Small But Perfect Toolkit 3: Extended Lifetime and the Digital Layer

Extended Lifetime and the Digital Layer

By We Love You Communication

Acknowledgements

This toolkit was drafted thanks to the financial support of the European Innovation Council and Small and Medium Enterprises Executive Agency (EISMEA) COSME Programme, under the Call for proposals COS-CIRCFASH-2019-3-02.

We would like to acknowledge the contribution we received from:

• The consortium of the project

• Fashion Revolution

• The Fair Trade Movement

• The participants in the project’s Policy Dialogues we held in Berlin and Athens in 2022

• All other stakeholders we have engaged with in the drafting process

Background information and inspiration

• Section 1: Background Information and Inspiration

4

• Section 2: Case Studies

Case studies

• Section 3: Goals and Potential Shifts

Goals and potential shifts

• Section 4: Reflection Exercises

Reflection exercises

Worksheets, tools and templates

• Section 5: Worksheets, Tools and Templates

Further reading and resources

• Section 6: Reading List, Further Resources and References

Section 1: Background information and inspiration

Fashion: a big industry with big problems

The fashion industry is the fourth largest sector in the world. It’s also one of the most polluting industries, responsible for a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, water and air pollution, and the use of toxic chemicals. Additionally, the industry’s dependence on nonrenewable resources contributes to environmental degradation, and the production of textiles and garments also requires a large amount of water, while the resulting wastewater can contaminate water sources and harm local ecosystems.

Textile waste is another major problem; the current overproduction rate is around 30 to 40 percent each season, although actual numbers are hard to calculate due to a lack of data. Fast fashion, in particular, generates a lot of waste due to overproduction and the use of cheap, disposable garments. Each year, significant amounts of textile waste contribute to landfills worldwide.

The fashion industry is also teeming with societal issues. Clothes are often produced in developing countries, where many garment workers are paid below living wages and work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The production of materials with which the garments are made – whether natural, manmade, or animal-derived – has major issues, such as polluting our air, food, and water with microplastics, using large amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, and mistreating animals on a large scale.

The industry as a whole suffers from a lack of sustainability, transparency, and accountability, with many companies producing fast fashion and disposable garments, which are not environmentally friendly and not meant to last.

What is Extended Lifetime?

The concept of Extended Lifetime in fashion refers to the idea of extending the useful life of a garment or beyond its initial purchase. This can be achieved through a variety of methods, such as repairs and alterations, recycling and upcycling, customisation, and lifetime warranties. It is the idea of making garments last longer and giving them a longer lifespan, so they are not just worn a few times and then discarded. This concept aims to shift the focus from fast fashion and disposability to a more mindful and

conscious consumption of clothing, where customers value the longevity and the quality of the garments they own.

By extending the lifetime of clothes, we can reduce the amount of resources used, waste generated, and pollution produced. We reduce the demand for new garments and help improve the lives of garment workers. People can also save money and lower the stress of constantly needing to buy new clothes.

What is the Digital Layer?

The fashion industry is a very traditional industry with a huge blind spot: the lack of a digital infrastructure, which leads to a lack of data in terms of what is being produced and what is being worn. This inexact matching of supply and demand is one of the leading causes of overproduction.

Having a digital layer helps businesses through the entire garment lifecycle and beyond. Data analytics can be used to review past performance and forecast future consumer behaviour and demand in order to make more accurate production decisions. On the production side, the digital layer comprises tools and services to make logistics, materials identification, asset tracking, and quality control easier. Once the garment is available for purchase,

the digital layer can be used in a variety of ways to not only extend the life of the garment but also extend the customer experience.

Furthermore, without this digital layer, the world is moving too fast for fashion. Current events and evolving behaviours and trends in various areas, such as gaming, AI, and politics, influence our daily life a great deal. Clothing companies cannot react quick enough to what’s going on, which is contradictory in an industry where trends are key. Other industries can adapt quickly, but the fashion industry is too slow. The digital layer is a core part of the fashion itself, to be sensitive and react to our changing world much quicker than before in order to stay relevant and prevent wasteful production.

