It's been 344 days since a collective of Wellington fashion workers banded together, with the help of 1386 public backers, to pull off an uplifting business uprising: buying Nisa, the underwear and swimwear brand they were employed by, saving their jobs and ensuring the ongoing viability of an ethical New Zealand-based manufacturer. 

One of those workers was Pam Lowe, a computer pattern maker by trade who was the brand’s production manager when founder Elisha Watson announced Nisa would close in July last year. Watson had been unable to secure a new buyer to inject necessary new capital into the venture which employed and upskilled many new migrants and refugees.

It was a gut punch for Lowe, who'd been with the "great little business" in one form or another for near on six years. She had a blind belief that "someone would come along and buy the business and we would all live happily ever after", but as the closing date approached and colleagues started applying for new jobs, Lowe took matters into her own hands, "leading the charge" and enlisting her fellow workers to purchase Nisa for themselves.

"I realised we would have to try a sort of last ditch attempt to keep it going," the now CEO recalls when I ask her about the decision to initiate the proletariat purchase.

Knowing she didn't have the necessary business experience, Lowe enlisted buy in (literally) from a number of compatriots, amongst them a former CFO and GM of the brand as well as a current production supervisor and head machinist. She thought she'd really have to sell the dream, but "it took surprisingly little convincing."

There was immediate uptake more widely too, like when the collective asked the public for help financing their takeover. "Together let’s stitch a tapestry of positive change, one garment at a time," they implored supporters. They estimated they needed to fundraise $80,000, and reached that target in less than a day. 

"It was like watching telethons, that tally just kept climbing and climbing," Lowe remembers of the 24 hours she spent in front of her laptop continuously hitting refresh on the Pledge Me page. By the campaign’s close they had more than doubled their goal figure, raising $165,093.  

Lowe describes that outpouring of support as "ludicrous" but in hindsight also "amazing and necessary."

"We severely underestimated costs and how much we would need," she admits. "We wouldn't have lasted basically, if we'd only got that 80k."

Almost a year on, they have lasted – but barely. Lowe and her fellow co-owners recently published a "raw, real, and honest update" on the Nisa website outlying the progress Nisa 2.0 has made in the year since they took over, but also the reality of the dream they bought into. Cashflow has been "dicey since November", Lowe writes in the note, and more hard decisions are needed. "Something drastic has to change as we cannot operate in the current environment as things are." (Editor's note: the update has since been made private for supporters and followers only)

"The reality is, it's a real struggle at the moment," Lowe tells me. "We've really had to streamline what we do and downsize because of the economy absolutely tanking. Our sales are down about 70% from last year, which is a huge amount."

Lowe says the biggest lesson of Nisa 2.0's first year in business has been that "things will always cost more, prices will always rise. You need to factor in contingency." That's not to say that the business hasn't tried to make efficiencies. As a patternmaker Lowe loves the challenge of "putting things together the best way you can" and she's applying this strategically to Nisa. Being small has allowed them to implement some necessary changes with haste. "We've cut back to our core range, phasing out our luxe line because people are buying basics and not luxury spending."

They're investing in zero-waste pattern making to cut down on fabric misuse (by about 15%), reducing freight costs and environmental impact too. They've also reduced their team size. At its peak the company had 16 employees but now operates as a team of six. People who found new employment in the lead up to the proposed shuttering weren’t replaced.

They've also taken on contract manufacturing for other small labels like Zeenya activewear. "We are a lean, lean, lean manufacturing machine," Lowe says.

This commercial diversification reflects not only negative economic winds but also some positive changing consumer patterns. Nisa promotes and produces ethical, long lasting garment manufacturing - that means while loyal customers do repurchase, it’s not all that often.

 "We are sort of our own worst enemy there," Lowe says, laughing. "We want the life of our garments to be really long. We don't want people to come back time and time again – but we are something that people will replace when [the garment] dies. They might have bought six pairs last year; they might only buy two this year."

Compounding that was an element of retail fatigue. "We couldn't rely on our customer base once we reopened because they've been so saturated with the closing down sale and then the Pledge Me campaign so it's really forced us to branch out," Lowe says. "We put out our first underwire bra this year and we had a huge uptake with our existing customer base for that." 

Lowe knows what she wants Nisa 2.0 to be: a flourishing community and ethically minded, zero-waste manufacturer of sustainable garments. But to get there the company needs to last longer than the garments they sew. 

"We really want Nisa to continue, all of us here believe in it passionately. It does good things and the products that we buy to use for our garments do no harm to people or planet – I don't think that there are any fast fashion outlets that can say that."

The loss of Nisa wouldn't just be a personal loss for the tight-knit Nisa team. Lowe says it risks further environment and skill retreat for an already challenged sector. 

"There's only a few of us around that are small ethical manufacturers, but giving people less choice means that there's probably more chance that people will buy something unethical. The other thing is we're losing all our [manufacturing] skills and if we don't do something soon to build it back up, there won't be the people to pass their knowledge on or upskill new people."

Lowe welcomes any help in preserving this skill base and her business. "The thing that I've done probably the best since taking over is taking all the advice I can get." This includes a customer survey, running until July 12 for followers and supporters to complete, to crowdsource further ideas for innovation.

Lowe is also appealing for people who believe in local and locally made businesses like Nisa to help them out – however they can. “Now is the time, more than ever, to really think about what you're buying – put your money where you want your shopping to be in the future. If you’re buying a gift for someone, can you buy them a pair of socks or a box of chocolate that's locally made? Rather than just popping into somewhere that you will always be nameless in.”

"Consumers need to pick who it is they want left standing."