CONCEPT NOTE
Proposal for: CLOSET GORILLA CIRCULAR FASHION WORKSHOP & LOCAL ENTERPRISE HUB
A workshop and hub, that goes global
Organisation/Brand: Closet Gorilla
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Project Duration: 24 Months (proposed)
Funding Request: USD 20,000
1. Notes on Main designer SUMMARY
Closet Gorilla is a Kenyan sustainable fashion brand founded by self-taught fashion designer and entrepreneur Masinde Brian, built in years of practical experience in fashion design, garment construction, styling, consultancy and fashion entrepreneurship.
The fashion line was founded on the principle of clothing that already exists should be treated as a resource rather than waste.
Our designs hold a commitment to protecting the environment by using at least 50% upcycled and recycled materials, with a bold re-imagination of Kenyan fashion.
The brand currently focuses on creating durable, long-lasting garments of contemporary Kenyan design
Closet Gorilla writes to you as the funder to seek establishment of a Circular African Fashion & Local Enterprise Hub in Nairobi. The Hub will combine a training and production studio with a curated retail store, creating an environment where discarded clothing recovered will be used as teaching material for practical design, and ultimately sold to consumers.
What makes our project different is our aim to capacity build and empower aspiring fashion designers by providing them with skills and business training using the minimal cost of discarded fabrics. The project will focus particularly on innovative fashion entrepreneurs who will use discarded second hand clothing parts as practical design material.
We do not want to simply be known as another sustainable fashion brand saying those words just to make sales. We want to be known more as a hub with a workshop training center operating a sustainable design fashion store. This is critical because a community and market for recycled eco conscious clothing already exists and we hope to give it value by having a standalone shop that sells these items.
The Kenyan Fashion Consumer Research Analysis
Over 90% of Kenyan households regularly purchase second hand clothes for everyday wear, making Kenya one of the largest consumers and importers of used clothing in Africa. With over almost 200,000tonnes of second hand clothing arriving in Kenya annually, almost 60% of the clothing items arrive damaged beyond repair on arrival, making them un sellable and ultimately getting dumped and discarded as waste.
Our proposed training hub sees an opportunity within this challenge where discarded garments can become:
Zero investment Training material for learning and practicals → Raw material → New income
The Hub will therefore be founded upon environmental sustainability, African cultural identity and commercial enterprise.
each person who is a part of our design team becomes a carrier of creating an identity of African fashion. An identity which was born through second hand clothing markets but given value through blending traditional African fabrics and recycled cloth making techniques
This project even identifies an age group between 25-55yrs as a target market that appreciates well-made African products and eco conscious recycled clothing as part of everyday fashion. Many consumers within this demographic grew up wearing second-hand clothing thus creating an opportunity for a market that already has a relationship with used clothing. Closet Gorilla seeks to introduce an elevated interpretation of that experience.
2. BACKGROUND
As of July 19, 2026, large companies in the European Union are legally banned from destroying unsold apparel, and clothing under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. Retailers must prioritize resale, discounts, or charity donations instead of shredding or incinerating excess inventory and customer returns.
This project seeks to demonstrate a model that can contribute to a wider transformation in how the fashion industry thinks about production. A garment produced in one country can eventually become waste in another, and unfortunately Africa has for a long time acted as an un-official dumpsite for waste clothing.
We have identified three primary challenges. Textile waste, limited Opportunities and Strengthening global adoption
2.1 Textile waste
Large quantities of second-hand clothing enter African markets, while over half of these clothes are damaged, and are already waste upon arrival.
Clothing that is unsuitable for resale can become an environmental challenge. Rather than allowing these materials to move directly from import markets to disposal, there is an opportunity to extend their useful life by using them as practical raw material for aspiring fashion designers. The best way we can put this idea into practice is establishing a training hub to collaborate with a few local established fashion designers to collect and sort discarded clothes, to use as raw materials for training of aspiring fashion designers.
2.2 Limited opportunities for emerging fashion entrepreneurs
Many aspiring designers have creative ability but lack access to:
2.3 The need to strengthen global adoption of such a project
The final goal of this project is to invite global adoption. Sustainability in fashion must create economic value for local designers and large international manufacturers in order for it to be seen as a viable business model globally and in turn get adopted even by high producing fashion manufacturers internationally.
The project therefore seeks to promote a model where Kenya will be seen as the point where this great change begun. Empowerment that turned "Recycled unwanted clothing into a new economic and creative resource"
and Through Kenya’s success story it will show Sustainable production does not have to mean sacrificing creativity, cultural identity or profitability
The initiative therefore seeks to demonstrate a practical model where environmental responsibility and commercial fashion can coexist.
3. THE PROPOSED SOLUTION
Closet Gorilla proposes the establishment of a: CIRCULAR AFRICAN FASHION WORKSHOP & LOCAL ENTERPRISE HUB
The Hub will bring together interconnected functions.
Where participants will collect and sort waste clothing to train and develop new products; while the established fashion designers who will act as trainers, will combine recovered waste materials with African textiles such as Ankara to create sellable high-quality garments.
RETAIL & MARKET ACCESS
A dedicated store at the hub will provide a physical marketplace for:
The store therefore becomes more than a retail outlet.
It becomes a showcase for what sustainable African fashion can look like when it is commercially successful.
With Africa’s current promotion of economic independence, identity, value and environmental consciousness, it will come with great pride for locals and consumers to be seen as champions of a commercially profitable enterprise that begun through empowerment and capacity building. This in turn will create a demand within the local community.
