The Story
Tine and Onur met during their Masters in Utrecht, The Netherlands. On a study trip to Palermo in Sicily, they had their first of many deep conversations about life, their perspectives, dreams and stories. They figured they share a lot of core values and both have a little rebel inside them to create better business and live a life that is worthwhile. In times of climate change and global inequality in all areas, the contrast has never been that obvious and hard to ignore. During 2020 and 2021, the peak times until now of Covid-19, we learned how impact works in watching the virus travel around the globe creating change and transformation in no time. Above all, witnessing a rising consciousness and awareness level of our society, questioning more and demanding more change and transformation and consuming more consciously. The textile industry makes up to around 6.7% of global greenhouse emissions. Fast-fashion has educated the customer that low-price textiles are a new normal and easily accessible around the globe. Textiles lost its value in the bigger picture and mass-production and cheap labour situations became a normal and a hidden cost in this industry.
Onur has been in the textile industry for over nine years and his parents are running a dye house in Istanbul for over 30 years. Some years ago, Tine and her boyfriend had the idea to create a fully sustainable clothing brand and Onur was on board right away. Three months afterwards the first batch was produced and EMMA Amsterdam was born.
Soon they realised that they hit their limits and dreamt bigger than they could realise as they desired. With strong core values and a big vision, the friends looked for ways to keep going to realise their shared dream.
Onur met Ugur at the dye house of Onur's parents where Ugur was a customer and Onur told him about the challenges that came up in the supply chain, in particular about lacking transparency and room for changes. Ugur has been in the textile industry for over 13 years and could relate to the issues Tine and Onur were facing. Onur and Ugur decided over a dinner that they would start a production facility themselves to fill the gaps and meet these needs. The intention they started out with was to create more human-centred approaches and bringing more transparency in the textile industry for a faster development towards a sustainable future.
Now, another two years after founding the production company Noy Textile, the friends decided to support more companies in their textile production and being the bridge between the production companies and textile brands to create more transparency, better relationships and communication to ensure fair textile production and cultivating more human-centred approaches in the supply chain that lead into a systematic change of this industry and in the world. The friends are aware they might not witness their own picture of this dream in their life time since systematic change needs some time. However, fuelled by that future vision, they commit to live a life worthwhile in giving textiles back its value and people who make the clothes a face.
Nice to Meet You
"No problem" were Ugur's first English words. Ugur started out with the Noy Tekstil idea to be independent and free but soon came to the conclusion, there is more about it than just that. When Onur, Ugur and Tine started building their Noy Tekstil vision, Ugur's production brain started flowing with endless ideas to reinvent this industry. Now two more years into this journey, Ugur is eager to support more companies to produce sustainably, fair and bring more equality in this industry. He started working at the age of nine when he sold pastry on the streets in Istanbul. Ugur is a natural entrepreneur and a humanitarian by heart. He has strong core values and is a care-taker, which is essential to build up relationships that are strong, reliable and based on co-creation.
Tine is based in Amsterdam and is on a regular basis in Istanbul to spend time with Onur and Ugur. Tine studied Business Administration and has been questioning traditional business approaches all her life. She had been working for a Dutch company that pioneered New Work approaches for the past 4.5 years. During this time Tine became a mature self-management
(Holacracy) partitioner and experimented
with different New Work methods.
She believes in integrated and holistic business approaches and wants to bring this into the textile industry. She is passionate about different cultures, languages and connecting people and creating community. Tine's great-granddad, granddad, grandma, uncle and cousin had worked in textile as well; it is part of the family's legacy.
Onur has been involved in the family business, a textile dye house in Istanbul, since years. He and his parents decided to start employing less fortunate people and providing them housing to help them build a future for their families and find a home in Istanbul.
Onur sees the world through "let's do it" and "sure, this can be done" glasses, which lets all limits disappear. This mindset contributes to getting closer to our vision of a human-centred textile industry.
Onur has a mechanical engineering background as well as Business Administration and is a walking history book. When you come to visit us in Istanbul, get ready for a tour through this amazing city with all its contrast and diversity.
Onur has been in textile since eight years and feels the need for change and transformation.