The Live Lightly Podcast

Jessica (00:00)
Welcome back to the Live Lightly podcast. I'm your host, Jessica. This season, I'm talking with founders creating products that help reduce microplastic exposure in the home.

today. I am honored to be joined by Meli She's the co-founder of Arms of Andes and Eco Aya welcome Meli

Meli (00:18)
Thank you so much for having me.

Jessica (00:19)
I'm so glad that we have finally connected. I met your brother back in the fall at a plastic conference and just absolutely fell in love with the line of clothing and the idea of eco-friendly micro plastic free clothing

Meli (00:24)
you

Jessica (00:34)
And so I want to start from the beginning. if you could take us back to early in your life and just paint the picture of where you grew up and what family life was like and how that shaped the perspective that ultimately has become the foundation for both of these clothing lines.

Meli (00:53)
wow, take you back to those times in the 90s So my parents, they're both from Peru, from the Andes. My mom is from Cajamarca and my dad is from Huancayo. And then they migrated to Los Angeles in the mid 80s and had me, my brothers. then years later, my dad had my little sister. So most of my childhood, I grew up with two brothers.

Jessica (00:58)
Bye.

Meli (01:20)
sometimes I felt like a brother and not always a sister, which I look back now and I'm actually really grateful for because in Peru, they're just like every other Latin culture. There's a bit of that machismo, ⁓ that part where, you know, the woman should maybe be cooking and cleaning and.

Women shouldn't really be involved in the business, but more like focus on home things and nursing and they shouldn't travel on their own. And I never had that growing up in my household. My mom, very open-minded, went to school to become a nurse and she would take me with her when I was eight years old. I remember sitting in her college classes drawing and she was studying. My dad at that time had a movie production company and so

He was very busy, but always providing and being there. anytime we would go back to Peru and we were kids, we would spend every summer. It wasn't my aunts that meant well, but you would hear the comment, like, Melly shouldn't be playing with boys outside. Melly should be inside. Melly, you can't drive this car to the airport. You need a man with you. Why are you staying home alone?

Jessica (02:28)
You

Meli (02:38)
And I never took the comment more like, I can't. I more took it as confusion, like, wait, what? Where is this coming from? Like, this is a thing? And I look, now that I'm in my 30s, I look back and I realized, yeah, my parents never really looked at me as like, she's a woman. It was more like, she can do just as much as the boys can do.

there's nothing that's going to stop her. And my brothers were the same as well. Very like against this whole idea of like, she's a woman, she can't do it. So I looked back and I was like, yeah, kind of like raised as a brother. Like we would play around and be rough. And, but at the same time they were always good mentors. So I was just very, very fortunate to have two parents that were very motivated to get themselves out of Peru, get out of that culture, especially my mom.

because she was raised in an adobe home, very, very into the countryside. And she just, I've never heard my dad once say, look for a man that has money to provide. He was more like, no, you don't need a man to provide because you can provide for yourself and more people. So it's, yeah, it made us very ambitious.

Jessica (03:58)
what a blessing that you were able to have parents who saw beyond that and didn't instill those limitations for your mind. would you say that some of the background of where your mother grew up?

Did some of that come through a little bit building a foundation for you and an understanding of having reverence for the planet and for sustainability because, both of your companies are built on a foundation of having reverence for the earth.

Meli (04:28)
Yes. she, she grew up with, I think she would say things to me like, I, would only have one pair of shoe during her childhood and she wouldn't wear it because she wanted to keep it nice. So she was always barefoot in the countryside. You, you, you dress up sometimes when it's like a community thing, but it, it was, I mean, it was all made from like the wool from her sheep. She didn't grow up with alpacas, but she did have sheep.

Jessica (04:55)
Mm-hmm.

Meli (04:56)
She made her own toys. She had, she would even make her own chocolate. She would dye her toys and her clothing with natural dyes. And I think she, to me, made it seem like this is normal. Like this isn't a special thing that is like, this was how it used to be. She was just like, it's completely doable to do this. And in our household,

I kind of always was like, my mom's really cheap. Like she won't buy me one more. She won't buy me two pairs of shoes this year. Like she would only buy me one. And I get it. I grew out of it. Also, I would, they were always dirty, like after a month playing. So I understand. And I even think I wore my brother's clothes a little bit growing up, And that was kind of her.