4. WHY THE STORE IS IMPORTANT
The store will be a critical component of the project because training without market access does not necessarily create sustainable businesses. A designer can learn how to make a garment, but economic independence requires the ability to:
Design → Price → Market → Earn → Reinvest
It will create a curated market where consumers can experience locally made African products while learning about the materials and production processes behind them.
5. TARGET MARKET
A central objective of the project is to strengthen appreciation and demand for locally designed and locally made African products There already exists a market in the over 90% of households that were raised up wearing second hand clothes.
The primary consumer market will be young adults and working consumers aged approximately 22–45. This group is particularly important because it represents consumers who can combine purchasing power with an interest in:
Many consumers within this demographic of 22-45yrs appreciate locally made clothing and support local capacity building, this comes as a natural instinct to them because they grew up wearing second-hand clothing as part of everyday fashion. Closet Gorilla seeks to introduce an elevated interpretation of that experience where they will choose products made within their own creative economies.
The project will therefore encourage: Designing Local, Buying Local, and Sustaining Local by establishing a workshop and store capable of surviving beyond grant funding. The demand and purchase from this demographic creates an opportunity to change the perception of recycled fashion from "cheap clothing" to "quality, intentional and desirable fashion."
This approach turns sustainability into an economic development strategy, rather than treating it only as an environmental campaign.
7. BUSINESS & REVENUE MODEL
Grant funding would provide catalytic capital for equipment, studio infrastructure, training and initial product development. The project will therefore evolve to a revenue generating social enterprise, to outlive grant-dependency.
The long-term objective is for the Hub to generate its own income through:
1. Retail sales – demographic demand Sale of recycled Kenyan products
3. Sponsored Training -Future paid workshops and professional training programs.
4. Fashion consultancy- Design, styling and sustainable-fashion consultancy services.
5. Collaborations and Store Franchising - Collaborations with organizations, brands and institutions seeking to franchise into sustainable African products.
6. Designer marketplace -Potential future commission or shared-revenue arrangements for designers using the Hub's market platform.
8. THE AMBITIOUS GLOBAL OPPORTUNITY
Todays, large-scale fashion production creates significant quantities of unused, discarded and unsold textiles.
Our ambition is therefore to promote a simple principle:
An open Invite to global international manufacturers and other stakeholders to adopt recycled materials within their production systems. This can only be achieved if our projects workshop store successfully produces and makes turnover sales of the recycled longlasting clothing items . The business viability is what will encourage large producing manufacturers to adopt and accept the idea of using recycled materials as inventory for their new collections.
This does not mean that every garment must immediately become 100% recycled. We are seeking to demonstrate the feasibility of recycled content in participating collections.
If commercially successful examples can demonstrate that recycled materials can produce desirable, durable and profitable fashion, the model can encourage wider adoption internationally. It is an ambitious project that will need wider and more stakeholders to encourage a change in the global fashion environment.
9. WHY GLOBAL ADOPTION MATTERS
As the European Union enforces regulation, it shows that the textile-waste problem does not stop at national borders, Therefore, a sustainable solution must involve an ambitious adoption of Creating profitable feasibility through this material use across the global fashion value chain.
Closet Gorilla's long-term vision is to champion Kenya as the point where this profitable correction and adoption started:
Sustainable production does not have to mean sacrificing creativity, cultural identity or profitability, we hope to ambitiously prove that businesses can become part of the global circular-fashion movement by developing products that are, distinctive, globally relevant, and commercially viable
The project therefore positions Kenya not only as a market affected by textile waste, but also as as the economic source of innovation in sustainable African fashion.
10. COMMENCING FUNDING REQUEST
USD 20,000
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11. LONG-TERM VISION
Our main question we seek to answer is, Can Africa Build Its Own Fashion Supply Chain?
For years, Africa has had fashion potential with talented designers, entrepreneurs, and a consumer market; However, African fashion businesses largely depend on international markets for fabric, material, and even manufacturing; we purchase all these still in dollars.
With diverse collaborative ideas, we can begin our own supply chain through discarded second-hand clothes as a source of material purchased at a lower price than new fabrics from international wholesalers. This will save production a lot of money while still championing the recycling projects from Africa.
Within five years, the hub aims to establish itself as a Kenyan success story recognized of circular African fashion and a global example of recycling enterprise.
12. CONCLUSION
The objective is therefore not to Fund Closet Gorilla indefinitely."
It is more of "Investing in the infrastructure and capacity that allows the workshop and hub to become a commercially sustainable circular-fashion enterprise."
The Circular African Fashion & Local Enterprise Hub will bring these ideas together by transforming, raw materials into products, and training skills into independent livelihoods. This project will provide a physical space where environmental sustainability, and enterprise development meet.
Most importantly: by creating desirable, durable and commercially viable recycled products, we hope to demonstrate that the global fashion industry can increasingly move towards adoption.
Benefit to the Funder | Expected outcomes |
The grant will be perceived as a pioneer of creating economic empowerment impact funding as a means to protecting the environment | A dedicated standalone store with a workshop promoting recycling and craftsmanship as an African cultural and sustainable way to buy from
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The grant will be seen as champions of Global Circular-Fashion Advocacy | A location for aspiring artists to learn skills to grow recycled business models
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The grant will directly be responsible for More textile material diverted and reclaimed from landfills and dumpsites while giving pathways to income generation and business ownership | the demographic aged between 22-45 will have a way of promoting and appreciating long lasting African heritage products they can draw identity from |
Create a training studio and hub with infrastructure to last generations with a Clear use of grant and funds to creating impact, employment and independence for youth Africans | Creative youth cultural focus, capacity building, economic empowerment and business viability |
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