Cobban doesn't need money to make a difference

Marilyn Cobban has surpassed extreme struggles to create her own version of success. Her fulfillment comes from giving individuals the experiences she wished she had as a child.

Cobban is the owner and designer of Blue Sky Clothing, a fair trade company that specialises in natural fibers and body inclusivity. Blue Sky has nine stores in B.C, an online boutique, and a variety of wholesale locations across the country.

She attributes her philosophy on business to her challenging past. She left home at 14 and suffered from alcoholism until her thirties. She wasn’t an everyday drinker but suffered from binge drinking.

“I think I knew I was an alcoholic when I was 16,” she said.

However, that didn’t stop her from being ambitious.

“I always worked two jobs,” she said. “I bought my first house when I was 20.”

She married her husband in her 20’s but he was killed in an industrial accident a few years later. Following her husband’s death, she felt “empty inside,” but instead of heading down a worse path, she picked herself up and began figuring out who she was.

Cobban grew up in a poor household and was the youngest of two sisters. She almost exclusively got hand-me-down clothing.

“I love clothes,” she said. “I never had enough clothes.”

Cobban took a business course and began interviewing people who made clothing. She found out that in Canada it was very difficult to start selling clothing on a small scale because, according to her, “the dyeing minimum in Canada is 3000 meters per colour.”

She turned elsewhere to find a place to make her clothing and stumbled upon Indonesia. In Indonesia, one can design their own prints on fabric using an ancient technique called batik, a process of dyeing and layering wax to get different layers of colours.

Cobban made her first batch of samples in Indonesia and then drove around Alberta and BC, preselling garments. She then went back to Indonesia and began her production.

“I didn’t have a clue what I was doing,” she said. “But I managed to pull it off.”

Many of the prints in Blue Sky are done by hand with batik.

About a half an hour away from Nelson, B.C. is the Balfour Ferry Landing. This ferry is connected to a highway system, and it takes you across the lake. One day she parked her Volkswagen Van and began selling.

“The first day out there was like 500 bucks,” said Cobban. She added with excitement in her voice, that she “was so thrilled.”

Cobban had been renting a cabin on a lake outside of Nelson at the time. She decided to stay there until she had figured out her life, even when the rentors were trying to kick her out.

“I sat there until they turned the electricity off” she said with a laugh. “A lot of people wouldn’t take it that far.”

She accredits her ability to push the limits to the fact that her husband died at such a young age.

“I realized; life is short. What’s the worst that can happen to me, right?”

For her it was not about the money, nor about having a fancy car or being rich.

“I care about actually doing something that is purposeful, not only for me, but for the planet.”

Cobban’s mother was the reason why Cobban made the company the way it is. Cobban was taught to be kind to people and to be kind to the planet.

When Cobban started Blue Sky, her goal was to be good to people and good to the planet. She wanted to work with people who she liked and who liked her.

In Indonesia, she has a group of sowers who have been working with her since the beginning.

“I always pay them really good money because I want to keep the sowers,” she said. “We want consistency in our sowing.”

At Blue Sky Clothing, sizes range from XXS to 4X. They are inclusive in their sizing as they are with their pricing. There is no extra cost for larger sizes, which is rare.

“My profit margins are really small compared to other companies. That’s my choice,” she said. “I don’t want bigger people to have to pay more for being bigger.”

Cobban based her whole business on how she wanted to feel when shopping with her mother.

When asked if she would change anything she said, “No way, I’m doing exactly what I want to do.”