Pepe:
Are we recording already? Okay. I’m Pepe, and I’m here with my Indian brother, Harendra.

Harendra:
From a different mother.

Pepe:
From a different mother.

(Laughter)

Pepe:
We’ve known each other for many years. We’ve worked together. We’ve grown up together. And, without planning it, we ended up becoming family. But before all of this, I’d like to go back a bit so people can get to know you better.

Harendra:
Well… let’s see where I start. (Laughter) I come from a very poor family. My father worked in the clothing industry. He sewed very well and was well-known. My brothers joined him and started working very early.

Pepe:
And with you, they did something different.

Harendra:
Yes. They wanted me to study, not start working so young, and they put all their effort into that.

Pepe:
I always say your brothers looked after you so that you could choose.

Harendra:
They offered me the chance to choose, yes. I studied, prepared myself, and years later the time came to start my own factory, which wasn’t easy. I had no money. I had experience, trusted people… but little else.

Pepe:
And yet you decided to do it.

Harendra:
Because I wanted to work differently. With quality. With transparency. Thinking about people. Not just producing more.

Pepe:
And that’s where we met, and our projects made sense. Because for me, Thinking MU has never just been a brand. I always say it has its own life, character, personality… Sometimes it even decides on its own.

Harendra:
For me, this partnership was like a child born from the two of us. (Laughter)

Pepe:
And now it’s no longer a child. It has grown, and with it, we have grown too.

Harendra:
Do you remember the beginning? We organized a community of women to make the first Thinking MU garments, and today, what started with 20 people has become a factory of over 200. But what matters most to me isn’t growing, but how we grow.

Pepe:
You always say the same thing: if you win, everyone wins.

Harendra:
Because without them, there is nothing. If I can pay them better, I do. If I can help with their children’s education, I do. If someone gets sick, the company takes care of it. I want them to have a good life.

Pepe:
That’s not something you learn in business school.

Harendra:
You learn it when you know what it’s like to have nothing.

Pepe:
We are often asked how it’s possible to work together while being so far apart.

Harendra:
Distance doesn’t matter when there is respect. When the way of understanding work is the same.

Pepe:
And when you choose who you want to grow with.

Harendra:
Exactly. That’s why I don’t want to work with too many brands. I prefer to take care of this relationship. Not overburden people. Not lose what we’ve built.

Pepe:
In the end, what we’re protecting isn’t just a way of producing. It’s a way of being in the world. Of working as a family, even if we aren’t by blood.

Harendra:
Family isn’t always the one you’re given.

Pepe:
But also the one you choose.