Some items last 20 years and others just a month. Regardless, all items deserve to end its life in a worthy way.
At every step of the process, from the choice of materials to the finished product, whether it’s cotton or fleece, several people have worked hard to create our items. The time and dedication that have been put into our clothes, pool slides and bags, can’t go to waste, just because a button has fallen of, or a seam has gone up – we value our products too much for that. So, what do we do to ensure our products don’t go to waste? We repair, upcycle, resell and donate.
REPAIR
We repair everything that we possibly can, and will always try to find a solution, so that our clothes- and shoes can live on for as long as possible. Now it is unfortunately not possible for us to repair our shoes, however we can repair most of our clothing. All clothing repairs are done with original spare parts.
UPCYCLING
We can’t repair everything, but we can try to find alternative solutions, so that nothing goes to waste. The products that are not in good enough condition to be donated or cannot be repaired; we upcycle. To make upcycling a possibility, we have teamed up with FLOT. FLOT is a small business that upcycles different kinds of materials - mostly textiles, and thereby give products that are no longer useful in its original form, a new life. Read more about our upcycling partner FLOT here.
We can unfortunately not repair our shoes, when they are broken, they are broken. However, the next best thing we can do is to upcycle them. Together with SMALLrevolution we have managed to successfully upcycle all shoe claims and make them into podiums. So instead of ending their life in a landfill they are now granulated and made into one-of-a-kind podiums, that can be found at our retailers. Read more about our upcycling partner SMALLrevolution here.
DONATIONS
The claims we cannot repair but are still functional and in good enough condition to still be used, we donate to our partner Welcome House/BIXEN. Besides donating claims, we also donate production mistakes to Welcome House/BIXEN, if it is safe to use, this has only happened once before with a small number of products. Furthermore, photo samples that are not in good enough condition to resell are also donated to Welcome House/Bixen.
Even though are donations are limited, everything counts at Welcome House/BIXEN. Read more about our partner Welcome House/BIXEN here.
RESELL
Two times a year, we receive samples for the upcoming season. We only order what we need, but at the end of a season, we must change and prepare our showroom for the next season. This also means, that we must clear it for our “old” samples. Most samples are kept for a year to use for campaign photos or to lend out to magazines. When we no longer have need of the samples, we either resell them through Tise and their Second Chance concept or donate them to Welcome House/BIXEN. Read more about our partnership with Tise here.
Our products are made to be used again and again – and sometimes, this requires that they are transformed into something new. Upcycling and reparations are, therefore, each and in its own way, essential to us, in our work against the waste of textiles. Just as reselling and donating is essential for us to be able to prolong the life of our products.