It's Official! We are Nudie Jeans Repair Partner

We are very excited to become an Official Nudie Jeans Repair partner from today! This means, that we are now officially part of their repair and reuse programme. With every repair, we contribute to save water and to reduce textile waste. It is also a statement that we value every garment, and actively want to encourage a more sustainable consumption culture. 

How does the Nudie Jeans repair system work?

The system is pretty simple: 

1. Free repairs on all Nudie Jeans. Just bring them to our store in Copenhagen. We fix them for free no matter where they are bought, if it’s the first, second, third (…) repair and we do all kinds of repairs, including the crotch, knees, and zippers. 
2. Get a 20% discount on a new pair for every pair handed in for reuse. Jeans that are still in good shape are re-sold as unique second-hand pieces in our store in Copenhagen. 
3. Fabric from worn out jeans that cannot be repaired anymore is used for repair patches. Whatever we cannot use in our store in Copenhagen, is sent to Nudie Jeans for their fabric recycling programme and projects such as the production of caps, hats and backpacks. 

Our colleague Victor is our guy on the sewing machine:

“I love to contribute to repair instead of throwing out and buying new. And that’s why I love Nudie Jeans’ repair and recycling programme” he says.

Here at Res-Res, he does most repairs including the famous “Copenhagen Crotch”. For special repairs such as hemming and zippers we have our in-house expert Stefanie.

 

© Soundvenue 2020 (Picture)

Creating a closed-loop system

Nudie Jeans managed to repair 45.900 pairs in total in 2020. This prolongs the lifespan of garments significantly and is even more sustainable than recycling materials after usage. Hereby, a circular approach to fashion production is followed. Circular models keep the entire product cycle in mind, and include all stages from design, raw materials, manufacturing to post-consumer usage. Offering free repairs on all Nudie Jeans creates the opportunity for consumers to participate in circular behaviours and the establishment of a circular fashion industry. Read more about it in Nudie Jeans' sustainability report 2020.

Repairing is caring: positive impacts on our planet

Calculating emissions savings is tricky, and in this case, it gets even more complicated since we are looking at so-called avoided emissions. This means that we are looking at how many emissions have been avoided by prolonging the lifespan of a pair of jeans, instead of buying and producing a new pair. Students from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg compared the impact of jeans that are never repaired and reused to jeans that are part of the Nudie Jeans repair and reuse programme. Their research shows, that up to 66% of CO2 emissions can be avoided if jeans get reused five times. That’s for sure worth getting them patched over and over again!

 

 © Nudie Jeans Sustainability Report 2020 (Graph)

By repairing 45.900 pairs in 2020, the Nudie Jeans repair system prevented the waste of 36 718 kg of denim, as you can see in the Nudie Jeans Sustainability Report 2020. As of today, very few textiles get recycled after being thrown out. A report by the European Parliament shows, that some used clothes are being exported outside the EU, but approximately 87 % of them are incinerated or landfilled.

Moreover, textile production is incredibly water intensive. Water is used in growing cotton, and in the manufacturing process, in particular the dying of the jeans. The exact amount of water used per pair depends on various factors. For example, organic cotton has the potential of reducing the blue water consumption with 91 %, compared to conventional cotton since the usage of rainwater is more wide-spread and farmers are more likely to adapt their farming methods to the local conditions. Innovative dying methods and washes such as ozone washes and laser technology can reduce the water usage in manufacturing significantly as well. In a study on Bangladesh, it has been calculated that the production of jeans takes up to 9500 liters of water – for every pair! Nudie Jeans estimated that they saved 325 321 tons of water by repairing instead of producing new jeans in 2020. This could fill as much as 130 Olympic swimming pools!

 

Bring your Nudie Jeans and spread the word!

We have been repairing jeans for quite some time. In the past 12 months, we repaired 523 pairs at Res-Res! But we hope that we will increase the number even further by being an Official Nudie Jeans Repair Partner. So please bring all Nudie Jeans that need fixing or that you no longer want or need – and tell all your friends and family to do so as well!

Looking forward to seeing you and your jeans! 

- written by Lea Kress