Audio Resources
Hear more about our work and how it connects to the larger ecosystem (literally and figuratively!). If you need a speaker, we’d be happy to share with your audience. Please reach out to sarah@rustbeltfibershed.org with any speaking inquiries.
(Audio) Sarah and Jess’s Keynote Address at the 2025 Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium
on Youtube
Co-Founders Sarah Pottle and Jess Boeke lovingly share their perspective on the question of why this work is important and what about this work is important. As in, what are we doing all of this textile re-localization FOR? What's the point?
In a world where we can get priorities all twisted around, where greenwashing abounds, where truth feels more confusing each day, Jess and Sarah share the heart of Why Rust Belt Fibershed.
Podcast: Green Champions
Episode: Sarah Pottle - Clothing the Midwest Through Community and Craft
Hear from the Rust Belt Fibershed Co-Founder, Sarah Pottle, on this podcast that highlighted speakers at the Midwest Sustainability Summit.
SHOW NOTES
The Midwest Regional Sustainability Summit (MRSS) is the largest sustainability conference in the Midwest, bringing together hundreds of visionary leaders to share ideas and solutions for a healthier, more resilient, and equitable future. The annual summit features a full day of programming, including speakers, exhibitors, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities, covering a wide range of topics from climate justice and green workforce development to resilient food systems and circular economy practices. MRSS serves as a vital platform for collaboration and innovation, inspiring action and accelerating the transition to a sustainable future in the Midwest.
Shownotes
Sarah Pottle is the co-founder and regional organizer for the Rust Belt Fibershed, a grassroots initiative working to rebuild a regional textile economy rooted in sustainability and care. In this conversation, Sarah shares how the Fibershed is challenging the fast fashion status quo by cultivating a local, circular system for clothing production in the Midwest—one that connects farmers, makers, and consumers in a shared ecosystem of regeneration.
She explains the concept of a "fibershed"—similar to a foodshed—as a framework for understanding where our clothing comes from and how it impacts people and the planet. Through this lens, Sarah emphasizes the importance of “cultivating care” at every stage of a garment’s life: from the health of the soil where fiber crops are grown, to the labor conditions of textile workers, to the disposal or reuse of clothing at the end of its cycle.
Sarah discusses the environmental and social costs of fast fashion, citing the growing amount of clothing production and the declining rate of clothing use. She emphasizes the importance of caring for the entire lifecycle of a garment, from the sourcing of raw materials and the treatment of workers to the end-of-life disposal and the potential for upcycling, mending, and clothing swaps. She highlights some of the innovative projects emerging within the Rust Belt Fibershed network, including the development of small-scale mills and knitting machines, and discusses the organization’s success in securing funding from the Cleveland Foundation to host annual symposiums, which have drawn hundreds of attendees.
Episode in a glance
- Sarah Pottle & her work with Rust Belt Fibershed
- The Importance of Care in the Textile Supply Chain
- Challenges and Solutions in Sustainable Fashion
- Sarah's Journey into Sustainable Fashion
- Building Community Through Education and Engagement
- The Future of Local Fiber Production
- Impact and Success Stories of Rust Belt Fibershed
About Sarah Pottle
Sarah Pottle is the co-founder and regional organizer of the Rust Belt Fibershed, a passionate advocate for building a more sustainable and equitable textile industry in the Midwest. With a background in education, she believes in the power of community engagement and hands-on learning to inspire change.
Podcast: Ecospeaks Cle
Episode: Creating a Bioregional Textile Community with Rust Belt Fibershed
Hear from the Rust Belt Fibershed Co-Founder, Jess Boeke, on this podcast that highlights ecological movers and shakers in the Cleveland area.
SHOW NOTES
In this episode, we speak with Jess Boeke. Jess and her twin sister Sarah Pottle, are the co-founders of Rust Belt Fibershed and are growing a bioregional textile community within a 250-mile radius of Cleveland. Imagine sourcing your clothing from a regional fibershed where local fiber farmers, workers, and artisans produce natural clothing that originates from the soil and can return to the soil. This is the vision of Rust Belt Fibershed. Jess and Sarah are helping connect us with our clothing the way farmers' markets connect us with our food. It starts with systems thinking and education, then the community magic follows. Listen and hear about alpacas, hemp, flax, natural dyes, microplastics, and what's needed to bring natural textile production into our fibershed and the many ways to engage with this regenerative community.
Guest
Jess Boeke, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Rust Belt Fibershed
Resources
Rust Belt Fibershed website
Community Forum - get plugged into the Rust Belt Fibershed community
Drift Lab Earth - the twins’ natural/botanical dyeing workshops and living systems education
Regenerative Ed - regenerative thinking for our educational system (also listen on spotify)
Reading: Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy
Follow us:
https://www.facebook.com/ecospeakscle
https://www.instagram.com/ecospeakscle
Contact us:
hello@ecospeakscle.com
RE/make recorded livestream on youtube
Fashioning A Fibershed with Rust Belt Fibershed
with Jess Boeke of the Rust Belt Fibershed
From Re/Make:
”We were joined by Rust Belt Fibershed to learn more about soil-to-soil textile ecosystems, the process of creating natural clothing, and how you can make similar changes in your communities. Rust Belt Fibershed is a bioregional textile community that includes a 250 mile radius outside of Cleveland, Ohio including parts of Michigan, southern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and Western New York. It is their goal to build a community that collaboratively supports locally grown textiles in a way that decrease consumption of fast fashion and works to restore soil health. They aspire to connect everyone in all parts of our local fiber system: farmers, fiber processors–from large mills to home spinners, weavers, dyers and fiber artists–to designers, shop owners, fiber enthusiasts, and all consumers of textiles. Their fibershed creates a collaborative network of regenerative fiber farmers, processors, and designers from the Rust Belt Region to explore the possibilities of working with the resources in our fibershed, in particular wool, alpaca, flax, and plant dyes. They teach stewardship of our land and resources, foster friendship and creativity, and facilitate conversations and strategies that address the challenges of a localized fiber supply chain.
You can learn more about the Rust Belt Fibershed ➡️ https://rustbeltfibershed.com/
All workshops are free and available to the public because of donations from people like you. If you found this resource valuable, please consider making a donation today ➡️ https://remake.world/donations-page/