Section 2: Case Studies

Patagonia: Worn Wear 1

Enabling repairing, sharing, and recycling https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/wornwear/

2

Finisterre: Repair Workshop

Repairs, patching, reinforcements https://finisterre.com/collections/repairs-lived-loved

3

Recycling programme and free lifetime repairs service https://www.ilovelowie.com/pages/re-love-lowie https://www.ilovelowie.com/pages/free-repairs-for-life

Lowie: Re-Love Lowie 4 5

Enabling users to buy and sell second-hand fashion https://www.vestiairecollective.com/

Vestiaire Collective: Sojo App

Door-to-door clothing repairs that brands can integrate into their business https://home.sojo.uk/

Section 3: Goals and potential shifts

Extended Lifetime, a business opportunity

The much-needed transformation of the fashion industry towards sustainability and circularity presents some of the biggest business opportunities out there. Old business models, where revenue ends when the garment is sold, are no longer viable. We need new business models offering new ways to make money.

Examples:

• Repair and alteration services

• Take-back schemes, recycling, and upcycling programs

• Customisation services

• Rental services

• Subscription services

Exercise:

Within your current business, what extended lifetime services do you offer? If you don’t offer any, then what are some ways you can integrate extended lifetime services into your business?

Converting customers to users

Extended lifetime also means an extended customer experience, which leads to an increase in customer lifetime value. Most companies are selling piece by piece. The journey ends when the product is sold, but that should actually be the start of the journey. We need to convert customers to users and start a relationship with them. The fashion industry is vastly behind other industries who have been doing this for a long while. When the music streaming market began, it presented a huge business opportunity to find out what users wanted with regard to digitalisation and deliver that to them in innovative ways. The gaming industry is full of strategies to create more engaging and personalised experiences, thereby increasing customer engagement and retention and gaining more users.

Being the driver for change

Examples:

• Online ordering and e-commerce

• Personalisation and customisation

• Virtual try-on and augmented reality

• Live streaming and virtual events

• User apps and interactive experiences

• Email and social media

• Loyalty programmes

Exercise:

How would you go about converting your own customers to users?

Rather than waiting for consumers to demand change, fashion companies should take the initiative. Offering extended lifetime services and building longer relationships with customers enables businesses to help raise awareness and educate consumers about the importance of sustainable garments and extending the life of their clothes, which can lead to increased demand for sustainable products and a reduction in waste. Beyond services, marketing and storytelling should encourage consumers to think more critically about the environmental impact of their clothing choices and the benefits of sustainable garments.

Exercise:

Think about your current and potential customers. What are some ways you can influence them to care about sustainable garments and extending the life of their garments?

Section 4: Reflection Exercises

How might you have the fashion user stay as long as possible in the extended lifetime loop?

How might you make money on digital services and experiences?

How might you marry tech with fashion?

What are some apps that clothing companies can create to build relationships with their customers?

Section 4: Worksheets, tools and templates

How can fashion businesses use the digital layer to reduce overproduction?

What kind of services or data will be required?

What can the fashion industry borrow from other industries to extend the customer experience?

Section 6: Further reading and resources

Fashion Revolution www.fashionrevolution.org

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/ fashion/overview

The United Nations Alliance for Sustainable Fashion unfashionalliance.org

The Kearney CFX 2022 report: are fashion brands ramping up their circularity game? www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/ article/-/insights/the-kearney-cfx-2022report-are-fashion-brands-ramping-uptheir-circularity-game

Think twice: why fashion brands should embrace the secondhand opportunity www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/ article/-/insights/think-twice-why-fashionbrands-should-embrace-the-secondhandopportunity

DHL White Paper: Delivering on Circularity www.dhl.com/content/dam/dhl/global/ core/documents/pdf/DHL_Delivering_on_ Circularity_White_Paper_2022.pdf

The Future of Fashion: From design to merchandising, how tech is reshaping the industry

www.cbinsights.com/research/report/ fashion-tech-future-trends

How technology is making fashion more sustainable www.heuritech.com/articles/technologyfashion-more-sustainable

A framework of circular business models for fashion and textiles: the role of business-model, technical, and social innovation

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/154 87733.2022.2083792

Design of Longevity

www.redressdesignaward.com/academy/ resources/guide/design-for-longevity

How Brands Can Embrace the Sustainable Fashion Opportunity www.bain.com/insights/how-brandscan-embrace-the-sustainable-fashionopportunity