Jessica (05:25)
Hmm.

You

Meli (05:40)
mentality, I guess it was more just like you put your health and then you put your environment first. Everything that you want to and it doesn't mean you have to look bad. You should feel really good about yourself, but really you need a balance out. Like if you're going to keep buying all of these clothes, like she's like, are you really going to use it? And she had clothes, really nice clothes since she had 18 years old and she would save it because that's how she kind of grew up. Like you want to save.

you want to buy nice things and you want to save them and you would have good treats on special occasions so they would have like honey once a year and she's like ⁓ the feast on honey and so you would appreciate these like you'd appreciate these small things so I can I look back and it wasn't that she was cheap she was just very particular on quality things and I can see how I am now like I won't buy plastic Tupperware

Jessica (06:13)
Mm-hmm.

Meli (06:38)
I'll buy glass Tupperware and I'll make sure to keep it nice because it's expensive and I'm going to keep using it maybe for like 10, 20 years. So yeah, which makes me want to take care of more. They're expensive. ⁓ But it's, it's for a reason. I look, I'm like, she wasn't cheap. She was just very particular. Like buy with caution and remember whatever you buy, keep it nice.

Jessica (06:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Until it breaks. I mean, really.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meli (07:09)
And when you're a kid, don't think that you're just like, yeah, you're like, let's play a dirt. Like, who cares?

Jessica (07:09)
Mm-hmm, take care of it.

Yeah.

But that actually planted, some beautiful seeds for you and became the foundation for what you've built with your brother. can you go back and pinpoint, when did you start questioning the products that you were using, like clothing? can you remember a specific moment where you thought, oh, this doesn't make sense?

Meli (07:34)
Okay.

Jessica (07:37)
questioning the materials

Meli (07:39)
When we started making, I want to say it's when we started making like the first official kind of official production for Arms of Andes, ⁓ we had to get the fabric, I remember. And we then had to go.

When you make this fabric, ⁓ you kind of go like the traditional process. I'm gonna get the fabric, then I'm gonna have people cut the fabric, and then I'm gonna make the garments. And I remember people were saying, the providers were saying, let's add, you know, we have antibacterial fabric finishing. We have also this fabric finishing to make it anti-static. We can make it ⁓ smell better. We can add this to make it softer.

And we grew up with a mindset of always questioning things, which was really nice. My parents never got annoyed when I would just keep asking and asking. They would just keep explaining. And so it'd be like, what, why, why does it need it? Like alpacas antibacterial, like why is this necessary? And they're like, it's just like, these are nice, like, you know, luxury things you can add to make your product stand out more. And then we were like,

What's it made out of? Well, it's made from this chemical, I don't think they were trying to be bad. I think they were trying to do is to make our product better. And that's what they had in mind. But because this whole clothing production, it's like untouched. Nobody goes that deep into it. There isn't many brands that make their own clothing production. So they won't know to ask, not even designers.

Jessica (09:02)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meli (09:18)
because designers are just focused on how to design, but they don't have any experience of how to run a clothing production. That's a whole different, mindset you have to know how you're gonna make this piece, make a hundred units and where are you gonna get the fabric? How are you gonna do all of this? So when we went into the clothing industry and

Jessica (09:19)
Hmm, interesting.

Mm-hmm.

Meli (09:41)
Peru has a big clothing industry and also natural dye history. ⁓ It was like we're going into the underworld that nobody stepped into, that nobody went in and was like, guys, do know what's going on? Like no one is seeing this because the brands don't know to ask this and they can do their audits once a year by notifying the suppliers that are going to come, but that's not enough.

Jessica (09:51)
you

It sounds like you've got a hand in all of these different areas and layers, where was that moment of inspiration that brought you to the beginning of this business?

Meli (10:18)
So we wanted to do some type of business. My dad has a business exporting quinoa and taro gum. so my dad, Peru has a lot of beautiful things to offer that many people don't know about. Alpaca, of course, being one of them. And so he always kind of pushed us like, you need to start your own business. need to just think like Peru has so much to offer.

