By: MARK COHEN • Sustainability • 22.06.2022

What if we could make more clothing from unused fabrics and scraps? We asked ourselves this question back in November 2021 at the end of a busy production period and on the heels of another one. Despite the best efforts of our pattern makers, it happens sometimes that we have excess fabrics or worse – entire spools that are completely new but simply haven’t been used yet.

Picking up on our sustainability guidelines – we care, we act, we share – we came up with the idea for a capsule dedicated specifically to kids – the WeAct kids’ collection – made entirely from "waste” materials. We’re extremely proud to launch it today.

The products were crafted by one of ODLO’s longest standing product managers, Ulrike Froitzheim, who is constantly searching for new uses for leftover materials.

“This is a colourful, comfortable kids’ clothing collection that breathes new life into leftover fabrics,” she explains about the inspiration behind the capsule. “As we work towards 100 per cent sustainable fabric use by 2030, I see this as another important milestone on this journey, giving life to brand new, beautiful, technical fabrics that would otherwise have ended up in landfill.”

"We’re very proud of it.”

Cool kids. Cooler clothes.

This summer we will release six new styles for kids made from factory scraps and introduce more each year for the next three years. In that time, we expect to divert 12.3 tones of fabric from being thrown out or incinerated.

That has everyone at ODLO excited about the release of this collection. It looks cool, the clothing is technical – staying close to our DNA – while it also shows new ways of working with “waste.” (In 2021, more than 50 per cent of the materials ODLO used were made from recycled or natural sources. This builds on that momentum.)

Another reason the team likes this collection is their focus on becoming a more circular organisation. When we make something, we want it to last. We put a lot of effort into cutting the single pattern pieces needed for the style. And while our pattern team tries to carefully lay plans for each style, almost unavoidably there are fabric leftovers after the cutting process (or worse, fabrics that simply don’t get used at all). These fabrics have lots of life left in them still, which you’ll see in this collection.

We have lots left to do on our journey to be more sustainable but are constantly taking steps ahead. Anyway, we hope your kids like the hats, t-shirts and hoodies as much as we enjoyed making them. More to come.