Upgrading clothing recycling is a major infrastructural need in fashion, and several brands are taking the front seat to accelerating it.
With a mission to minimize all clothing waste, circular brand For Days has created a return system to process, recycle, recycle and resell large quantities of returned clothing and is opening up the service to other brands and retailers – starting from the beginning. partner, Bombas.
B Corp, best known for its humanitarian causes and cozy socks, is partnering with For Days to curb landfill waste. To date, Bombas has donated 50 million socks to people experiencing homelessness, while For Days has saved nearly 1 million pounds of clothing from landfill.
For Days’ Tale Back Bag doubles as a cleaning kit. Available for $10, Bombas shoppers fill the brand’s Take Back bag with not only out-of-date Bombas clothing and accessories, but any other clothing from any other brand (in any condition) to be recycled responsibly. In exchange for their recycling efforts, customers receive $10 in Bombas store credit.
Brands like Thousand Fell – under its SuperCircle initiative – are also powering scaled returns for brands like Reformation, Mate the Label and TenTree. As with everything, scale is key, and the process involves painstaking sorting to ensure that the materials – whether cotton, polyester, nylon or rubber (shoes are accepted in this program) – will be put to their best use.
For Days said there are no textile restrictions on what it can accept and process right now. As for what’s next, the company said it has 10 brands in the pipeline for which it will announce Take Back programs over the next year. “Our community is truly our pulse,” said For Days co-founder Kristy Caylor.
