The process stretched into two years of research and trial and error. Last summer, Chen worked with a professor at the University of Virginia to research greenwashing and how brands market themselves as sustainable. She also learned how to evaluate those claims through an environmental lens, which the co-founders say came in handy when trying to source a sustainable supplier for their products.
Hohenshelt had interned at sustainable marketing firm Endicott PR, where she learned how to ethically market their products. Their coursework has also informed their business, with classes like coding and financial accounting helping the pair automate their website and balance their books.
The result of this process was their latest line of T-shirts, which released last month. The shirts are made with modal, which is natural fibers that have been synthetically processed. Hohenshelt says they chose this fabric because it is still 100% biodegradable but lasts longer than many natural fibers.
The new products also came with a revamped marketing strategy. When Sloane the Brand first started, Hohenshelt and Chen say they thought they would rely mostly on social media marketing, but neither enjoyed making short form content. Instead, they shifted to word-of-mouth marketing.
“We definitely didn’t play to our strengths when we first started because we’re both really good at talking to people,” Hohenshelt says.
Philanthropy was part of Sloane from the beginning. Proceeds from the brand’s first line went to the global nonprofit Fashion Revolution, which campaigns for reform and greater transparency in the fashion industry. Over time, however, Chen and Hohenshelt realized they wanted their impact to be more immediate and local.
“We couldn’t really make a dent that we could see, and it kind of became discouraging. So we wanted to find a more specific goal that we thought was really important to us in our community,” Hohenshelt says.
This led to the launch of the Sloane Arts Initiative in 2025, which is dedicated to “combating the loss of art in Texas.” The co-founders both volunteer teaching art at Dallas ISD elementary schools. They say that seeing firsthand how budget cuts have affected arts programs helped clarify how they wanted to help.
Now, profits from Sloane go toward local arts initiatives, including donating supplies to underfunded programs and hosting workshops. It also includes educational content, like art history lessons and videos on hands-on art activities.
Since starting Sloane, Chen and Hohenshelt say they have realized how much misinformation there is surrounding sustainability in fashion. The question they get most often is how to know if a brand you are shopping from is eco-friendly.
“Our biggest tip for shopping sustainably is, if it’s hard for you to find out if a company’s sustainable, they’re probably not sustainable,” Hohenshelt says.
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