Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, so we've had
Speaker 1: some nice sort of collisions of our interests. I feel
Speaker 1: like a couple of times today Carol, for this Friday
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Business Week, and this is another. We
Speaker 1: care about the earth, we care about the time it
Speaker 1: and so does Julia Jackson, and like us, maybe even
Speaker 1: more than us. Uh. She knows a lot about wine,
Speaker 1: certainly more than me, maybe more than you as well.
Speaker 1: And that's a bulk exactly. She's the proprietor of the
Speaker 1: Jackson Family Winery. She's also the founder of Grounded. She's
Speaker 1: based out in Cindoma, California. She's here with us in
Speaker 1: New York City to tell us about Grounded. Julia, and welcome.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor
Speaker 1: to be here. So I come from Jackson Family Wines,
Speaker 1: which was founded by my father, the Just Jackson, and
Speaker 1: my mother, Barbara Banky. I'm a second generation proprietor, and
Speaker 1: the last decade I've really become a student of the
Speaker 1: climate crisis and what's happening, and I've become increasingly concerned
Speaker 1: about our trajectory as a species, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people talking about the problem but not actually doing something
Speaker 1: about it. So back in the wildfires decimated Santa Rosa
Speaker 1: and cause nine billion dollars worth of damage to my community,
Speaker 1: It's like, how could you? You can't ignore it right
Speaker 1: when you're in California right now, and in terms of
Speaker 1: the fires and the devastation that we've seen. Absolutely, I
Speaker 1: actually just lost my home three weeks ago. Oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But I have to say that after losing my home
Speaker 1: this time around, I am more committed to the cause,
Speaker 1: even more so than I was two years ago, which
Speaker 1: is ironic because it was too years ago. The wildfires,
Speaker 1: which really was the tipping point for me, even though
Speaker 1: I'd been studying climate change, um experiencing it firsthand and
Speaker 1: evacuating our ranch really led me to realize, this is
Speaker 1: happening right now, and this is happening in our community,
Speaker 1: and I need to do something about this. And you're
Speaker 1: giving a speech or your right to the UN or
Speaker 1: you did give a speech. I just gave a speech
Speaker 1: this morning to tell us about what you wanted to emphasize,
Speaker 1: because I do love that. I feel like the conversation
Speaker 1: has been elevated, and there's more and more conversations about it,
Speaker 1: and I hope that equally there are more things being
Speaker 1: done to be condens about action, it feels like, and
Speaker 1: that seemed to be at the core of what you're
Speaker 1: saying to tell us, Yeah, exactly, absolutely So two years
Speaker 1: ago I had the idea to launch my own startup, Grounded,
Speaker 1: which really the vision for it was to create a
Speaker 1: global movement around climate solution. So get solutions, give them
Speaker 1: a platform, and have a summit um. We had our
Speaker 1: first one in March of last year, convening solutionists speaking
Speaker 1: to all sorts of solutions to the climate crisis and
Speaker 1: get them in a room with policymakers, investors, influencers and
Speaker 1: give them a makeup phone so that we're not just
Speaker 1: talking about the problem. We can actually have these solutions
Speaker 1: pitch their solutions to the world. What's interesting is, and
Speaker 1: we Jason and I have certainly had these conversations at
Speaker 1: some of the many of the Bloomberg Live events. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you've seen the business roundtable come out
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, it's not just a responsibility to our shareholder.
Speaker 1: There are employees, there is the environment as a whole.
Speaker 1: And I do wonder if you think in terms of
Speaker 1: the conversations you're having and the people that you're speaking to,
Speaker 1: is it our policymakers or is it really going to
Speaker 1: be the private sector that continues to make the big
Speaker 1: changes in California released front and center with all of this, Yes,
Speaker 1: all hands on deck. Yeah, and Governor Jerry Browniere really
Speaker 1: honored to have him open our summit last year and
Speaker 1: um draw down the book drawed on by Paul Howkin,
Speaker 1: which is a hundred Solutions to Climate Change was really
Speaker 1: for me the inspiration behind Grounded and giving solutions a chance.
