Take a look below to see how JUZD was featured in MSN.ca’s Green article section. The article featured JUZD as one of today’s top Canadian green designers.

Written by Liz Metcalfe

Green and recycled materials have become the new hot thing with designers, who are increasingly taking advantage of recycled and found materials, along with fabrics made form renewable resources. Hemp is no longer just for the granola crowd and designers incorporating new fabrics such as soy silk, tencel/lyocell (made from wood byproducts), micro-modal (made from beech pulp) and bamboo.

Jing Liu will be working with the Holt Renfrew sales staff to help you find the perfect outfit for the Fall. Join him and the JUZD team Saturday October 11th from 1pm-3pm at Holt Renfrew Yorkdale.

Come by and say hi and get a free JUZD bag ($10 value). Sweet!

This shirt is the favourite of many people. I wasn’t surprised when the first report I got showed it sold 2-3 times more than the other shirts. Can’t confirm how many days it was actually on the floor. Then on the second week it went all the way to second last. What was going on here!

This perplexed me for a long time. I was trying to schedule production of long sleeves base on the popularity of the designs.

The answer did not hit me till late last night after my visit to the two Holt Renfrew locations in Toronto. When I went to the Bloor location they had a new stock of Dom Rebel shirts in and JUZD was moved to a few less stacks. Due to the space they had to stack some of the black shirts on top of the white Studio. Ah! That’s why. These shirts used to be spread out and now the white ones are not visible.

So lesson here is that you cannot just look at stats. Shirt selling is based on many factors. But also the paradox is that the only practical way to measure the popularity of shirts is through stats.

Let’s say there are 100 stores carrying JUZD shirts, we cannot go into each one and note what happened during the week and discount that in the stats. That would be impossible and inaccurate. With everything that’s happening, the only way is to average out is with numbers. There will be a lot of abnoramlities but the law of averages will cancel everything out.

National Post mentioned JUZD in the September 10th 2008 onlline.

Swag Hag: The Tastemakers Lounge
Posted: September 10, 2008, 8:33 AM by Nathalie Atkinson

The theme of this year’s Tastemakers Lounge at the InterContinental is Ohhh Canada! and stars sip libations from Northern Quebec (ESKA spring water) and B.C. (fair trade, organic and carbon-neutral Salt Spring Coffee) while they “shop.”

…

The Potential Haul: The ten-foot wall covered in hand-flocked wallpaper from Scottish studio Timorous Beasties would run you $5,000; Trollbeads charm jewellery ($300); a Juzd Originals printed t-shirt made from organic bamboo by Toronto’s Jing Liu to wear on the red carpet like Darren Hewson did ($100 at Holt Renfrew).

Original post on DemiCouture September 8th 2008

At the Toronto Film Festival, celebs can expect to get a piece of Holt Renfrew’s hottest new bamboo clothing line on order – JUZD. Unique t-shirts were designed for the event will be included within Tastemakers Celebrity Lounge’s swag bags.

The head designer and owner of the brand is marked as the youngest who can make such a boast of the label of the youngest sponsor of a major event at the film ‘fest.

Beyond the TIFF, JUZD is letting everyone know that they’re not stopping with Canadian bamboo fashion domination. According to Jing Liu, JUZD is slated to take over America and the UK before Christmas arrives as well.

Keep your eyes peeled for these unique designs in your local luxury boutiques.

Yesterday was an exciting day for the staff at Holt Renfrew Yorkdale and Bloor street. They finally received their first shipment of the JUZD shirts. Marc Baudendistel the Yorkdale store manager was so excited about the product that he organized a Product Knowledge session not only with the mens contemporary department with but many of the other sections and staff members as well. During the Product Knowledge session Jing Liu and Yvonne Kai introduced the Holt Renfrew staff to the brand and the JUZD experience.

First shipment of JUZD shirts have already been shipped to the Vancouver, Edmonton, and Montreal locations. Second shipment to follow in a few days. The last shipment will be out in a little over a week. Watch out for it!

Well, Toronto-based JUZD (pronounced “joost”) Bamboo is a particular case – it’s an unknown urban street wear designer that has been recently picked up by Holt Renfrew. I asked them a couple of serious questions and I was surprised by the thorough responses and learned a thing or two, it gave me some hope that there are brands out there who aren’t afraid of answering questions that are really relevant to the fashion industry. Jing Liu, Chief Designer of JUZD, happily answered my questions. Read on:

Q: How is bamboo fabric “eco-conscious” (i.e.: Aren’t bamboo trees part of the environment? How does it compare in being eco-friendly from the likes of cotton or wool?), and with so many brands pulling the eco-friendly card on consumers, what makes this brand stand out?

