Thread Together CEO Anthony Chesler explains how his charity gets that unsold stock from more than 2,500 Australian retailers to people who need it: women escaping violence, new arrivals and people hit by disaster just some of the scenarios where Thread Together get's involved.

They do it with a Shopify store, 10,000 volunteers a year and a team of just eight.

If you run a fashion or eCommerce brand, this episode shows exactly how you can play your part.

In this episode of eCommerce Australia, Ryan Martin sits down with Anthony Chesler, CEO of Thread Together. Thread Together is a registered Australian charity that takes brand-new, unsold clothing from retailers and gives it to people experiencing clothing insecurity. It keeps that clothing out of landfill and gives people dignity and choice.

The charity started more than 10 years ago inside Seafolly, with an overrun of swimwear and a visit to a Sydney asylum seeker centre. Thread Together now works with over 2,500 retailers nationally and clothes around 2,500 people every week.

Anthony explains how the operation runs like an eCommerce business: caseworkers “order” through a Shopify store, volunteers pick and pack at a centre in Banksmeadow, and AI-enriched pick lists help them build a wardrobe that suits each person. He also covers what brands can donate, how luxury labels approach donating, and the four things Thread Together needs most from the eCommerce community.

In this episode:

• How a swimwear overrun at Seafolly started a national movement
• Why clothing is “the forgotten basic human right”
• The model: unsold stock from 2,500+ retailers goes to people referred by 3,500 community partners
• The four ways people receive clothing: online, appointment-based stores, vehicles and wardrobes built into shelters
• How Thread Together runs on Shopify, with caseworkers building carts by category and size, and order notes guiding volunteers
• Using AI to enrich pick lists with details like the local climate and the referring agency
• A 3–5 day fulfilment target, and the goal of a three-hour turnaround
• Inside the Banksmeadow centre: 100–150 volunteers a day, “box-offs” and handwritten notes to every recipient
• What brands can donate: new stock, samples and unworn returns, with or without swing tags
• How luxury and heritage brands view donating, and why Thread Together never resells stock
• The Fashion Impact Collective and why the real cost is in freight, fulfilment and operations
• The four things they need: time, talent, network leverage and funding

Chapters:
00:00 – Why Thread Together keeps coming up on the podcast
01:40 – Welcome Anthony Chesler, CEO of Thread Together
02:45 – The origin story: Seafolly, swimwear and an asylum seeker centre
05:35 – How the model works and the scale today
07:55 – Clothing insecurity: the forgotten basic human right
09:50 – How people in need are referred to Thread Together
12:10 – Running a charity on Shopify
16:30 – AI-enriched pick lists and fulfilment times
18:20 – The feedback: clothing’s transformative power
19:55 – Inside the Banksmeadow centre and a day of volunteering
24:35 – How to volunteer
26:05 – What brands can donate and how it works
29:55 – Luxury brands and donating aged inventory
32:30 – The Fashion Impact Collective and funding the work
35:20 – 12 stores, 12 vehicles and meanwhile-use spaces
37:55 – How brands can help: time, talent, network and money
41:10 – Volunteering as a team

How to get involved with Thread Together:
Volunteer: https://www.threadtogether.org/volunteer
Donate clothing (brands): https://www.threadtogether.org/fashion-partner-clothing-donation
Fashion Impact Collective: https://www.threadtogether.org/fashion-impact-collective
Make a donation: https://www.threadtogether.org/donate
Instagram: @thread_together
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thread-together

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What happens when an IT engineer with 20 years in the industry and no business background decides to launch an eCommerce brand?

In this episode of eCommerce Australia, Ryan Martin talks with Shelly Kul, founder of Kashkiya. Kashkiya is an Australian fashion brand selling mother–daughter matching dresses, in sizes from kids’ 1 to women’s 22 in the exact same design. The brand name combines her two daughters’ names, Kashvi and Kiana.

The idea came from one of them asking if they could match.

Shelly walks through the whole journey: finding manufacturers when no one specialised in both kids’ and women’s wear, getting through MOQs and sampling, building her own Shopify store, and slowly finding the confidence to show her face on social media.

She also explains why Meta ads became the biggest revenue lever for the brand, and how she’s using last year’s sales data to plan this Black Friday.

In this episode:

• The “what next?” moment at 40 that led Shelly from IT to eCommerce
• Why she chose online over a physical shop to test the idea alongside a full-time job
• Sourcing manufacturers at a trade show at ICC Sydney, with no website and no brand yet
• Why the first manufacturer had to switch: kids’ and women’s sizing are very different
• How one design becomes two patterns, and why the MOQ was 200 units per design
• Sampling: fabric, print and fit iterations, then 30–45 days for production
• Designing for your customer, not yourself: sleeves, longer cuts and sizes 12+
• Using shopping-centre pop-ups for real-time customer feedback (the kids decide, and they want pink)
• Ordering kids’ sizes 4 and 6 at five times the volume once the data came in
• Why Meta ads are “the biggest lever” and why she still runs them herself
• Using AI tools connected to Shopify for analysis, such as bounce rate
• The real tech stack: Klaviyo and an app for almost everything
• Black Friday: tripling stock on last year’s bestsellers instead of betting on new launches

Key takeaways for eCommerce founders:

1. Even a single piece of customer feedback counts. For every customer who messages you, others are thinking the same thing.
2. In-person pop-ups can fast-track product-market fit before you have an audience.
3. Learn Meta ads yourself before you outsource. Your brand voice and daily optimisation are hard to hand off.
4. Use your own sales data to plan your peak-season stock.