Speaker 1: It's going to take policymakers, it's going to take the
Speaker 1: private sector, it's going to take individual action, it's going
Speaker 1: to take influencers. It's literally going to take every single
Speaker 1: human being on this planet. So being able to create
Speaker 1: a movement and get a lot more people to realize
Speaker 1: there are solutions like regenerative agriculture that takes the quester
Speaker 1: a trillion tons of carbon if scale globally, that would
Speaker 1: put us at eight seventy levels pre industrial It's funny
Speaker 1: because we talk about things like cars and stuff, but
Speaker 1: you do think about agriculture I was out in the
Speaker 1: Midwest and meat production and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: But you do think about the impact something like that
Speaker 1: is having on our global economy and certainly our global environment. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: we really appreciate the time Julia Jackson propriety of the
Speaker 1: Jackson Family Wine. She's also the founder of Grounded based
Speaker 1: in Sonoma, California. This work is at the core of
Speaker 1: so many of the things that we're talking about. There's
Speaker 1: a business imperative, clearly, in economic imperative, cultural imperative talking
Speaker 1: about absolutely, and there's a human imperative to this. To
Speaker 1: your point, it feels like we're at this moment where
Speaker 1: more and more entrepreneurs ceo s, you know, folks are
Speaker 1: starting to engage on this on a much more holistic level. Well,
Speaker 1: and it goes to it's the right thing to do,
Speaker 1: but you're also seeing more companies talk about it making
Speaker 1: the business case for it as well. That it makes sense.
Speaker 1: I do want to point out their next summit, it's
Speaker 1: in March. The theme is Accelerat and connect Um. So
Speaker 1: folks want to find out a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1: They can certainly check out Grounded online. All right, So
Speaker 1: I've very much been looking forward to this conversation with
Speaker 1: Herbie Calvins, the president of Mixed Fitness, in part because
Speaker 1: I've known Herbie for a long time. Full disclosure, I
Speaker 1: didn't know we were going there. You have stories later later,
Speaker 1: maybe better than twenty years i've known you. But in
Speaker 1: part because I've been tracking your career very closely. You
Speaker 1: worked at timeax on the iron Man brand, you work
Speaker 1: for kiss my Face, a great organic skin products company,
Speaker 1: and you've worked in consumer products and now you've turned
Speaker 1: your attention to fitness Mixed Fitness. You guys had a
Speaker 1: big week this week, launching a whole new platform. Tell
Speaker 1: us about it. So we're launching a product Indian Home
Speaker 1: Fitness Space. We feel like this category is emerging, it's
Speaker 1: just burgeoning now. It's it's a new category. And what
Speaker 1: we decided to do about a year ago a step
Speaker 1: back and look at the consumers in this category. Nobody's
Speaker 1: really talking about the different segments of consumers that exist.
Speaker 1: And what we realized was there's a group about seven
Speaker 1: percent of consumers are out there to work out to win,
Speaker 1: workout to compete, and there's a much larger group of
Speaker 1: consumers that are looking to work out to just be
Speaker 1: fit and live a better life. So which one do
Speaker 1: you want? The second group, the second group, and that
Speaker 1: and that group. I mean, if you step back even
Speaker 1: and just look at the category, um, fitness is about
Speaker 1: a thirty two billion dollar category right now, and that
Speaker 1: includes what Jim's you're talking about everything, right, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: according to URSA. Yeah, and it's a gym. It's fitness
Speaker 1: and wellness. But yet obesity rates are two thirds of
Speaker 1: adults are struggling with overweight obesity, one third of children
Speaker 1: are struggling with over ob city. So something's not working.
Speaker 1: So there's no solution out there that's really helping these people.
Speaker 1: All right, So we think about Peloton, you know, I
Speaker 1: p O didn't go as great as maybe they thought,
Speaker 1: although it's creeping back towards that I p O price.
Speaker 1: You look at something like Orange Theory fitness, which I
Speaker 1: know you've tried. I mean, that's a really interesting concept
Speaker 1: that seems to be catching on and and gets to
Speaker 1: a slightly wider market. Put this in context for us
Speaker 1: with those competitors. So Peloton really if you look if
Speaker 1: you think about John Fooley's founder story, it's about soul
Speaker 1: cycle streaming into the home. He and his wife were
Speaker 1: frustrated they couldn't get into their favorite class. Um it's
Speaker 1: sold cycles say, He's like, there's got to be an
Speaker 1: answer here, and he's right, there is an answer. I
Speaker 1: mean streaming has hit music, it's hit television and movies,
Speaker 1: and now it's hitting fitness. And there's not just gonna
Speaker 1: be one brand in that category. There's different consumers with
Speaker 1: different needs. Like we just articulated for us, the context
Speaker 1: is we didn't start this way, but it's an easy
Speaker 1: way for people to understand what we're doing. We are
Speaker 1: UM a bit of a blend of NEWM. You're familiar
Speaker 1: with NEWM the wet loss app UM, where there's positive
Speaker 1: psychology behavior change to make lasting change, combined with orange
Speaker 1: theory in a way, which is the fastest growing Jim
Speaker 1: franchise in the country right now because it's it's an approachable,
Speaker 1: realistic UM fitness concept with heart rate training which is safe,
Speaker 1: combined with cross training which is also safe. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of overuse injuries of too much rowing, too much running,
Speaker 1: too much cycling, so we're bringing that together all of
Speaker 1: that and in it too. The home however, I think
Speaker 1: sometimes some of the criticism of some of these in
Speaker 1: home devices or fitness UM pieces of equipment is the cost.
