian, now I'm a vegetarian, but being close to the world and to the what surrounds us and the animals and not wanting to hurt, hurt anyone and anything, and that's always been part of my journey. When I was working as a fashion designer, I remember I was like making winter jackets, and we had to use like a real fur and, um, a type of the animal product to make, to make the jackets, and it, this really, really felt like against my values, and I remember trying to sell to my boss all this fabric is made, you know, we don't need animal products, and there was like fake fur we can use, and this and that. He actually gave me a chance to do some kind of a jacket that was different, but then nobody was buying them. So everybody also, like the market was really drawn to the real fur at that time, you know, like you remember the real fur, like, and then that was also wool that we would could use, and I hadn't any choice of using those fabrics because that was my work, and I had to pay bills, and but when the chance came for me to actually make my own brand, for sure, I'm going to stay away from animal byproducts, and for sure, I'm going to try to make a difference and try to use recycled, bio-based material, and if I can make here in Canada, this is the best scenario that I have for my brands. Yeah.

Well, your brands are phenomenal again. We've run through it with our listeners, but made locally, phenomenal materials, and I do want to also point out that while they're made from these sustainable materials, they're also gorgeous and are the best feeling products too. So I, I do want to call that out because I think sometimes when we're in sustainability, we think it's one or the other, but you've managed to find a marriage between those ideas. 

Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. 

If our listeners want to go check out either of your brands, where would you recommend that they go first? 

Yes, you can come to the website or www.oraki.ca or www.akanoma.com. We are also everywhere, you know, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, we have French, English pages, and yeah, you, you see me sharing my entrepreneurial life, our office life, and everything that's you know, up and down in the business. So we're very excited to show the world what we do. 

Thank you for everything that you share and for coming on today and sharing your passion for this space. I do want to end the episode with the same question that we ask on every episode, which is what do you think it will take for businesses and leaders to be resilient going forward? 

That's a very good question. I, we say that knowing problems and hard times will come, they will come, so just be prepared and always try to find a solution and be positive. Like, I think being positive, even though in hard times, it's a great way to start, but knowing that there will always be highs and lows, no matter what, so just knowing that and keep moving forward. 

Thank you so much once again. I'm a huge fan of everything that you're doing, and I just appreciate you taking the time out today to join us on The Resilience Report. 

Thank you, thank you for inviting me.