Interview With Estella: Founder and Chief Executive of Ethica
By Olivia Fondie
Today’s interview is with Estella Struck, Founder and Chief Executive of Ethica, a donation-based clothing brand that promotes sustainability and protection of the environment while offering stylish and unique fashion for the discerning buyer. After only 9 months of operation, Ethica has already grown to have over 172,000 followers on tiktok and over 31,000 on Instagram. Ethica is establishing a powerful niche in the retail domain.
Estella Struck, Founder of Ethica
Olivia: Tell me about yourself. What's your major? Where are you from?
Estella: My name is Estella. I plan on majoring in environmental studies with a minor in entrepreneurship. I'm from Garrison, New York, a small town north of the metropolis that is New York City. I consider myself to be a creative visionary who is very ambitious and driven to accomplish my goals.
Olivia: Can you tell me about the company you started?
Estella: Ethica is the company I started. It is an online thrift store where we aim first to make people feel good about themselves and second to make people feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves by joining the fight to stop fast fashion and slow climate change through Ethica. My primary goal is to make people actually care about the environment. Everyone at college age knows climate change is real; I would hope that everyone else understands that. There are a lot of people who are passionate about climate change but don't know how to incorporate sustainability into their lives without completely uprooting everything that they know, or spending an arm and a leg on sustainable products. So I want to make it an easy switch. That's why I started this online thrift store, where I want people to feel like they're shopping at a regular store. Obviously, overconsumption is an issue. And we're not going to change that part of the culture overnight. But we can help people be more sustainable. And that's what I want to do. Of course, you can't change every single aspect of the culture of the entire world. But you can help give people a vehicle to harm the environment less in the current culture we have. That's why I created Ethica.
Olivia: Did you have a specific moment where a light went off in your head, and you thought: "I want to start my own business?”
Estella: I'm going to sound crazy, but during quarantine I had a lot of time to sit with my thoughts. I had been doing a lot of independent research on climate change to stay educated and up to date on what is going on in the world around me, because obviously, I'm not going to see the ice caps melting. I want to learn more about science because I'm a science girl. And then I thought maybe I should start something to help college students get textbooks cheaper. I just wanted to help people. You know, that's what I've always wanted to do -- help people save money, basically. And then sustainability and climate change really hit me. I started to develop really bad climate anxiety. I went outside to be among the trees, because something I do to help my anxiety is to go outside without shoes to connect with the earth and ground myself. I was just sitting next to a tree and I looked up into its branches and said: "Can you please send me an idea that's going to save you and wake people up?" A couple days later I was in the shower and the idea just hit me and I realized that I've always wanted an online thrift store because I thrift everything. When I was in Winston-Salem, there weren't a lot of thrift stores that appealed to me. So I thought, I don't want to pay someone $50 for something that I get for $2 at a normal thrift store and I don't really like buying new clothes. Sustainability, climate change and thrifting all came together as a business idea. That's how I came to found Ethica.
Olivia: So, you've had this business now since quarantine. Around what month did you start officially?
Estella: I started planning around May. I began by contacting people. I sent everyone I knew a little blurb about how I was going to start an online thrift store. I would say: "Can you please contact me next time you clean out your closet; I'll come over and I'll grab the donations." A lot of people were in support which made me feel really excited for the future. And it's just grown from there. We started selling in June. Now we're figuring out our brand identity and honing in on our company’s vision. I have a team of really awesome people who are helping me, because for me, Ethica is all about collaboration from the ground up. Collaboration on the vision, collaboration on the Instagram feed, etc. Because, as humans, we have to collaborate to stop this monster of climate change. It's all about working together from the ground up. Every part of Ethica is working together to accomplish something bigger than an individual. I feel like there isn't really an issue where people can connect with their humanity and come together. But climate change is the great equalizer. As I see it, we all need to come together if we're going to have a future. Many people have had difficulty adjusting to COVID. Yet there is hope for a vaccine to bring back some level of normalcy. Climate change is a far bigger pandemic, and there is no vaccine to fix it. It's completely dependent on prevention, not reaction. So we need to hit the ground running and keep going, because there is no other choice. But I think we can do it. I have faith that we can do it.
Olivia: I know you're a very active person when it comes to fighting against climate change. But you’ve also taken on the stress of running your own business. You’re 19 years old, you're in college -- what keeps you going day-to-day toward your goals?