Speaker 1: And I'm just curious because that can certainly prevent you
Speaker 1: from reaching a larger market. So tell me, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: we we've priced it very accessibly, but it's not about price.
Speaker 1: It really is about the psychographic and we consider ourselves
Speaker 1: a content and um technology company. So for the product itself,
Speaker 1: we have two different price options. We have one that
Speaker 1: is a bike with the bike is the component of
Speaker 1: the product that is Cardio, but we also UM the
Speaker 1: bike only is about eleven ninety nine or thirty four
Speaker 1: dollars a month if you finance it um or, and
Speaker 1: then we have a mixed plus that we call UM
Speaker 1: that includes UM weights and accessories from guy I'm in
Speaker 1: spry and that's well. And I'm interested in that second
Speaker 1: part because it does feel like people are and we
Speaker 1: see this with Peloton quite honestly, sort of expanding this
Speaker 1: platform understanding that people want to do different things at
Speaker 1: different at times. What are you seeing in terms of
Speaker 1: how people are evolving their activities? So I mean the
Speaker 1: consumer that we're going after, we spoke to them, We
Speaker 1: dove deeper to understand and they want variety. Um, they
Speaker 1: want something they can look forward to that's different every day.
Speaker 1: They're not looking to be the master or personal record
Speaker 1: on a bike ride or run a little bit right,
Speaker 1: but not get bored essentially, So we're offering that and
Speaker 1: it's not an afterthought. It's from the beginning, similar Orange Grey,
Speaker 1: where it's that cross training and the mix of different
Speaker 1: concepts in there and for the mind as well. You
Speaker 1: know that positive psychology that NUM is doing. We're doing
Speaker 1: that in a big way in this product. That just
Speaker 1: like kind of the support part of it, Like you know,
Speaker 1: thinking about someone working out and maybe some of the
Speaker 1: issues that they're having because I think about weight watchers
Speaker 1: right you know w W. I mean they were really
Speaker 1: trying to be kind of a part of your life.
Speaker 1: That there the platform you go to for various things,
Speaker 1: a very holistic approach. So I'm just curious it comes
Speaker 1: down to the coaches. Are coaches are amazing and there
Speaker 1: and there? Who are they? They're all industry veterans. We've
Speaker 1: got people that are on the board of different industry associations.
Speaker 1: They've done a lot of the worked for various leaders
Speaker 1: out their Lifetime Equinox Soul Cycle, and they see what
Speaker 1: we see and they believe in the mission that the
Speaker 1: fitness industry is kind of failing America in many ways,
Speaker 1: So how can they do something different? And they've bought
Speaker 1: on and the how helping us? I do wonder. We've
Speaker 1: only got about a minute left, but I do wonder
Speaker 1: sort of what you take from your previous experience, especially
Speaker 1: you think about your work on the iron Man brand
Speaker 1: at time as you understand if you say, sort of
Speaker 1: the psychographic, how has that evolved from the performance level,
Speaker 1: But also you know that was a best selling watch
Speaker 1: for a wide variety of people, right, and well it's aspirational.
