'I don't strive for perfection'

Good cause

Freek: "Many companies want to be sustainable. As a customer, I can, for example, compensate for CO2 emissions by having a tree planted. But that doesn't satisfy me, because I never see or hear anything about the tree anymore. It remains abstract, as a customer I have no feeling with it. I wanted to start a company and invest part of the turnover in very concrete projects. Those who buy clothes at Bigger Picture Clothing are currently contributing to a water project in Ethiopia and Tanzania. Each garment is good for a thousand liters of water. But your money is also going to sunscreen for people with albinism in the Ivory Coast. As a customer, you can read in detail how the projects are progressing. No, we don't bring that money ourselves, but work together with local organizations.' 

Qualitative

It goes without saying for Van Litsenburg that he wants to burden the earth as little as possible. That he wants to contribute to a better planet with his company was therefore something he knew straight away. But that he chose clothing was less obvious. I was always involved in designing things, but never clothing, although I did have a great affinity with that,' says the former Strategic Management student at Tilburg University. 'At one point I just started drawing,' he says. 'With online courses, I taught myself the basics of clothing design. When I had four items, two hoodies and two T-shirts, I went to Portugal to find a producer. I paid for that first collection from a loan from DUO, 5,000 euros, and from the 6,000 euros I was able to borrow from my mother.'

Being sincere

Just do it, as college fashion brand Nike once had as a slogan. Freek: 'I'm not a top designer yet, but for the time being I'm not aiming for perfection. What matters is that the quality is good. People don't buy my clothes because they want to support a good cause but primarily because they like what I design.' His first collection is selling quite well. What lies behind this success? 'I think it is important that customers experience that you are sincere and do something with your heart. It takes little effort for me to get people excited about Bigger Picture Clothing. That's because I'm so enthusiastic about it myself. But don't ask me to sell something I don't believe in myself. I'm not going to get anywhere with that.' Asked for an example of his 'sincerity', Freek says: 'I am whiter than white. It would be totally implausible for me to commit my company to a project in Africa without having been there myself. When I had the chance during my time in the corona, I immediately travelled to The Gambia to experience on the spot what it takes to set up and complete a project.'

Setbacks

And now the previously reported things that go wrong. Freek thought he could build a web shop on his own. I came a long way, but I was always dissatisfied with the end result. The site was not professional enough; I was not going to attract customers with it, I realized. Just when I didn't know how to proceed, I ran into someone who works for an advertising agency. He offered to help design the webshop. Something else that was quite disappointing: Freek thought he had made good arrangements with his Portuguese supplier. May 2021 I could have the collection in the webshop. I was also going to communicate this to customers. But the production took much more time than I had anticipated. In the end I only had the collection in the webshop in August. The result was dissatisfied customers. The learning? Only communicate data - or to put it another way: only create expectations - if you are absolutely certain that you can live up to them.

Study

Last April, Freek graduated, having interrupted his studies for a year in 2020 to build Bigger Picture Clothing from idea to company. 'My desire to be an entrepreneur grew during my studies,' he looks back. 'In the first two years I did nothing with entrepreneurship. Then I started choosing more and more subjects that had to do with starting a business and I also started reading books about it. At one point I bought a notebook in which I wrote down all my ideas. It only became really concrete when I had to write a business plan during a course. From that came Bigger Picture Clothing.' In 2021 Freek participated in the Tilburg University Challenge, which he won in December. He received both the audience and the jury prize. 'I was able to stand out because I already had a real product. Many other participants had an idea, but not yet the elaboration.'

Did he get much out of his university studies? 'When I was in college I sometimes thought it was too theoretical. Looking back, I now realize that I learned to think strategically in Tilburg. How do I get more customers? How do I go about it? First think about something and determine your course, then carry it out. That's how I did it at Bigger Picture Clothing.' Freek has just finished a second collection. This time he is committing the income from sales to a project to protect the rainforest in Costa Rica. 'Symbol of the rainforest is the toucan. The colors of that bird are reflected in the design.'

CV Freek van Litsenburg

Age: 23.

Education: bachelor business/managerial economics, master strategic management at Tilburg University (2016-2022).

Company: Bigger Picture Clothing (founded September 2020).

Opinion: 'You can teach yourself a lot with online courses.'

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