Made of recycled material
Norwell entrepreneur gives new use to old products
NORWELL - Stay Vocal is an up-and-coming company that sells street wear made from recycled materials, and promotes an assortment of environmentally-conscious efforts with catchy slogans like, "Don't drive . . . Go skateboarding."
The enterprise is the brainchild of Alex Eaves, who runs the operation from the basement of his parents' home in Norwell.
The 30-year-old entrepreneur came up with the idea for Stay Vocal in 2003 while he was working as a merchandiser for rock bands. "I was overwhelmed by the amount of new stuff," he said. "The same kids kept coming out and buying all these T-shirts."
So he decided to launch a skateboard company that had positive messages and could help "get people to be conscious consumers." He launched the Stay Vocal website, stayvocal.com, in 2004, and worked on it part time for the first few years.
Eaves now devotes most of his time to Stay Vocal, filling orders for clothing and accessories made from recycled materials, as well as posters, pins, patches, stickers, and skateboard decks. With the help of his "mail-order mom" and cousin, he packs the items in a variety of recycled containers - an empty Apple Jacks cereal box, an empty Boca meatless burger box - stamps them with a message: "Please ReUse this package. In the United States alone, approximately 1 billion trees' worth of paper are thrown away each year," and then ships them off to his customers. He still goes on the road; just a couple of weeks ago, he was in Burlington, Vt., manning a Stay Vocal merchandise table during a 311 concert.
The company website, stayvocal.com, looks like the online headquarters of an underground 'zine or political movement. Its slogan is: "Stay Vocal: "Positive Change Through Art, Literature, Music, Skateboarding, and USA Made Canvas Reusable Shopping Bags."
Eaves has since decided to focus solely on his "ReUse" product line, which features custom clothing made from preworn materials, reusable canvas shopping bags, and one-of-a-kind bags that are made out of brightly colored patterned bedsheets, and car seat belts.
"Stay Vocal is going to be a reuse company," he said. "We're not going to do stickers anymore, skateboards, or new T-shirts. . . . We're stopping all the manufactured stickers and pins."
Eaves said that one of the main reasons he started Stay Vocal was to raise awareness. Much of the gear from Stay Vocal is emblazoned with educational messages and factoids about the environment and social activism. There are things like statistics on air pollution, pet adoption, and other information. Eaves tries to reuse everything he can: He prints his designs on T-shirts that he purchases from thrift stores, crafts patches out of scrap materials, and uses recycled paper to make pins. All orders are printed on recycled paper.
"It's such an easy concept, and there's so many different things people can do," he said. "I want to change the way products are merchandised and change the way people shop."
Eaves will take reuse to another level later this year when he donates his thick, shaggy dark hair to charity. That's right - he said he's growing his hair out because he plans to donate it to Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to needy children suffering from long-term medical hair loss.
Meanwhile, he's trying to spread the word about his company and get more of his products in stores. Currently, Stay Vocal products are carried in stores in skateboard shops in Jamaica Plain and on Cape Cod, as well as Technical skate shops at 340 Washington St. in Norwell and on Newbury Street in Boston.
"We do get a lot of people asking for his stuff in both locations," said John Nichols, who runs the Technical skate shop in Norwell, and co-owns the one in Boston.
"I think the brand's great," Nichols said. "I think its a really different approach on things, for the street-wear and skate market. We're finding that more people want to know about the background of a brand, and who's behind it, where it's coming from. People want to know what they're buying. I think there's a lot of potential and growth [in Stay Vocal]. . . . It'll be interesting to see what's going to happen with it in the next five years or so."
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. 