Estella: Well, being surrounded by such a good community of people who also believe in our mission has provided a really good support system. I always struggled with what I wanted to do when I was older, and now I found something that is giving me a purpose. I wake up and look forward to what I’m going to do each day. I'm so excited because I get to meet people that I would have never met that are super awesome. It's a lot of work, but it's so fun. My motivation is that I'm helping people to view life the way that I view life. Life is beautiful but life sometimes is hard. We all go through stuff. So we have to move through and grow through. And it's a beautiful process. I want people to love that we are living on a planet in the middle of a universe. It's incredible. I want people to appreciate their own existence, so that they're aware that "oh, my God, we're killing this beautiful place that we live in for nothing, for no reason." So, I'm just helping to change people's mindset so that they really appreciate life, because I feel like a lot of people have either forgotten how to appreciate life or can't tap into that appreciation, and I just want to help people get there again.
Olivia: Do you have a specific person that you look up to?
Estella: My mom. I watched her my whole life and I've never seen anyone work so hard. She's an entrepreneur and she can grind all day, and just do it. It’s so impressive. I just want to do that. There have been many other influences that I've had in my life that I can't pinpoint. Obviously my mom's a huge influence, but I can't pinpoint one person that I get all my inspiration. Sometimes I get inspiration from people that I talk to for 30 seconds because they tell me something that makes me think: "Oh, I never thought about something that way." My main inspiration is life itself; it's the universe. It's like the universe is telling me what I'm supposed to be doing and incorporating to make this a massive success and actually cause change and inspire people to act. A lot of businesses are about generating revenue, and that obviously is a part of Ethica as a business. But I want to inspire change. I want people to wake up and realize "wow, this is one little thing I can do that's impacting so much." I want people to get involved and take action -- that is the whole point of Ethica for me.
Olivia: Where do you see Ethica in five years? 10 years? What's the long-term goal for you and your company?
Estella: At this point, I know that Ethica is capable of greatness. We're going to get there: where people are shopping at Ethica, because it's really awesome, really dope clothing that you don't find at other places. It's also affordable and inclusive for everyone, every socioeconomic group, size, race, everything. But I need donations to get there. Like I said, Ethica is completely collaborative. It's collaborative from the ground up. To get this going, we need donations. So tell your friends back home, tell your friends at other colleges to tell their friends. This needs to be a web of connection and support throughout college campuses and people who are huge consumers that care about the environment, because this is a way that you can support ethical and sustainable consumption of fashion. So definitely getting donations up is a priority. It's really easy to donate. You just email us your address and your package, and then we'll send you a free shipping label and you drop it off. So it's very simple.
Olivia: That sounds very convenient. I think more people should be donating, especially college kids, because I know at Wake and at most college campuses, people have tons of clothes that they don't wear. They might donate to a Goodwill or they give clothes to their friend when they could be donating to a great cause. So I think more people should get on board with that.
How would you describe your style? Where do you get your style inspiration from specifically?
Estella: I used to feel like I had to fit in and buy wherever everyone else bought. But I never really could see my style there. When I go thrifting I literally walk into the store and pieces are just beckoning to me. And then I pick them up and they're my size, and they fit really well and they fit in my wardrobe. I feel like my intuition is my style. I don't really feel like I am choosing my style. I feel as though clothing chooses me. It's cool, because with thrifting, you can walk in and you can search for hours. Normally, I walk in and I find it within a couple of minutes. The thing that I was going to the thrift store for calls to me, makes my chest feel warm. It’s meant for me. Clothes can be such a good vehicle to let individuality shine. I feel like fast fashion takes away from that aspect of style. Fashion is like a physical representation of your personality on your body where people can see you. And it's beautiful. And you can totally stand out that way. And I feel that thrifting gives people the opportunity to embrace their individuality. And that's what I want it to be about, as well as protecting the environment.
Olivia: I completely agree with you. I think fashion is so much fun, and especially thrifting. Some of my favorite pieces have been unique, really random pieces that I found at a thrift store or consignment shop. And it's just so special. When you find something that calls out to you, you keep it forever. Having that experience while you're doing something good for the environment makes it even more special.
So do you have any thrifting tips or suggestions on how to be the most successful when shopping at a thrift store?
Estella: I used to text my friends to get the input on what I should buy, but now I don't text my friends because I trust my own instinct. The clothing you choose, you should pick it up and simply know "I love this." It's about becoming comfortable enough with yourself to dress the way that you want to dress. If you shop that way, then you'll care more about your clothes, they'll last longer, and you'll have more pieces that are intersectional so you can have less clothes but more outfit variants. So thinking about if you really love the item when you're thrifting is really important because if you take care of them, you could have these clothes for 20 years. Not to mention that you can find really nice quality things at thrift stores.
My last bit of advice is to follow the Ethica page! There you are going to be learning about really awesome stuff that's coming up. You're going to want to be a part of the Ethica community from the ground up because once we start putting everything together, we will blossom into something very special. So getting in on the ground floor would be really cool.
Go follow @ethicanyc at Instagram and check out ethicanyc.com for the latest clothing drops, donation tips, and company updates!
