Outland Denim
James Bartle
Episode 18
Outland Denim | James Bartle is shaking up the fashion industry, is the best kind of way
James Bartle is paving the way for a new kind of business in the fashion industry. Outland Demin is all about less energy, less water and more conscious construction. Not only is it environmentally focused to minimise its impact, it is also, socially aligned. Aiming for for ‘Zero Exploitation’ throughout the whole supply chain – right from the cotton farm to the courier who delivers your jeans.
Now what we should mention here is that James didn’t have any kind of background in fashion. In fact, he didn’t finish year 10, he left school and took an alternate path to become a motocross champion. It’s been 9 years of hard work building the business.
In the early years James supported the brand by running a welding business on the side. He was able to move on 3 years ago to running the business full time.
Pretty impressive when you look at what he has accomplished – this guy has literally launched one of the most disruptive fashion brands in Australia, if not the world.
Outland Demin are punching well above their weight, and it’s so cool to see. Their jeans have been worn by Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and just wait to hear in this episode what happened when Meghan Markle stepped off a plane and into an Australian tour wearing their very own jeans.
You’re going to love James’s story, which we travelled up to Queensland’s Tambourin Mountain to record. There, at the Oultand Denim HQ, we saw the team in action, and in passing James’ mentioned to me that although they’re not big enough for a marketing department, they do have a full time role in social and environmental responsibility. These guys are a BCorp, and are driven by their mission for fashion to become the solution to some of the world’s most pressing global social and environmental is
“At this moment in history, an estimated 40.3 million people are trapped in slavery worldwide, with 24.9 million in forced labour. Of these, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector“
— International Labour Organisation

Outland Denim | James Bartle
Podcast
Mentioned in conversation…
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Why Outland Denim was started, and their journey
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The current state of human trafficking and the use of forced labour in the private sector
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The company’s environmental impact improvements in the denim world
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What the company plans to do next in spurring on an industry-wide change