Terms to guide your reading

• Circular fashion refers to clothing, footwear and accessories that are designed, sourced, manufactured and sold with the intention of being used and circulated sustainably, for as long as possible, in their most valuable form, until either being returned safely to the biosphere or fashioned into another circular item. 

• IoT (Internet of Things) are physical objects with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks. 

• Phygital (physical + digital) refers to a physical item paired with a digital twin (the NFT).

Though denim has  dominated  as a global wardrobe staple for nearly a century, its manufacturing practices  have  historically been some of the least ecologically friendly. Not only have traditional production operations polluted the earth, water and air, but the CO2 emitted from the construction of a single pair of jeans equals that of driving more than 1,000 kilometers in a car. Luckily today, a range of innovators are meeting challenges at every step in the product’s life cycle. 

Beginning with sourcing, companies are using (and re-using) non-toxic dyes, far fewer natural resources and processing yarn so that a larger percentage of recycled materials are incorporated into the fabric New technologies like IoT (Internet of Things), blockchain, NFTs, and 3D digital twins are also providing innovative solutions. Elsewhere, smartphone powered body scans enable make-to-order products and eliminate excess backstock. Embedded QR codes, which are connected to the blockchain, trace the evolution of each garment, ensuring circularity at scale. Most importantly, a commitment to collaboration and the sharing of new innovations maintains continual progress.

CFS recently hosted a roundtable on Denim Digitization and Circularity, moderated by Adriana Galijasevic, Founder & CEO of Cocircular Lab, with industry leaders discussing the many ways  they’re pushing for an ever-more sustainable future for denim production and digitization. The panel talk included Caterina Tonda, RTW Sustainable Development Manager at Kering Material Innovation Lab; Walden Lam, Co-Founder at Unspun; Ebru Ozcucuk Guler, Head of Sustainability at ISKO; and Stefano Rosso, Founder at D-Cave and Board Member of the OTB Group. 

The outcome of the conversation will be a pilot project to support CFS’ mission to build a digitized and connected circular fashion system. Through collective action, CFS will leverage SPIN technologies in collaboration with ecosystem partners to create next gen digitized and connected denim jeans that are circular by design.

Each pair of jeans will be transformed into a phygital (physical + digital) NFT, thanks to the industry first NFT label printer developed by SPIN. This technology boosts supply chain transparency  and tracks all stages of customer ownership  to enable circular business models at scale, from resell to swapping. Every owner that buys a physical pair of jeans will also receive a digital twin to engage in physical and digital experiences in the SPIN metaverse.

Key insights from the roundtable:

Looking at structural solutions to sustainability, beginning at the source.

“When setting your targets, you have to turn your face to the suppliers first. If you fix your suppliers willingly, not only to fulfill the forms or do the sustainable audits, but how they can participate in this journey, then you are more powerful. Then you can turn your face to the brands and the shoppers. It’s not only about great product sourcing but also where you do it, in which conditions; not only the environment but also the social impact. How we can not only use less water or less raw material, but how we can make proper use of the process. My score incorporates not only the brand, but the shopper at home.” 

– Ebru Ozcucuk Guler, Head of Sustainability at ISKO

“Sustainability strategy is embedded in our goal, in our operation. It reflects not only the ethical aspect, but also the drive for innovation and value creation along the supply chain. Our main aim is to actually create a framework with a pilot within each [Kering] house to implement those solutions. The research stream on denim is replying to one of the main questions: ‘How do we design and develop sustainable denim products considering all parameters of impact?’ And so, to be able to reply to this, we leveled the conversation in three different areas: material, processing and impact measurement tool.”

– Caterina Tonda, RTW Sustainable Development Manager at Kering Material Innovation Lab

Technological advances continue to open up possibilities for the future.

“We have different research streams that are aiming to gain knowledge, investigate and scout sustainable and innovative solutions and this is a requirement that has been commonly agreed within the houses and the group and the sustainability department. The research stream on denim is replying to one of the main questions: ‘How do we design and develop sustainable denim products considering all parameters of impact?’ And so, to be able to reply to this, we leveled the conversation in three different areas: material, like testing innovative fabrics; processing, including new technologies for garment finishing and yarn dyeing; and impact measurement tool, which looks at science-based targets to deliver those technologies, enabling the decisions to be measured in the same methodology approached.”

– Caterina Tonda, RTW Sustainable Development Manager at Kering Material Innovation Lab

“When we started, it was actually from the machine side, taking inspiration from the 3D printing world. We were thinking, ‘Why can’t that happen in the fashion world?’ We began by creating a 3D-weaving mechanism. From here we started asking, ‘What products would people want?’ We went through all that sort of design thinking, ethnographic research process. People just kept telling us that it is really hard to find jeans. So we went into the denim business. And began implementing the 3D body scanner — in person and mobile. So now we’re beginning to speak to potential brand partners about setting up micro localized factories closer to end consumers, especially in this day and age when the supply chain crisis is impacting how we produce in conventional ways. A small percentage of how we create could be done on demand and localized. And our selfish wish, of course, is if they can be customized, that’d be better.”

– Walden Lam, Co-Founder at Unspun

Sharing and collaborating to ensure progress.

“We try to give a framework for suppliers to operate from within because it is complex to have a science-based target when you work with as complex of a supply chain as that of denim, which has several steps and it is very, sometimes, disconnected. So not all the sub-suppliers are really working together on a common goal, so we try to also have them all sitting at the same table and resonating in those terms.”

– Caterina Tonda, RTW Sustainable Development Manager at Kering Material Innovation Lab

 “D-cave aims to become the multi-brand space inside the metaverse where all the most interesting lifestyle projects of collaboration and partnership will find their home. There is a strong sense of community: community participation, community engagement. And this is what we are trying to portray as well: not only through the collaboration and partnership that we do but also in the way that we work together. And in a way it is about how we select our brand partnerships. We have honest conversations with brands and organizations in general that really want to make a statement and they don’t want to have a project with an NFT just because it will end up in a newspaper. We try to work with people that really try to push the limit.”

– Stefano Rosso, Founder at D-Cave and Board Member of the OTB Group

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