Speaker 1: There was an aspirational aspect there as well that you know,
Speaker 1: the iron Man watches a badge for consumers, right, and
Speaker 1: you can wear that on Wall Street and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: he does iron Man, he's an athlete here she at
Speaker 1: least works out. It works out, it does something that
Speaker 1: made it creating a community. Yeah, it was a bit
Speaker 1: of a community as well, definitely, But from my own
Speaker 1: personal experience and seeing that, it was like, okay, what
Speaker 1: sustainable see you see the trends kind of peak and
Speaker 1: then go down and you see a lot of injuries
Speaker 1: that come from that as well. So even personally, I've
Speaker 1: done an iron Man down many marathons, Like, that's not
Speaker 1: something I know I'm gonna keep up and enjoy doing
Speaker 1: on a regular basis. So I like the variety. I
Speaker 1: like mixing it up as I get older especially. I
Speaker 1: also think at some point you're gonna hopefully have medical plans,
Speaker 1: healthcare plans where you are encouraged, helped to be able
Speaker 1: to divide, to buy more of these devices to keep
Speaker 1: everybody healthy. All right. Herbie Calviz, President of Mixed Fitness.
Speaker 1: I like that he got in that little flex that
Speaker 1: he's on an iron Man. To love this guy. They
Speaker 1: call themselves better and Fashion Technologists. I kind of love
Speaker 1: that terminology. And they are founders of a three D
Speaker 1: fashion design and development solutions company used by the likes
Speaker 1: of Norch, DM, PVH, Rolf, Lauren and so many more.
Speaker 1: Sharon and Lena Limb are the co founders of Brows.
Speaker 1: Where Lena is in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker studio right
Speaker 1: here in New York. Sharon is on the phone from
Speaker 1: Singapore where it's Saturday morning, so it's kind of early
Speaker 1: out there. Um, we welcome you both to blue Burg
Speaker 1: Radio and Bloomberg Business Week. UM, Lena, let me start
Speaker 1: with you. Tell us a little about your company and
Speaker 1: what you guys are doing. So we're in the three
Speaker 1: D simulation software. So three D has always been in place,
Speaker 1: but not for soft cloth and how it drapes on
Speaker 1: the body. So we are the leading tree D technology
Speaker 1: solutions for the fashion industry. Well, and a key part
Speaker 1: of this, Sharon, come on in here is the sustainability
Speaker 1: aspect of it. It's something that we're talking about more
Speaker 1: and more here on our show. Personally we're talking about it.
Speaker 1: I know, Carol, you and I have talked about talking
Speaker 1: about it with with our kids even so talk to
Speaker 1: us about the sustainability element here, Sharon. Thanks for the
Speaker 1: fashion industry. It's a long drawn and it's it's about
Speaker 1: it's um it's something that change. It's about changing the
Speaker 1: way fashion basically is designed, developed, and soul. And this
Speaker 1: essentially is why I think Bros. This is as a company,
Speaker 1: you know, to kind of drive some of the sustainability.
Speaker 1: I think the idea at the end of the day
Speaker 1: is don't produce until you know that it's going to
Speaker 1: go somewhere with a consumer wants it, and not to
Speaker 1: keep producing. UM. You know as well that the fashion industry,
Speaker 1: it's UM, has a lot of sustained, unsustainable production methods
Speaker 1: and producing a physical comment. UM, often it's not it's
Speaker 1: not the best way to go until so the the
Speaker 1: idea is to reduce it until you know it's really
Speaker 1: going to go somewhere that someone wants to buy it.
Speaker 1: It's like just in time inventory. I love this. So
Speaker 1: it's taken me back to accounting in college. UM. But
Speaker 1: what's interesting in you know what I find Jason and
Speaker 1: I have had some conversations UM an author of a
Speaker 1: book called Fashionopolis and talking about fashion fast fast fashion.
Speaker 1: She was here earlier. I know, I know she was UM,
Speaker 1: and it's just fascinating. We've been kind of really UM
Speaker 1: involved with what she's been writing about and talking about.
Speaker 1: But this whole idea have kind of waste by the
Speaker 1: fast fashion industry to some extent, and the waste on
Speaker 1: the industry. So Lena, tell me what you guys do
Speaker 1: at Browswear. I understand just doing it just in time,
Speaker 1: how that is making a difference. And certainly some of
Speaker 1: the companies that you work with in some of the
Speaker 1: brands how that has improved kind of their impact on
Speaker 1: our climate. So one area that people are not aware
Speaker 1: of is firstly, the fashion industry is like the most
Speaker 1: pollutant second to all guests. We are probably throwing clothes
Speaker 1: at a rate of about eleven thousand pieces per hour
Speaker 1: into landfill. And a part of that is not just
Speaker 1: coming from what's not sold. A part of it is
Speaker 1: coming from how clothes are being designed, sampled right before
Speaker 1: it is even being made, so they're going through three
Speaker 1: four rounds of iteration just to get an idea of
Speaker 1: what the designer really wants, and that is making a
Speaker 1: huge because this clothes are thrown away. They can't be sold.
