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HEREWEAR

Make it social.

In collaboration with the municipality of Antwerp, with social enterprises—local and European—and the resource center-workshop Circuit, HEREWEAR explored how to make the social economy a key pillar of urban regeneration. 30 participants joined us to share inspirations, experiences or strategies, before co-developing future local solutions to better promote this economy in the textile-clothing sector.

The video summary is online and the videos of the speakers are available to members of the HEREWEAR community.

RECYCLING

Lululemon partners with Samsara Eco (Australia) to recycle its leggings with enzymes, these proteins which transform polymers (especially nylon) into monomers. The ecological footprint of this transformation, particularly including energy, is not available. READ

TECHNOLOGY

Renewcell is bankrupt. Its technology for transforming cotton clothing into Circulose™, a raw material to be spun and weaved according to a circular logic, has failed to develop significantly in this textile industry which, for more than 150 years, has been manufacturing in very large quantities at low prices (price competitiveness strategy) with brands accustomed to this logic. One more alert to underline the gap between the good intentions of the sector and the difficulty in producing large series, less and better. READ

ROI

The ROI is popular again! This is the case of Birkenstock, which is based on solid foundations: carefully crafted products, in-store sales and customer service, a family business with an eye on profitability and a sense of time. Since 2013, this 250-year-old brand has rebuilt its power ($1.34B in turnover and $200M in net profit in 2022!). Birkenstock thus has the financial means to buy factories in Europe, particularly in Portugal and Germany, to guarantee the quality and sustainability of its offer and to help resolve our socio-environmental emergencies. READ

PROXIMITY

USave is a new local platform allowing non-food retailers to accelerate the clearance of their unsold goods to local buyers rather than throwing them away, like Too Good To Go. READ

FAST FASHION

The French Parliament adopts several solutions to avoid the withdrawal of SHEIN and TEMU from the United States to Europe: 1/ Strengthen consumer information and awareness 2/ tax polluting production progressively from €5 to €10 (without exceeding 50% of the value of the product) 3/ ban advertising for Fast Fashion. Other proposals such as minimum penalties for producers or importers having violated the legislation or stricter rules on well-being at work were not accepted. Reminder of the figures in France: 7 to 10,000 new models referenced per day, 70,000 models available in real time, 2.6 million visits to the platform per day, 70% of purchase volumes at the average selling price estimated at €7.50, 48 purchases per person per year, and a promotional budget based on micro-influencers, i.e. gigantic databases. READ