Denim. Everyone has at least one pair of jeans in their wardrobe. Yet hardly anyone knows what a pair of jeans really costs. By that, we don’t mean the price, but the cost to our environment.
According to the UN, around 7,500 litres of water are used to produce a single pair of conventionally made jeans. That’s roughly the same amount you’d use if you had a shower every day for four months. On top of that, there are the pesticides used on cotton fields and petroleum-based elastane. And this at a time when the UN’s latest Emissions Gap Report estimates that, with current climate policies, we are heading for 2.8 degrees of global warming rather than the 1.5 degrees set out in the Paris Agreement.
When there’s so much involved in a single pair of jeans, every pair that ends up in the bin is one too many.
A small pile: What happens to defective jeans
For us, the journey of a pair of jeans begins long before they are sewn: with the fabric. Our denim is woven in Italy and consists of a blend of recycled denim, sourced from old jeans, and Spanish organic cotton. For our stretch styles, we also use a biodegradable elastane. All our denim products are sewn and washed in Portugal.
It is during the washing process that jeans acquire their colour, their softness and their character. Sometimes, however, they come out with a small hole, or a fault in the fabric only becomes apparent at this stage. This is perfectly normal in denim production and cannot be prevented. For us, this means we can no longer sell these jeans. But destroying them was out of the question. In the fashion industry, though, that’s often the way things are done. Anything that can’t be sold is burnt. The question, however, is what the alternative might be and how we can turn these jeans into something new.
Upcycling from jeans: Our collaboration with Bridge & Tunnel
We were looking for someone who could work with exactly this sort of material. We found Bridge & Tunnel. The social design label has had its own workshop in Hamburg since 2016 and turns existing materials into something new: from worn-out jeans, production offcuts and sample garments.
What particularly impressed us was that the workshop employs women who face difficulties in the labour market, for example following a long period of unemployment or due to language barriers. They are on permanent contracts, fully covered by social security and earn more than the minimum wage. So our jeans don’t just get a new lease of life there; they also create jobs.
And because no two fabrics are ever the same at Bridge & Tunnel, every design starts with the material. It was no different for us.
The Denim Tote Bag: A unique bag made from upcycled jeans
One bag is made from two to three pairs of jeans. You may already be familiar with the shape from our canvas tote bag, except that this one is now made from denim. The side seam of the jeans is visible in the middle of the bag. It also features two short handles and two long shoulder straps made from recycled cotton, as well as our SANVT patch made from recycled leather.
Upcycling not only gives a pair of jeans with a flaw a second chance, it also ensures that every bag will be one of a kind. Every bag tells its own story.
Upcycling instead of Black Friday
In November, discounts are advertised everywhere, and Black Friday is all about selling as many new items as possible. We’re not getting involved in that. We’d rather use November as a month dedicated to sustainability, and the denim totes are part of that.
There’s only a small batch, and we’re not selling them. We’re giving them away in a prize draw. Because this project isn’t about adding yet another product to the shop, but about showing what can be made from what’s already there.
In short
With Bridge & Tunnel, we’ve turned jeans we couldn’t sell into one-of-a-kind bags. Designed in Munich, upcycled in Hamburg.
