US merino wool apparel maker Smartwool to go 100% circular by 2030

The project is designed to give products a “second cut” at life and will help create a more circular supply chain that extends the life of raw materials, presents a new sourcing stream, and reduces environmental impact.

Although awareness around the importance of apparel circularity is growing with consumers, socks are one of the most thrown-away pieces of apparel. This may in part be due to a lack of understanding—a recent Smartwool survey uncovered that while over 80 per cent of respondents recycle their used clothing, they don’t engage the same way when it comes to socks as 46 per cent are unaware of how to recycle them, resulting in 91 per cent throwing away more than 1 pair of socks per year. This contributes to the larger circularity problem with textiles as a whole, which contributes about 11.3 tons of waste to landfills each year.

"Given there is a gap in recycling textile articles like socks, and more than 97 per cent of consumers are interested in recycling them, Smartwool developed a way to move the needle towards a more circular economy, starting with socks," the company said in a statement.

“Through our research, we realised that consumers want to be more sustainable and recycle their socks, but don’t currently have the resources to be a part of the solution,” said Alicia Chin, senior manager sustainability and social impact at Smartwool. “We are deeply invested in providing consumers with simple recycling solutions that make a difference towards a happier, healthier planet. While our goal is to reach total circularity across our product portfolio, there is obviously an urgent need for a recycling solution in the sock category, which is where we’re focusing our initial efforts.”

Smartwool is partnering with Material Return, a platform for custom circularity, on the Second Cut Project sock take back event. Starting on April 21 this year, Smartwool will collect used socks from any brand at specialty retailers across the US and online. These initial donations will be re-purposed into a filling for dog beds, which will be available for purchase on the company's website during the 2021 holiday season.

Smartwool, a division of VF Outdoor, LLC, is a brand of VF Corporation.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)