Jessica (10:34)
Mm-hmm.

Meli (10:42)
So we were looking into like, well, we'll sell yarn. Like that's something we're not into. And then we slowly got into alpaca and then we realized too many yarn suppliers, this business doesn't work. And then we heard a podcast about the benefits of merino for the outdoors and all of these functional benefits. then that came to mind, but alpaca is better than merino because alpaca is from the Andes and in the Andes it's hot, it's cold, it's rainy, it's all these climates. the alpacas are just, it looks like they're having a lovely time.

And so we're like, okay, yeah, let's, all right, let's try to make something for the outdoor hikers. And we wanted to make a base layer. Yeah, that turned into a heavy mid layer. And that was a headache ⁓ to get out of. And then once we made that little, like, I think we made a couple of mid layers, we put it on Shopify and then we got our first order and we're like, okay.

Jessica (11:14)
No matter what.

Meli (11:41)
So somebody is willing to buy it. Maybe others will do. And then we're like, okay, let's go a little bit deeper. And then we realized no one in the world does this. No one makes 100 % alpaca the way that we make it. They make it like in a knit, like a knit sweater, like this. It's like, this is a different type. They don't make t-shirts like alpaca actual t-shirts.

Jessica (12:03)
Mmm.

Meli (12:10)
⁓ in this type of knit. So we then were like, okay, ⁓ we're going to have to buy our own machines or we're going to have to get our own production running because it's really hard to find someone that can help us do this. And we know why it's super difficult. But so basically once we were getting that moving and then, we, we took it further where we were just like, well, organic Pima cotton is native to Peru. Pima is a very soft.

Jessica (12:33)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Meli (12:36)
very has a natural shine compared to cotton. And we thought, well, you know, why don't we make a world that's plastic free? That was the, that's how Aya started and Arms of Andes was more, it's the functional, it's the outdoor. So while we were doing that, we were like, okay, let's come up with Aya because yeah, great. We have one brand, let's, and we're already too busy. Let's add another one. And then we came out with the baby brand. And then I was like, it was too much. It's too much.

Jessica (13:00)
You

Mmm, wow.

Meli (13:07)
But it was once we saw the plastic, once we saw the chemical issue, that's when we're like, okay, let's come out with Aya and that will be just the whole world of plastic free and potential to be chemical free.

Jessica (13:20)
it's just such a breath of fresh air to be able to have products that you can trust and that don't have all of these extra little layers of chemicals woven into it. it's great that

you were able to question every step of the process because it sounds like it's very easy to be talked into all of these additives, which you can talk about more in your master class.

At what point did you decide instead of just being a conscious consumer, how did you have a clear vision in the beginning and how did it start evolving over time

Meli (13:55)
⁓ So it was, we wanted to do 100 % alpaca because we wanted everybody to have the benefits of alpaca. So we started in the functional point of view,

Jessica (14:04)
Mm-hmm.

Meli (14:06)
there's a lot of aspects of the functionality that plastic or polyester can't beat. ⁓ And we wanted a lot of people to take advantage of it while we were on the way of making the other items, because we started off with the mid layer and we're like, we'll just keep it 100 % alpaca because of all these benefits. We came out with hiking socks that were mixed with nylon and

Jessica (14:12)
Mm-hmm.

Meli (14:30)
It sold very well and profit margins were huge because you have polyester now or you have nylon. And I just, I remember with my brother, he actually made the comment He's like, I don't feel right putting in nylon. And I kind of stopped and I thought about it because my dad exports quinoa and there's a really cheap type of quinoa that has loads of pesticides, but he doesn't, he doesn't choose to buy it from the farmers.

Jessica (14:37)
Mm-hmm.

Meli (14:58)
And I used to be a sales rep for him and I'm like, but you know, we can sell that more. he's just like, you have to stop at some point. you can't, you have to question, you have to have some morals. He was like, you have to have morals, Meli.

Jessica (15:10)
Yeah. Good that we still have people in this world who are producing our food and clothing that still have morals.