Bamboo is the most sustainable plant. It is consider a grass and grows up to one metre within 24 hours (Dahlia’s note: this is actually confirmed on Wiki if you were skeptical). It reaches maturity in just six months. Bamboo is antibacterial so it does not require pesticide. In fact the antibacterial characteristic is transferred when it is made into a fabric so it kills body odour and bacteria. It can grow in almost any environmental and soil condition. When cut it regenerates itself, this is seen when you cut a bamboo stick, it will grow on both ends. Growing bamboo actually enriches the soil unlike cotton which takes nutrients from the soil. Lastly bamboo consume four times more carbon dioxide than trees which creates a cleaner environment.
You can find our research article on bamboo here: http://www.juzdbamboo.com/benefitsofbamboo.php

JUZD is different in that we are not about jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon. The use of bamboo is secondary to the design philosophy of respecting nature and the power of the human. Another big difference compare to other “eco” brands is that JUZD designs are edgy, aggressive, and fashionable. This targets a segment of consumers that have been traditionally ignore by eco-conscious brands. Lastly a great amount of attention is paid to the quality and standard of the clothing pieces hence creating pieces that are luxurious and comfortable instead low cost and low quality.

Now I know you’d have to be hardcore granola and a major treehugger if you really want the nitty gritty about the provenance of bamboo fabric. So I found a site that pretty much will answer most of your questions about it.
To sum it up, bamboo itself is way more environmentally friendly than growing cotton or any other textile plant, and it has loads of benefits. The only reservation one might have is how it is actually produced (not labor wise, but how it’s made in the factories) that may be criticized. Now this goes well into the textile industry and I certainly don’t have much say on ethics in creating fabric (that’s a whole other realm altogether). Just know that the fashion industry is whole lot deeper than people are led to believe

“Do you want to schedule the delivery for Monday or Tuesday?” asked Wilma of Holt Renfrew.

I should be thankful, according to the manual, I have to book delivery appointments 48 hours in advance. So that would be late Wednesday, Monday being a holiday. So I blurred out “I want to do the delivery today.”

“But our receiving dock closes at 3:30.”

“Yea I can make it” without realizing where the exact location is or knowing if I have everything prepared.

“Well…. I can make the appointment for you but are you sure you can be here in an hour?”

Of course I’m not sure. An hour is pretty tight and where the heck is the Holt Renfrew distribution centre anyways. And what’s the traffic like going there. So I blurred out “Yea I can make it”

Doubtful she says to me “well, if you can’t make it please give us a call.”

“So…what documents do I need to prepare?”

After talking with the buyer about the situation in China yesterday he said it’s best to send part of the order now. And I have in stock one of the JUZD shirts. I would normally settle for Wilma’s option of delivering it on Monday, less risk, take it easy. But a talk with a close friend of mine last night set my motivation ablaze.

Over dinner I told her that one of the magical things I discovered was that if I set a goal no matter how impossible I think it is, if I set that goal and focus all my energy into it, magically I would achieve it. Like getting my line into Holt Renfrew. She said that’s one of the traits she admired about her ex-boss, he’s an amazing salesperson and when he wants things done it gets done.

People call it “laws of attraction”, “Spontaneous Fulfillment”, and other neat names. To me it’s just shear raw determination. In its most basic element you can see it in athletes when he’s determined to do nothing else but win. Willing to sacrifice his body just to edge closer to the goal. This is why when EDI first started they hired ex high school and college athletes for salesperson and during the tech bubble some of these guys were making more money than the CEO and they were totally worth it.

I’ve seem to lost that determination, having so much to worry about that I don’t even know what my goals are anymore. What better goal to get me back on track than to get my shipment here for Holt Renfrew. There’s a cancellation period in the fashion industry. If your goods doesn’t get to the buyer at the end of this date the order is automatically canceled. And I’m getting very close to mine.

So last night I called my agent and told him to packaged another set of shirts and send it by express with another company, try to send it outside the city, do what you can. “But it’s very expensive” he saids. And he’s right it’s $1,600 for a few hundred shirts. That adds almost $5 a shirt which is a lot of money.

But my goal wasn’t to make or save money, my determination was focused on getting the shirts here. “I don’t care! Just get it here. Even if the first shipment clears custom, send the second one anyways. I’ll fly back there and drag it onto the plane with me if I have to!“

I didn’t stop there, in the morning I searched for different freight companies. contacted one I used before and got them to start working on getting my shipment here too. I called several times and asked around and streamline some of their processes to make sure it gets on the plane as quickly as it can. Unfortunately their agent in China won’t be able to do anything until Monday morning business hours. Then I emailed my agent and told him to search for companies that are open during the weekend, and get it on a plane.

This is what I call shear raw determination. It has got me to where I am and I will need it to get JUZD to where I want to take it.

As for the delivery to Holt Renfrew, I did not want to delay it a single day or hour. There was heavy traffic on the way, I knew I couldn’t make it on time but I got there just 10 minutes after my appointment and got my package to them. JUZD bamboo shirts will be showing up at Holt Refrew stores very soon.