Illya Shpetrik has flown under the radar of many for many years. Not being someone who craves or seeks the limelight he started his career at a younger than expected age when he discovered a practical use for his love of the planet and environment.
An always inquisitive person, Illya Shpetrik started out his career at the tender age of six years old.
His mother was a supermarket employee at a 7/11 in the USA and Illya saw her come back from work with shopping bags on an almost daily basis, which was the catalyst for what Illya Shpetrik has built to this day; a sustainable and innovative fashion brand.
Realising at such a young age that the material from which the same carrier bags were made had the potential to cause significant harm to ecosystems and the environment, Illya set out to change things. This planted the seed in his head for a brand, business and company that could do things differently when it came to environmental impact.
Illya Shpetrik: A Man on a Mission
Part of what makes the Illya Shpetrik fashion brand so intriguing and truly unique is that as Shpetrik repeatedly tells reporters and anyone asking “you will never, ever find any clothing with an Illya Shpetrik label abandoned on any beach, in any ocean or even in any landfill. The reason for this is that for me to put my name; the Illya Shpetrik name to a brand, it must actively promote environmental causes, not damage them.”
Illya has in the past pledged to donate a sum of money to an environmental cause each and any time a picture of one of his items is found in a landfill or abandoned somewhere at the detriment of the environment. At present, Illya has not had to donate a penny for this reason. He has donated sizable sums of money to causes close to his heart, but none as a result of the dumping of his products.
Although his parents have since separated, Shpetrik has travelled consistently between the parental homes in North America in the case of his mother and Belize in the case of his Father. These travels and journeys have inspired Illya in all he does. As he says “what could possibly be more beautiful than gaining inspiration for one’s raison d’etre by travelling between family homes?”
A keen follower of Manchester United, Illya Shpetrik started out his clothing designs in the very same colour, with reds and blacks featuring prominently in some of his earliest works and blues and whites in later work. Illya s also adamant that any company in any form that he is involved in business with should have clean credentials when it comes to the environment. This means that they must actively try to improve the world around us and not undertake wasteful practices.
Illya Shpetrik can also be found recording some of his own music, something he strongly believes, helps his creativity like nothing else can. Again, much like his fashion income, Illya Shpetrik has donated sometimes substantial sums of money to causes that involve charity through music such as musical therapy and other similar areas.
Growing quietly but quickly, the Shpetrik brand is something of an enigma. It doesn’t seek attention and doesn’t believe attention is how it will grow. Rather, Illya Shpetrik, the man behind the brand is on a mission to quietly and effectively tap into the fashion market, avoiding so-called ‘fast fashion’ by creating and developing a truly environmentally friendly and nature-loving brand with the Shpetrik name emblazoned upon every item.
