🛒 The Check-Out: Nudie Jeans

+ more in our basket - yerba mate, film screenings and a 'monk and robot' book!

Apr 25, 2024

Happy Thursday! Welcome to The Check-Out - your weekly dose of brand x sustainability inspiration, and your discovery box of what the team is loving this week. It’s great to have you here.

In our opinion, jeans are like buses. You hunt all year for a good pair, only for a whole brand to come along at once. You know what’s also rare? A sustainability report that’s so fascinating you (almost) read all 112 pages of it. Today, dear reader, you’re in for a treat. Not only have we found you a perfect pair made by Nudie Jeans, we’re also turning 112 pages into 4 bullet points to summarise why we love them. Now that’s the kind of combination that makes us weak at the knees.

After we’ve taken a look at Nudie, we’ll share what the Following the Footprints team has loved and consumed this week. Let’s dig in…

> Brand Spotlight

Wear, tear and repair - Nudie Jeans is aiming to be the world’s best.

Nudie Jeans is aiming to be the world’s most sustainable denim brand. That’s no minor feat, yet the brand is no stranger to doing hard things. After all, shifting consumption models to support a more circular business and circular economy is a really hard thing. Their ‘wear, tear and repair’ way of thinking might be less common now, but back in 2001 it certainly wasn’t. Let’s take a closer look…

Here are 4 reasons why we love Nudie Jeans:

Repair every pair: Every pair of Nudie Jeans comes with the promise of free repairs - either via their own Repair Shops, or via Repair Kits sent to the homes of those that can’t reach them. In 2022 they repaired 65,386 pairs of jeans alone - an insane 54% increase on 2021. 1,649 pairs of these were via their ‘Mobile Repair Stations’, which traveled to 38 different locations across Sweden, Germany, Benelux, France, Switzerland and Israel. In order to scale this service, they’re pairing (see what we did there) with ‘masters of circular fashion’ like Advanced Clothing Solutions (ACS) in Glasgow.
Know, don’t just show: They’ve mapped their entire supply chain to track CO2 emissions, in accordance with the GHG protocol, for a fourth year running. Interestingly - 81% of their emissions data is ‘known’ (collected from shops, offices etc), vs 19% which is estimated. They’ve also made the decision to avoid terms like ‘climate neutral’ or ‘climate positive’ - choosing instead to just focus on getting the work done and reducing as much as possible.
Organic, certified, recycled & more: Of all the fibers they used in 2022, 95.6% were fibers defined as sustainable by their very own Nudie Jeans Sustainable Material Tool. Based on two benchmarks (Made-By's Environmental Benchmark for Fibers and the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI)) this tool was developed in-house in 2018 to guide their own designers and product developers. Other commitments include working only with certified organic cotton providers - a commitment they’ve upheld for six years running.
Walking on water: It’s rare to see a brand focus so diligently on their water footprint. Yes, as denim is SO water intensive, it’s no surprise that this is an area Nudie couldn’t simply ignore. From working with denim who, in some cases, are achieving 75% water reduction in the dying process, to making ‘work looks with less water’ via sandpaper drums and laser tech - Nudie are getting crafty on the road to reduction.

One stitch at a time, Nudie is growing. A visit to one of their London repair shops is truly a pleasure. Your bank balance might not thank you, but we’re pretty sure the planet might.

Check Out Nudie Jeans

*Nudie senior leadership team - Sandya, Malte, Maria, Joakim + Martin. Source: 2022 Sustainability Report*

> In Our Basket

🔎 What we loved and consumed this week:

From Rosalin in Manchester: Last month I read “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers for our work book club and at first I thought a self proclaimed “monk and robot book” was a random choice for a book on sustainability. However, I found it to be a really beautiful depiction of what the solutions sustainability professionals are aware of today (think cities built of mycelium) could look like if deployed at scale in the future.
From Leone (usually) in London: I was lucky to go to a Common Ground screening by Mill at San Francisco Climate Week this week. It’s a hitter of a documentary, not just for the sheer number of celebrities on screen!
From Lexi in Ontario, Canada: Yerba mate (maa-tay) is my current obsession to cure that end-of-the-week slump. I specifically obsess over the Guayaki brand, which is unfortunately only available in North America right now. Yerba mate, a tea with sacred South American roots, has gained popularity as a caffeine alternative that possesses many other health and environmental benefits. Yerba Mate crops can promote reforestation when principles of agroecology are utilized - which Guayaki does.

That’s it for today!

Know a brand we should spotlight next? Let Leone know!
Have links that can make the team learn or laugh? Share them with us, we might just share them in The Check-Out next week.
Hungry for more? You’ll see us on Monday! That’s when we suit up and get serious, digging into a topic that is guaranteed to make you look smart at standup.

Much love,

Team FTF