Speaker 1: Can't they be recycled? Though? Like H and M as
Speaker 1: a retailer, and of course there's been criticism about them
Speaker 1: in in terms of fast fashion, but they are increasingly
Speaker 1: taking in clothes and recycling them and making them into news.
Speaker 1: So why isn't you know that we can't do that?
Speaker 1: You can, but the whole idea around it as well,
Speaker 1: you can recycle. The most sustainable manner of it is
Speaker 1: to think about how about not producing it until you
Speaker 1: really want to stop it. Yeah, just stop it. Then
Speaker 1: we don't have to deal with the whole issue of
Speaker 1: reusing it or recycling. And I think that's where Browsbay
Speaker 1: comes in. Let's nip it until we really need it,
Speaker 1: until it can really be wanted. And So, Sharon, as
Speaker 1: you think about this from where you sit literally in Singapore,
Speaker 1: you know this is ultimately a global Issua. I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: by the fact that that you guys are able to
Speaker 1: manage this company. Uh so globally, you know, as as
Speaker 1: co founders of this company, as twin sisters. As we
Speaker 1: pointed out, what do you see from your perspective there?
Speaker 1: How is it being received? Uh? There? In Asia? Actually
Speaker 1: the technology has been around since the late nineties to
Speaker 1: the early two thousand and the supply chain guys actually,
Speaker 1: which is predominantly here in Asia, has been early adopted
Speaker 1: as well. They do understand there's a lot more than well,
Speaker 1: they want to say that they are the last last
Speaker 1: guys on the food chain, so they kind of understand
Speaker 1: the impact that it makes a lot earlier, so some
Speaker 1: of our earliest clients were all really factories who are
Speaker 1: trying to make this change a lot faster. So what
Speaker 1: does it take and then I'm sorry forgive me go ahead, no, no,
Speaker 1: and then introducing it actually bring it back to there
Speaker 1: are clients and saying here, this is a better way
Speaker 1: of working. You know, can we work this way? So
Speaker 1: this is what this is why we we have a
Speaker 1: strong base here in Asia, but at the same time
Speaker 1: in in other continents that they're inside a lot of
Speaker 1: stakeholders and everybody's can of disperse in different continents. So
Speaker 1: what will it take, um, Leada, let me put this
Speaker 1: to you. What will it take for the fashion industry?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a huge industry, it's a global industry. Um,
Speaker 1: you're working often in emerging economies in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to keep costs down, in terms of what will
Speaker 1: it take for the industry to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint.
Speaker 1: I think it's consumer. I think it's the awarners of
Speaker 1: consumer about what the industry is doing. The consumer having
Speaker 1: the choice to say I will work and I will
Speaker 1: buy from a brand that I know is protecting the
Speaker 1: earth and creation and all of that. And I think
Speaker 1: it's the consumer choice. And in recent trends we've seen
Speaker 1: because of this consumer that there's a huge awareness even
Speaker 1: on you know, fair practices, UM, you know, uh, labor costs.
Speaker 1: A lot of this has been driven awareness um to
Speaker 1: the consumer, and they're putting the pressure on the brands
Speaker 1: and the retailers. UM. I think that's a big part.
Speaker 1: The second part of it is the the availability of
Speaker 1: technology that's enabling this to happen at a lot faster
Speaker 1: without going through uh, you know, huge effort. They can
Speaker 1: now do it very easily. So I think that's exciting.
Speaker 1: Does this your company? I'm just very quickly tyconds. Does
Speaker 1: it make it possible for you know, manufacturers to kind
Speaker 1: of set up shop in their backyards more easily, because
Speaker 1: I just think with the trade wars, whether we're finding
Speaker 1: people having to do that, just very quickly Yes, it
Speaker 1: definitely opens up the opportunity for me to measure, which
Speaker 1: means on shoring rather than off shoring. Definitely very cool.
Speaker 1: Star all right, really really interesting. Thank you both so much.
Speaker 1: Lena and Sharon lem leaning here with us in our
Speaker 1: Bloomberg interact or Broker Studio, A co founder chief commercial
Speaker 1: officer of Browsware and Sharon limb up early in Singapore
Speaker 1: Saturday morning. Cheese, the CEO of Browseware,