Gregory McNeil, founder of Roskill Supply Co, started the business on the side during lockdown after years of wanting to have New Zealand made jeans. Photo / Supplied
Gregory McNeil, founder of Roskill Supply Co, started the business on the side during lockdown after years of wanting to have New Zealand made jeans. Photo / Supplied
Gregory McNeil, founder of Roskill Supply Co, talks to Tom Raynel about starting a small business on the side and what it takes to source high-quality denim.
Roskill SupplyCo makes high-quality, low-impact clothing in New Zealand. We have a focus on jeans at the moment, but we’re trying to bring in a range of clothing around that, and the main point of difference is not around exciting designs, but instead it’s based on the quality and making it in New Zealand.
We want to support the industry, which is in decline in the country, and so we’ve come up with designs for pretty straightforward clothing and working with the local manufacturers around the motu to get our designs made for us onshore.
It was a lockdown idea, so I wanted New Zealand-made jeans for a long, long time. There are a lot of businesses overseas in America and in the UK that are doing a similar model.
So, when lockdown came up I finally had some time to look around. I did an MBA a few years ago and that sort of inspired me to go and look out for opportunities. This was a kind of a gap in the market and I thought I would love a pair of jeans, let’s see if I can make them.
The jeans at Roskill Supply Co are made with Japanese selvedge denim, which takes longer to produce, but yields a higher-quality product. Photo / Supplied
What products do you make?
So, of course the jeans, but we’re already doing socks, which are locally made merino socks, and we’ve been doing them for quite a while and that’s a nice complementary product. We started doing T-shirts and that was one where actually getting them made here is really difficult, and so one of the big challenges we have is just finding the right capability.
I am also working on jackets in either denim or wax cotton, which would be the next product that we want to roll on to.
What is selvedge denim and why do you source it from Japan?
For those who don’t know what selvedge is – rather than normal denim, which is made on a wide loom, this is made on a narrow loom and the thread runs side to side and forms a self-edge, which you then retain and it adds to the character of the denim so you can see that edge in the manufacturing.
It speaks to the fact that it takes really highly skilled people to operate the machines. It’s a slower process, it produces less material, so it just means it ends up a better-quality garment, but it takes a lot more time and it’s quite hard to source.
All the jeans at Roskill Supply Co are made in Christchurch at Albion Clothing and are handcrafted to ensure the highest quality. Photo / Supplied
We’ve done four or five batches now and each time we’ve kind of improved on the design and changed features. One of the things that everybody who is buying into them and who knows about selvedge kept asking for was Japanese denim.
I found it quite difficult to get into Japan in terms of just contacting people because of the language barrier, but I got a friend who is Japanese and could speak it to help get some contacts. I think once we broke through that initial contact to get into speaking to the right people, it was probably a lot more straightforward and it was a win-win for us because it’s closer to New Zealand, so that was great.
You recently completed a fundraising campaign for a new batch of products, what would it take to produce clothing regularly?
The money from that PledgeMe funded us to get a batch of jeans made, so we basically achieved about 40 pre-orders, but we’ve made 60 pairs of jeans, as well as a batch of socks and a batch of T-shirts.
So they funded us to get a bunch of products which we will then be able to sell over and above what we’ve pre-sold through the PledgeMe.
It was always a stretch goal to try and get to 20,000 and would have been lovely to get, which would have funded our next lot of materials for the jackets, but what we will do now is focus on selling all the products that we’ve been able to purchase with that money through the PledgeMe.
Roskill Supply Co founder Gregory McNeil wants to support the clothing industry throughout New Zealand, making designs that aren't flashy, but instead focus on quality. Photo / Supplied
What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs?
I’m a big advocate for slow growth, as well as failing fast – you know, try something out, don’t spend a whole bunch of money on it, see if it’s got legs and be willing to part with it if it doesn’t.
The second thing is making sure you have the right people around you. I came into this with zero experience. I think it brought a smile to people’s faces when I bumped into them because they’re just like, “Oh how long have you been in fashion”, and I’m like, I just thought I’d give this a go.
I think when you’re transparent with people like that, they could take advantage of you if they want, but especially in a place like New Zealand, people are really keen to help you out if they can and that has got us a long way.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald covering small business and retail.
