Closing Loops

Everything has an end, but a hot dog has two. When you really love your jeans, you do everything within your power to make them last longer. You repair them and wear them some more, and then maybe you repair them again. However, at some point, it’s time to let them go. If you are the sentimental kind, you may have thought about framing them to hang on the wall. That would be cool, and we would definitely be honored. But, we would like you to consider recycling. When you turn your jeans in at your local Nudie Jeans Repair Shop, they either become part of our Re-use program, or they are recycled and become new material, which becomes new jeans.

It’s Recycling – Not Goodbye Forever

When you recycle your jeans, you reduce waste, save energy, and reduce unnecessary consumption of virgin raw materials. See, even though your favorite set of denim may have been more holes than jeans, the cotton fibers that are still there can last a lot longer. Recycling is not goodbye because, for us, it’s just a last step of closing the loop.

#circularfashion

We’ve been recycling, reusing, and repairing denim since long before circularity even had a hashtag. But we’re glad that the world is catching up with us.

We are constantly looking for new ways to extend the life of our cotton fiber. By working with our suppliers, we are finding new, responsible ways to make better use of leftover material and spillage from production. And in our Repair Shops, we receive a lot of post-consumer denim. The denim we receive is either downcycled and used for patching material or upcycled: washed, repaired, and sold as part of our Re-use Program. And some we recycle.

Recycling Put Into Practice

In the winter of 2019, we launched our Rebirth capsule. It was a conceptual capsule consisting of a dry denim jacket, a pair of drys, all made with 20% post-consumer recycled cotton. Around 5000 pairs of post-consumer Nudie Jeans denim became 3657 pairs of jeans and 199 denim jackets. We also made a t-shirt, or 837 of them, with post-consumer cotton, sourced by our Portuguese t-shirt manufacturer.

Recycling Moving Forward

The Rebirth capsule was definitely a collaboration with our customers, and we would, of course, love to do more capsules and even full collections with your pre-loved and recycled denim. So, for those of you who have the chance to swing by a Repair Shop: please do! And for those of you who can’t: be creative and find new ways to put those fibers to use, be it for stuffing pillows, making cat toys, or patching material. As long as you are either reusing or recycling, you are doing a great job, and we love you just the same.

Free Repairs Forever

We started offering free repairs on all Nudie Jeans denim in 2012. Today we have 33 Repair Shops, Shop-in-Shops, and several repair partners worldwide – offering free repairs. A wise man once said, ”There is no geographical solution to an emotional problem.” So, if you ever find yourself in despair and in need of repair, and you happen to live too far from a Repair Shop or partner, we will gladly send you a free repair kit.