New webstore The Cøded launches, celebrates the manufacturers

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 21, 2021

A former Ted Baker executive has launched The Cøded, a new “transparent” online shopping platform that he says “puts clothing manufacturers at the heart of what [we] do”.

The platform, found at the-coded.com, “offers customers a chance to change the way they shop for clothes by putting factories first. For the first time, shoppers can browse, select and buy apparel and accessories directly from the manufacturer”.

The company said the clothes on the website have been designed and produced by “skilful factory workers who regularly produce garments for well-known fashion brands. Designer-quality clothing at honest prices”.

It’s all been put together by Donald Browne, who used to be Production Director at Ted Baker.

He said that post-Ted Baker, he kept in contact with factories and suppliers that he’d worked with in the past and with whom he’d built strong relationships, at which point he and his partners “started thinking of ways to help and support the factories”.

They saw some opportunities to create a platform “where we could continue to work with wonderful factories around the world, partner with them and actually celebrate who they are and what they do, because we felt that the world doesn't get to hear about them and their amazing stories. Then when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, factories were very badly affected as brands and customers cancelled orders, didn’t pay the factories for their work and left them with vast amounts of fabric and other materials”.

That’s how the idea for The Cøded started.

Aside from the factory connection, the website looks like any other webstore, with womenswear and menswear categories from suits, to knits, jersey, casual pieces, dresses and more at mid-market price levels.

Browne has had very close links with the factories that produce the fashion consumers wear for his entire life. His father ran a clothing factory and he worked with him for 16 years. He said the “deep knowledge and understanding of manufacturing” he picked up played “a crucial part in the success of Ted Baker”, which he joined in 1991.