Meli (15:18)
it was just like a straight, yeah, all right, let's, let's not do it. Like forget about the socks then we won't come out with socks. and it's really hard to come out with socks if you don't have polyester because you have loads of friction and that will cause holes. So we have sleep like sleeping socks, socks that you take to bed and sleep in,

Jessica (15:31)
Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm.

Meli (15:36)
natural fibers should biodegrade not like plastic that will be arround for generations.

Jessica (15:40)
Mm-hmm.

how difficult was it to build this supply chain that was aligned with your values and what have been the biggest challenges that you faced to bring it from the idea to where you are today?

let's talk about both of the companies because I'm sure that it hasn't been easy with EcoAya either.

Meli (15:59)
It's definitely been easier than Arms of Andes. the hardest part is the innovation part in everything. So with Aya, we've made plastic free elastic bands. So it's a cotton and natural rubber mix, which we also applied to Arms of Andes. And that,

That took a little bit to create because you're just like, because we would look at our ⁓ Aya with the point of view, we're going to be plastic free. That's how we're going to start with. There can be none. So if you don't have elastic, you can't have elastic. Your zippers can't have plastic. The threads can't, which also arms and bandies doesn't have plastic in their threads. You're kind of limited of what you can make. So we're like, okay, we can't make underwear now because you need an elastic band.

Jessica (16:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Meli (16:44)
So the supply chain, the hard thing there was how do we get people that make elastic bands make us a plastic free one? How do they make us a zipper that's 100 % plastic free? Cause you also have tape on the zipper too that's plastic and you have these little tiny things that you wouldn't think have plastic, have plastic in it.

Jessica (17:00)
my gosh.

Meli (17:03)
So it was kind of easy for Aya because we can control it in a way. And we knew how to do business in Peru. So we know how to, because Peru also can be super informal when it comes to business. So it always just pushed the providers, pushed like whoever's making the elastic bands and zippers keep asking them like, but why don't you just use a cotton? Why do you have to use plastic? And then they'll be like, yeah, I guess we can. And with arms of Andes, alpaca is super stubborn.

Like it's so stubborn. Nature, think, is just stubborn. But you can't have like to have an efficient production, which mind you, keeps the costs low. Very difficult to do with natural fibers. If you add synthetics, that solves so many problems. Your product will be beautiful, glistening, your production runs smoothly. And you don't have the issue of raw materials as well, because alpacas only sheared once a year.

And organic Pima cotton, believe, is only picked and it's picked by hand once or twice a year from, or maybe three times, but there's limited raw material. So you have to really project, okay, if I have one sheer and I have a couple picks a year, okay, how much am going to buy to last me for the year?

Jessica (18:01)
Wow.

Hmm.

Meli (18:19)
super risky and nobody else is doing it. So who are you going to go to if you have an issue? And luckily my brother is really, yeah, yeah. And that's what happened with, with me and my brother. were just late nights have to, okay, how are we going to make the gloves? Those gloves? are we going to, how are we going to end customers were so patient with us. Like we were

Jessica (18:26)
Right. You have to figure it out yourself.

Meli (18:45)
months late, maybe even a year late in delivering orders. And they were just like, no one in the world makes what you make. We will wait. And I'm just like, why? Even I wouldn't wait. I would be like, how dare you give me my money back. And we had customers like that. I'm like, I don't blame you. I would be angry too. Like I've been waiting, but they were, and they were really patient and yeah, we wouldn't survive.

Jessica (19:00)
Wow. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Meli (19:13)
without people being patient with us, because it's hard. And we want to be an example to other clothing brands that it's hard, but you can do it. We're doing it. So just stop using plastic. Stop saying you're organic when we know you're not.

Jessica (19:28)
so this feels to me like it's about more than just the clothing for you.

What are you hoping that people experience when they wear your clothing and what does this work mean to you personally?

Meli (19:40)
Ooh, what does this work mean to me personally? That's so deep. I think it's, you know, I think not to like freak myself out. I'm just like, this is my thing. I love it. You know, I'm not working for anybody. I'm helping Peru, the Andy's. But when I really deeply think about it, I'm like, we're having a global crisis here. We're having hormonal issues, men and women, sperm count is dropping.

