Lindex & Asket join Circle Economy Switching Gear project

Members of the Switching Gear enabling network include: Thredup, RePack, Eileen Fisher, Style Lend, Lizee and The Renewal Workshop.

“Circular business models such as recommerce and rental offer commercial opportunities for brands to innovate their business model while optimising the useful life of clothes to their full potential and reducing the overall impact of the industry. With Switching Gear, we aim to accelerate these business models in the apparel industry by providing brands with the expertise they need and connecting them with the right partners to successfully launch a pilot by 2021,” said Gwen Cunningham, circle textiles programme lead.

The Swedish menswear brand Asket is on a mission to rewrite the rules of the whole fashion system and focus on putting care back into apparel – addressing how clothes are made, marketed and consumed. Having stepped out of seasonal collections that only fuel fast-consumption habits, the start-up instead introduced a single permanent collection of zero-compromise garments. Every piece is in the collection is marked with its traceability journey, breaking down the garment into its raw components and tracing it back to their origin. They also offer stain, repair and care guides, aimed at getting people to better care for their garments.

“We want to continue to lead by example and see that a recommerce or rental business model would allow us to take our mission to change the way we consume clothes and reduce waste even further. Joining Switching Gear will fast track our thinking, and we are excited for the collaboration opportunities that come with the Switching Gear Enabling Network,” said August Bard-Bringeus, co-founder at Asket.

Back in April, Swedish fashion retailer Lindex launched a sustainability promise that positioned climate action, a circular business approach, and water responsibility at the core of the company’s vision. The sustainability promise also set the fashion company’s climate goals around emissions, materials, and water efficiency, such as ensuring 100 per cent of Lindex materials are either recycled or sustainably sourced by 2025.

“We want to prolong the lifetime of our products and use resources in the smartest way possible throughout our operations. A circular business approach will help us with our goals to reduce material streams and sending zero waste to landfill, and the guidance of the Switching Gear project team will be of great value in our work to fulfill our promise to future generations,” said Anna-Karin Dahlberg, corporate sustainability manager at Lindex.

The Switching Gear project, supported by C&A Foundation, is part of the Bridging the Gap initiative, a group of six organisations working to stimulate sector-wide collaboration, facilitate innovative technologies and the design of best practices to enable the implementation of circular business models in the fashion industry’s supply chain. Other strategic partners of the Bridging the Gap group include the World Resources Institute, WRAP, London Waste and Recycling Board, QSA Partners and Forum for the Future.

As an impact organisation, Circular Economy works to identify opportunities to turn circular economy principles into practical reality. More than 50 businesses are now part of its membership community (from large multinationals to active SMEs and innovative start-ups) with whom it co-creates practical and scalable solutions, making the circular economy happen. In addition, Circular Economy works with cities, governments, CSOs, NGO’s, advisory boards and intergovernmental bodies.

Fashion for Good is the global initiative that is here to make all fashion good. It’s a global platform for innovation, made possible through collaboration and community. With an open invitation to the entire apparel industry, Fashion for Good convenes brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, non-profit organisations, innovators and funders united in their shared ambition.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (PC)