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Image: Everlane
Everlane made waves for being among the first brands to eradicate virgin plastic from its supply chain.
In 2019, after years of work, the startup managed to switch out new plastic with recycled plastic, largely made from discarded water bottles. It began incorporating them into jackets and fleece sweaters and bodysuits.
It was a big step towards sustainability, since recycled polyester has a lower carbon footprint and diverts plastic from landfills. In the years that followed, many other brands on the market—from H&M to Prada—followed in Everlane’s footsteps, but it didn’t solve the bigger problem of what happens when people decide to get rid of their recycled garment.
But unless a recycled polyester jacket is further recycled at the end of its life, it will end up in a landfill. Since plastic does not biodegrade, but break into microplastics that will end up in our waterways and food chain.
“We challenged ourselves to think, What does leading sustainability look like today?” says Alfred Chang, Everlane’s CEO, who joined a year ago. “We need to think beyond recycled fabric, to trying to make clothes that are, as much as possible, fully recyclable afterwards.”
Today, Everlane launches a puffer jacket called Everpuff that can be recycled back into a garment at the end of its life. It is designed to be durable and easy to mend, but also easily taken apart so all of its component parts—from the polyester exterior to the inner down fill to the hardware—can be recycled. It’s part of Everlane’s broader vision to make the rest of its product line fully circular.
For decades, environmental activists have urged societies to transition away from a linear economy, where natural resources are used to make products that will eventually be discarded at the end of their life. Instead, they argued we should move towards a circular system, where products are kept in the economy for as long as possible (through mending and resale) then recycled back into new products. This process would vastly reduce humans’ reliance on natural resources, and cut down on the greenhouse gas emissions used to extract those materials from the earth.
The fashion industry has talked about circularity for a long time, but until now, brands have tended to focus on extending the life of the garment by repairing them and creating secondhand sites. Recycling old garments into new ones proved a challenge because the technology to do so was still in its infancy. But Chang says that over the last few years, Everlane has been tracking how the recycling industry has been evolving. “We’re trying to understand where opportunities like when it comes to the infrastructure and investments in recycling,” he says.
Fabric-to-fabric recycling is much more sophisticated than it was just a few years ago. Over the last few years, Everlane has focused on sourcing recycled fibers. For instance, it has partnered with Circ, which transforms fabrics made from polyester and cotton blends into recycled polyester and lyocell fabrics. It also partners with Manteco, an Italian mill which recovers wool fibers and turn them back into wool fabric.
With Everpuff, the company take back the jacket at the end of its life and transform it into a new garment. It has partnered with Debrand, a company that can disassemble the garment, separate out the polyester, down, and hardware, then send each of these components to be recycled.
Katina Boutis, Everlane’s senior director of sustainability and sourcing, says that the company’s designers partnered closely with Debrand to create a jacket that would be as easy to recycle. For one thing, they made it from as few materials as possible. The exterior is made entirely of recycled polyester while the interior is made entirely of recycled down; since these are mono-materials, they are far easier to transform back into polyester and down. They also designed the jacket without any complex stitching, so it is easy to take it apart with Debrand’s machinery.
“We’re working with real innovators in this space, getting feedback about what challenges them in their operations, so we can create a product that isn’t just good for the customer but considers the entire lifetime of this product,” she says.
While this puffer can be turned back into a new puffer, Change points out that it is still important for the customer to wear it as long as possible. After all, it still takes a lot of resources to manufacture and recycle a product. “To be truly sustainable, we need to be thinking about how long a garment will be in circulation,” he says. “We want to offer guarantees and repairs to ensure the product can be kept for a long time. We’re also thinking about how it can be resold or passed down to another wearer.”
The Everpuff is the first Everlane product to come with a lifetime warranty that will allow the customer to receive a free repair (or replacement of the jacket if the damage is beyond repair). Customers can also pay for additional repairs. To create this program, Everlane partnered with Tersus Solutions, which has expertise in repairs.
Everlane also partners with Poshmark on a resale program called Re:Everlane, which allows you to more easily resell an Everlane item. The system automatically adds the style name, fabric content and original price, lower reducing the burden on the reseller.
“A lot of circularity comes down to education,” says Boutis. “We want to create a ecosystem that allows our products to have a second or third life, before taking it back when it’s truly time for it to be retired. We’re trying to tell this story in a fun, creative way to keep people engaged.”
The big question now is whether consumers really care about sustainability. At a time when politics and the economy are volatile, eco-friendly consumerism may not be a priority. Chang acknowledges that there are many other things consumers are worried about right now, but he says Everlane is trying to make the case the sustainable clothing offers immediate benefits to the customer, such as durability and the absence of toxic chemicals. “A lot of investments we put into sustainability equates to a better-made product,” he says.
And ultimately, Change believes the pendulum swings back and forth. Eventually a time may come when consumers do care about the state of the planet, and when that happens, Everlane will have a clear edge. “We’re trying to have a sharp position in the marketplace, to show that this brand matters,” he says.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Segran has been a staff writer at Fast Company since 2014. She covers fashion, retail, and sustainability. She has interviewed Virgil Abloh, Mara Hoffman, Telfar, Diane von Furstenberg, and Ulla Johnson, among many other designers.
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