Clothing has a bad rep for polluting the earth, therefore, many different clothing brands are continuously finding new ways to become more sustainable when manufacturing their products. Using recycled materials to make their garments is one way to do so, as well as upcycling old garments. Upcycling is when you take discarded items or materials and make them better quality. Many people think that luxury brands don’t care about this kind of thing, but that is wrong. Here are a few brands that are trying to make their products more sustainable, so consumers can feel good about buying them while continuing to look fabulous.
Patagonia
It is no secret that Patagonia has always encouraged their customers to buy less, not more, but they also encourage their customers to get their garments repaired, opposed to throwing them away. They also encourage their customers to bring in old Patagonia garments for recycling. Because that isn’t enough, Patagonia always uses recycled materials in many of their products such as; recycled wool, down, and polyester.
North Face
North Face has a program called Clothes the Loop where they encourage people to bring in old, unwanted clothing and shoes into any North Face retail store to be recycled. These items can be any brand and in any condition. Because wanting to save to environment isn’t incentive enough, when you bring in your used items, you earn a $10 reward towards your next purchase of $100 or more at North Face. All items dropped off are then donated to their partner, SOLES4SOULS, which is a non-profit that creates jobs that are sustainable and provides relief by giving out shoes and clothing.
Columbia
Columbia has launched a similar program called Rethreads in all of their U.S locations. This program wants consumers to bring their used clothing and shoes to their retail stores to be recycled. The items must be clean and dry, but once dropped off, they are sent to a textiles processing facility to be sorted, reprocessed, and either reused or recycled. Items that can still be worn will be given to new homes and items that are unwearable will be recycled into things like; cleaning clothes or fibers for new products.
All three of these brands listed share a common goal; to help reduce the amount of clothing that end up in landfills.