Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Luo.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started Mi Terro when I was studying at the University of Southern California. The name Mi Terro is a combination of Spanish and Portuguese, which means “my Earth.” Mi Terro’s mission is solving world problems through green fashion. Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world, but people aren’t taking the right action to solve such an enormous problem. There are 5 trillion pieces of plastics floating the ocean right now. 128 million tons of milk is dumped every year globally. There’s a saying that “one man’s waste is another man’s treasure.” We want to turn waste into stylish, functional, and eco-friendly products.
We created the world’s first travel bag made from recycled ocean plastics and natural cork. Every bag removes 2 pounds of plastic (1 pound ocean plastic). The bag was fully funded within 22 hours on Kickstarter, with backers from 25+ countries worldwide.
Now, we created the world’s first shirt made from upcycled milk. Every five shirts save one glass of milk from being dumped. The Limitless Milk Shirt was fully funded in less than 2 hours on Kickstarter, has surpassed 850% funding goal, and has backers from 35+ countries worldwide.
We plant ten trees for every item sold. So far, we have planted over 2700 in 3 months. We expect to plant another 4000-5000 trees in the upcoming months.
We have been featured on Forbes, WWD, Vogue, Business Insider, Yahoo, China’s Central Television, which broadcasts to more than one billion viewers, and many other reputable publications.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has been difficult since day 1. I still remember when I first started Mi Terro no one wanted to write about us. I cold-emailed more than 1000 journalists and only 6 of them got back to me, and all of them rejected me.
It was during the time that I took 22 units at the University of Southern California and ran two companies at the same time. There were so many sleepless and stressful days and nights. It was all desperation and disappointments.
No one believed in my vision, but I’m so glad that I eventually pushed through all the pain and went beyond everyone’s expectation.
What were you like growing up?
I have always been an environmental activist. I remember telling my mom to turn off the AC and rolling down the window whenever she drives a car.
I wasn’t the coolest or the most popular kid in school. In fact, I applied to more than a dozen school clubs and organizations at USC but got rejected by all of them. I would have been considered as a failure if people judge me through social expectation. However, such “failure” allowed me to have more time thinking and developing fascinating ideas that eventually turned into Mi Terro’s products.
Pricing:
- Mi Terro CDS Weekender bag is $275.
- Mi Terro Limitless Milk Shirt is currently offering 30% discount on Kickstarter.
Contact Info:
- Address: 18058 Rowland St. City of Industry, CA 91748
- Website: www.miterro.com
- Phone: 6266771939
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miterro.fashion/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miterro.fashion
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mi_terro
Image Credit:
Mi Terro Global
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