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome Shelly Kul from Kashkiya
01:30 – What Kashkiya sells and the story behind the name
02:40 – From 20 years in IT to starting a business at 40
05:30 – Why eCommerce over a physical store
05:50 – Finding manufacturers at ICC Sydney
08:30 – MOQs, tech packs and choosing an end-to-end manufacturer
11:00 – Committing to 200 units per design with no proof of concept
12:20 – Sampling, production timelines and building the Shopify store
13:20 – Launching on Instagram and learning to show her face
15:10 – Year one lessons: ordering by size and designing for your customer
18:10 – Pop-up shops and real-time customer feedback
21:00 – Using Instagram stories to validate samples
21:30 – Mentors, Instagram educators and AI tools
23:40 – Why Meta ads are the biggest revenue lever
26:20 – Creative refresh and the Meta algorithm
26:40 – Five-year vision: the one-stop shop for mum and mini matching
27:50 – Team and tech stack
29:30 – Black Friday planning with last year’s data

Connect with Kashkiya:
Website: https://kashkiya.com.au/
Instagram: @kashkiya_ (https://www.instagram.com/kashkiya_/)

Connect with eCommerce Australia:
Hosted by Ryan Martin, Founder of Remarkable Digital, an eCommerce SEO and AIO agency.

Dan McDonnell was a pro triathlete with a wrecked gut. After a bacterial infection forced him out of racing, he started fuelling his training with maple syrup and a pinch of salt, and had no gut issues.

Two years later, Maple Movement makes all-natural maple energy gels with three ingredients or fewer, used by HYROX athletes, triathletes, runners and NRL and AFL teams. Daniel, who still works as an aviation firefighter, talks with Ryan about putting their $30K house deposit into the business, and how product issues cost them more than $50K in written-off stock and refunds.

He explains how handing out 5,000 gels at a single HYROX event, guerrilla-style, beat paying for expo stands, and how LSKD lets them sample for free in its event hubs. Plus, building a 120-person race team and a creator program, growing into 99 Bikes and New Zealand, and why runners keep telling him they hate thick gels.

In this episode

• Pre-chat: getting back into training, and setting priorities as family, then business, then sport
• Two years in: growth in national retail, Black Friday plans and a tough few months
• What Maple Movement is: natural maple energy gels with three ingredients or fewer
• Maple syrup 101: a four-week tapping season, why Canada produces around 90% of the world's supply, and why Maple Movement uses a light grade
• Why maple syrup has to be pasteurised every time it's repackaged (it isn't antibacterial like honey)
• The product issues: fermenting sachets, overcooked syrup, maple sugar "pebbles", leaky sachets, and a June batch that swelled up like basketballs
• Writing off $40K of stock, more than $50K in total, and sending a full box by express to anyone affected
• Daniel's background: dropping out of engineering, then eight years as an aviation firefighter on Hamilton Island and in Cairns
• The origin story: years of gut problems on traditional gels, an H. pylori infection, and a pro debut in Taupō fuelled by maple syrup in a bike bottle
• Asking US brand UnTapped for Australian distribution rights and being turned down ("What's your distribution network like?")
• The $30K house deposit: spent on company setup, legal and trademarks before they had any maple, plus naming it "Raw Nutrition" first
• A supplement workshop, a logo designer found through Daniel's sister, and doing all marketing in house
• Organic content: Ella growing the Instagram to 21,000 followers in two years, and hiring help so she has time to create
• Why expos at Mooloolaba and an IRONMAN 70.3 lost money, standing next to eight to ten other nutrition brands
• The HYROX play: handing out 5,000 gels at the door, three or four reels a day, and racing the event too
• How the LSKD partnership started, and sampling for free in its HYROX hubs
• Race team vs creator program: 120 athletes across competitive and elite tiers, and a creator program to rely less on Meta ads
• Ryan's tip: the Brand Pay episode and "customer media"
• Being turned down by UnTapped again, this time for help with the product issues
• What's next: national wholesale, New Zealand with a national distributor, and maybe Asia as HYROX grows there
• Coles and Woolworths? Not for now. E-commerce is the engine that powers wholesale
• Events in the AI era: why meeting customers in person matters more than ever, and why four-day expos aren't sustainable with a newborn
• Handing over events: training Daniel's younger brother, "a sleazy car salesman", to tell the brand story
• "I hate thick gels": what customers say at expos, and why Maple Movement chose a runny texture
• Mentors: quitting his triathlon coach to pay for a business mentor, Dan Roberts, and the team of four
• Handling product issues the LSKD way: Adam Sullivan's logo misprint