When Sumit Nagi, MBA ’06, founded GOAT Vintage, she wasn’t just building a fashion company – she was responding to what she saw as a system in crisis.
“The biggest impetus for change… was just the ostentatious overproduction of fashion,” she said during a recent visit to Ivey. “At the same time, we have an insane amount of textiles that already exist that we’re doing nothing with.”
Since launching GOAT Vintage in 2016, Nagi has focused on tackling both problems at once by transforming excess inventory, damaged goods, and post-consumer textiles into new products through large-scale upcycling.
Now, she’s bringing that perspective into the classroom. This term, GOAT Vintage served as the central project in Substantiating Sustainability, a new course from Wren Montgomery, associate professor of management and sustainability, where HBA students developed strategies to help the company stand out as sustainability expectations become more complex.
The course is based on Montgomery’s forthcoming book, From Greenwash to Green Trust: How Honest Firms Win in a World of Spin, which explores how companies can build credibility in a shifting sustainability landscape.
“When I was thinking of companies that really exemplified who I was writing the book for, and the students would enjoy, and also somebody that maybe the students could be useful to… she stood out from the crowd,” Montgomery said.
Confronting greenwashing in fashion
That focus comes at a time when scrutiny around sustainability claims continues to grow.
“The sustainability landscape is changing so rapidly,” said Montgomery. “There’s a lot more greenwashing out there, but we also have a lot of emerging laws on greenwashing… and a lot of consumers getting really upset about greenwashing as well.”
Nagi said that shows up every day in fashion – even in the upcycling space, where materials are sometimes reused selectively rather than fully.
“If we’re taking something apart, we’re using every single scrap of it,” she said. “We’re not just harvesting that one Nike or that one Adidas logo. The rest also has to be integrated in.”
Without that level of discipline, she explained, even well-intentioned efforts can create new forms of waste – a tension that shows up in her conversations with retail partners. No single retailer, she said, is getting it entirely right.
"There's always more they could be doing. It's a constant back and forth,” she said.
Still, she believes momentum is growing, and companies willing to act now will have an advantage.
“As far as I see it, 10 years from now… upcycling will be standard across every single retailer,” she said. “It’s an exciting time to be at the forefront of this.”
The consequences of those broader challenges are also deeply personal for Nagi, particularly as climate-related events like wildfires become more frequent and visible.
“I have a five-year-old… and I remember there were days when they said ‘better not to go outside.’ I think it’s to a point now where it is physically touching everyone,” she said.
Turning waste into value
But building a sustainable business is only part of the challenge. Proving it – and standing out from competitors – can be just as difficult.
For Nagi, scale equates to impact – and that means designing systems that allow upcycling to move beyond one-off pieces by standardizing how materials are sourced, sorted, deconstructed, and redesigned into new products. She urges Canadian brands and retailers sitting on sidelined inventory to rethink its potential and to reach out to explore how upcycling can transform this product into something valuable again.
The result: GOAT Vintage is now Canada’s largest upcycler, with products carried in more than 25 Winners and Marshalls stores across North America. Through a partnership with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Nagi is also working with sports teams like the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs to transform unsold inventory into new products.
(Photo above) Sumit Nagi, MBA ’06, founder of GOAT Vintage, shares examples of upcycled apparel during a visit to Ivey, where she engaged with students in the Substantiating Sustainability course.
Bringing real-world complexity into the classroom
That evolving landscape is exactly what Montgomery set out to capture in her course.
“It’s just so much richer than anything you get from a written case study,” she said. “This is real life… we don’t have all the information either.”
That’s why students were challenged to analyze GOAT’s competitors, assess its current practices, and develop strategies to help the company “beat the greenwashers.”
Their ideas were presented to Nagi during her visit to the class on March 23, where she also spoke with students, giving her a chance to zoom out and look more holistically at the industry.
“It’s such a privilege… to have a group of students at this level that are taking a hard look at a business – to hear different ideas and viewpoints,” she said. “Especially if it’s something actionable… it will go back with me, and it will get done.”
At the same time, Nagi sees the experience as part of her role as an alum – and one she finds energizing.
“They have such immense enthusiasm, and it’s infectious,” she said. “I’m always very impressed by the generosity of their ideas.”
Making upcycling mainstream
Despite the challenges, Nagi remains optimistic about the future of sustainable fashion.
“We have such immense creativity and possibilities,” she said. “We’re just writing the blueprints right now for what that’s going to look like.”
For her, the path forward is clear: make upcycling mainstream – and make it work economically.
“The biggest opportunity… is to show upcycling as mainstream,” she said. “That it’s just there everywhere.”
She also sees a broader role for organizations across industries to be more mindful of their waste.
“It’s really about being mindful of what we’re producing and what we’re throwing away,” she said.
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