Kickstarting Another Success

by Quinn Cook

What if your morning coffee, afternoon soda, or evening cocktail could eliminate scalding hands, moist handshakes, and cold sweats by simply slipping into a little sweater that helps save our oceans in one fell swoop? That would be freakin’ awesome, right? Whether you call your beverage insulator a “Cozy” or “Koozie,” Freaker USA’s latest Kickstarter project, the Slippy, does just that.

Zach Crain, company founder and Wilmington, NC, resident, gained national recognition through his grassroot, nonconformist marketing techniques that launched the Freaker brand to new heights. The effective, eccentric beverage insulators known as Freakers and the radical Freaker line of socks have been more than successful nationwide. Locals remember Zach’s debut on an early episode of Shark Tank when “Woot, Woot!” became a popular buzzword among fans.

Crain’s latest endeavor, the Slippy, is taking the Freaker brand to a whole new level with one mission in mind: Freaker USA is going to save our oceans—one plastic bottle at a time. Every Slippy manufactured, sold and delivered removes one plastic bottle from our waters and turns it into a reusable beverage hugger that can replace all unfriendly Koozies haunting junk drawers across America.

Continuously sustainable and environmentally viable, Slippy pullovers are going to make a huge difference in the global effort to eliminate garbage patches around the world. A garbage patch is a large area of the ocean where litter, fishing gear and other debris—known as marine debris— collect. Freaker USA is contributing by collecting plastic bottles from our oceans to produce reusable, maintainable, and ecologically responsible beverage insulators right here in North Carolina.

How does Freaker USA turn one plastic bottle into one Slippy? Plastic bottles are collected from coastal areas that are not afforded proper waste management. The bottles are then transported to a Greensboro, NC facility managed by Unifi, another North Carolina-based company committed to recyclable sustainability.

The Unifi plant manufactures fibers to produce a yarn aptly named Repreve Our Ocean. While the Repreve product contains 70 percent post-consumer plastic and 30 percent coastal plastic, the company agreed to work with Freaker USA to manufacture a yarn specific to their needs.

One of the main challenges in developing the Slippy was getting yarn that was 100 percent ocean-bound plastic. Even though post-consumer plastic yarn and post-consumer plastic mixed with oceanbound plastic yarn exists, Crain could not find a company producing material that was not a combination of the two resources.

“Unifi makes the yarn for us in Greensboro,” Crain states, “and I was able to convince them to make a yarn for Slippy that’s 100 percent coastal plastic. It’s the only one in the world that I’m aware of.”

Knitting Slippies through Unifi’s ecofriendly process utilizes 73 percent less energy, 67 percent less water, and 55 percent less chemicals than the making of regular yarns. The Slippy is the only product that uses 100 percent ocean-bound plastic, meaning all the bottles are collected from the beach or within 30 miles of the coast in countries without formal waste management systems. In effect, every Slippy produced was once a plastic bottle on the coast of Mexico or Haiti.

In the fall of 2019, Crain went back to his grassroot efforts of raising capital by creating a Kickstarter campaign for the Slippy with a “Join the Cause—Keep Plastic Out of the Ocean” call to action. By December, his $10,000 goal was more than exceeded, and backers pledged over $42,000 to support his endeavors.

“I want to make cleaning up the oceans accessible to everyone,” Crain says. “For $5.00 you can go to Mexico, pick up a plastic bottle off the coast, and turn it into a souvenir that protects your hands from hot and cold sweaty drinks.

“That being said,” he continues, “the more Slippies that are purchased, the more plastic bottles get collected. I’m not the one collecting the bottles—the people that choose to purchase Slippies are.”

Crain has short- and long-term goals for his little eco-sweaters. “The plan is to get the name out there hard and fast, so [everyone] will want the name Slippy and not a knock-off.”

Ultimately, he sees national chains such as Starbucks and McDonalds replacing their paper or cardboard coffee sleeves with reusable, sustainable Slippies adorned with their own logos. “I’m a little worried that [big chains] will only want to retail it for $1.00,” Crain says. “You could if you made it overseas or in China.

“The problem is that China is responsible for 90 percent of the plastic in the ocean … and the fastest way to clean up the ocean is to stop buying stuff made in China. Consumers vote by spending their money, and we’re voting for 90 percent of the plastic in the ocean every time we buy something from them.

“I’m not saying China is bad or good. They’re producing what we want and support—cheap products—but if we stop supporting them, they’ll change what they’re doing to get our support and money again.”

Big corporations are taking notice. “We’re aggressively going after the promotional industry,” Crain continues. “You know … those free things companies give out [at trade shows]. In fact, Verizon is the first global mogul to come on board—purchasing 2,500 promotional Slippies.

“Pretty cool!” Crain says. “Verizon’s keeping 2,500 bottles out of the ocean— ‘Can you hear me now?’”

Crain believes producing promotional merchandise for small, medium and large companies is the most efficient way to get large numbers of bottles out of the ocean as quickly as possible. His short-term goals are moving fast in the right direction, and his long-term goals are not far out of reach.

Slippies are super soft and cozy and stop puddles in cup holders. They fit on your wrist, slip into butt pockets, shirt pockets and even over pint glasses, wine glasses and cans. They are reusable, sustainable little sweaters making a difference one bottle at a time.

Reaching out to all of his local supporters in Wilmington, Zach shouts out, “Are those new shoes? You smell so good, and your hair’s like beautiful fire. Thanks for being there for me in the beginning, and even if you’re just getting on board, I love you now and always. XOXOXO!”

So how are you going to handle your morning coffee, afternoon soda or evening cocktail? Pretty darn Slippy, right?

Woot! Woot!

Every year Americans use enough cardboard coffee sleeves to cover Texas.

Quinn Cook is... Quinlan Concepts. Writer, editor, publisher, designer, event planner, artist rep, and the creator of the ArtOberfest Art Crawl through downtown Wilmington’s historic Streetcar District.