Joshua Katcher is a Next Gen fashion materials expert, fashion designer and educator, author, and entrepreneur. His book Fashion Animals (2019) was written while teaching at Parsons School of Design. He coined the term circumfauna, published in the Dictionary of Ecological Economics (2023). He has lectured and lobbied internationally. Katcher started the first men’s fashion website focused on material innovation, The Discerning Brute (2008-2019) and then launched the first vegan, ethically-made menswear brand with a focus on Next Gen footwear, Brave GentleMan in 2010, which has been featured in Vogue, Forbes, GQ, and The Financial Times. In 2017, Katcher co-founded RIND by Dina & Joshua, an award-winning, French-style vegan cheese company with the first authentic vegan cheese cave in America.
More about me
I have a fine arts degree and in another life, I would have been a sculptor and painter. I love puns, sarcasm, and I’m designing a strategy board game about rewilding! I live with my husband and our two kitties in Brooklyn, NY.
Why forests are important to me
Forests are life itself. They are both vital homes and places where something ancient and vast can be felt. They’re teeming with histories and secrets, offering wonder and a sense of the more-than-human. They are irreplaceable, invaluable, and very much under threat.
Why Canopy
What I love about Canopy is the focus on systems-level change through scaling Next Gen innovations. This approach offers achievable solutions for protecting Ancient and Endangered Forests, biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis.
Ask me about
The history of animals used in fashion. My favorite vintage spots in New York City. The secret to making the best vegan matzoh balls.
What ruffles my feathers
Disinformation. Missed opportunities. Animal cruelty.
The Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox is a majestic megabat and is one of the largest bat species in the world. Despite their formidable appearance, the golden-crowned flying fox is a gentle frugivore, thriving on a diet of figs and leaves — a vegan! Fig salad, anyone? Starting in the 'vampire craze' of the early 16th century, fruit-loving megabats like these, with their large wingspan and nocturnal mystique, were spuriously used to depict bloodthirsty monsters. These bats are social creatures, living in harmonious mixed-species colonies with other megabats. Unlike other bats, they rely on their keen eyesight instead of echolocation. Sadly, they are endangered due to deforestation and hunting, underscoring Canopy's urgent work to save forests.
