“The mantra of Nonetheless Garments is ‘less-is-more,’” Shaun said. “My design philosophy is starting with a problem and finding a solution.”
He has always had a connection to nature and highly functional clothing. He began designing in 1994 in Colorado, where he had a small snowboarding clothing line. He sold the company in 1999 and stopped designing for 10 years because of what he calls his “love/hate relationship with the design industry.”
In 2008, Shaun opened Connect, a store dedicated to selling eco-conscious apparel brands, including Nonetheless, which he founded one year later. Although he had connections in Canada, San Francisco, New York and China, Shaun said he was bent on designing and manufacturing in Chicago.
“You can use all the environmentally safe fabrics you want, or the most environmentally sound factories in China, but the product still has to come over on a boat,” he said.