Jessica (19:45)
Thank

Meli (20:10)
It's difficult for them to get pregnant now. We're seeing plastic in our blood, in the placenta, in breast milk. And I'm just like, okay, you know, there's a huge warning in my head. And this company is an example to show other companies to change what they're doing because they're the ones that are really like, the clothing industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. The first I believe is transportation. So.

Jessica (20:32)
You ⁓

Meli (20:38)
I don't want to freak myself out because I'm like, okay, this is really heavy. I'm going to have to change the whole clothing industry. And probably me and my brothers are the closest ones that are able to do this because we're actually have a vertically integrated supply chain where the fiber to the finished garment is all done in Peru. And there's no plastics in there. And it can be done because we're doing it. We can't provide clothing to the entire world. We need other people to come in and, you know, change their ways.

Jessica (21:00)
Right.

Meli (21:08)
but it starts with the consumer and we do see the green washing. They're like PFAS free leggings, polyester leggings. like, it's not PFAS that's the problem. It's the petrochemicals. It goes back to petrochemicals. You can call it anything you want. Nylon, acrylic, plastic. It's all petrochemicals. That's what we need to get rid of. And having this PFAS free gym leggings, I'm just like...

Jessica (21:10)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Meli (21:35)
It's gonna be something else free. And I've interviewed professors in this industry and one was telling me, it's just all BS at this point. Like these certificates that are like, it's OKI techs or OKI techs or whatever, they're all just BS. He's like, in the end, you just have to get rid of petrochemicals. that's like, so there's where my passion is, is like how to get in deep and...

And it's the mindset of you just never stop. It's not a goal. It's a mindset. You always try to be more and more sustainable. And I see it in my personal life because like all these little hobbies I have, I'm like always trying to do more.

Jessica (22:08)
Mmm.

It sounds like your goal really isn't to provide clothing for everyone because that's just not possible, but it's more about like raising awareness and educating consumers and educating other people in this place of making clothing to do the same.

Meli (22:36)
Yeah, yeah, it starts with the demand. We saw it in the food industry, you know, people were like, we want organic food. And because I saw it in quinoa, in the food industry there, I'm like, people actually want organic, they don't want pesticides. ⁓ this is interesting. Now regenerative farming is becoming a thing. And so I'm like, yeah, because I started to read where do these ingredients come from and started to read the ingredient label. So it definitely can happen. ⁓

Jessica (22:38)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Meli (23:05)
It's just we all have to get together and just start, just start, you know, questioning every little thing.

Jessica (23:05)
Mm-hmm.

I really, really think that that's the key. That's what started me down my path when I saw a label on a sippy cup for my son that said BPA free. And I was like, cool. And then I stopped and I thought, well, what the heck is BPA? And why does it need to be free of it? Why was it in here in the, like?

Meli (23:24)
Really?

Sorry.

Yeah.

Jessica (23:37)
what did people, what is wrong with it? And so that just started me down the research and the rabbit hole of finding out all about BPA and why it's being removed. And ⁓ yeah, just taught me how to question everything. And it's been more than 10 years since that time. And I'm still, I feel like I'm pretty solid now. I've kind of figured out how to get through all of the different layers of

Meli (23:37)
Yeah.

Wow.

You

Jessica (24:06)
⁓ you know products, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of awareness as a consumer and that's why I'm putting together this masterclass because I just feel like moms are so busy trying to do all the things and they want the best for their families and their children and it's overwhelming when you have to stop and think like, you know, how am gonna

Meli (24:13)
That has to be scary. Yeah.

Jessica (24:30)
figure out the best product because there's going to be another layer like you talked about, like there could be something that's made of alpaca, but then they tried to add all of these different things to it. So in your master class, listeners who want to learn more about those different layers that can be involved with clothing, how to look out for greenwashing.

so I think we're ready to dive into the master class. And if you haven't yet joined the master class, there is a link in the description

to sign up thank you so much, Meli, for joining me

And thank you everyone out there for listening today. please share with a friend. And if you haven't yet left us a review, that would mean the world to me. See you next time.