Fashion for Good joins Circle Economy on new green initiative

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
May 3, 2019

Circle Economy announced on Thursday Fashion for Good as a strategic partner to its Switching Gear project - an initiative, which aims ​to accelerate re-commerce and rental business models in the apparel industry. 

 
Through this partnership, Circle Economy and Fashion for Good will work together to establish a global network of over 50 frontrunning solution providers and innovators, brands, and rental and re-commerce experts.
 
Dubbed the 'Enabling Network', selected members will find tangible solutions to move the apparel industry towards circular business models that can create a positive impact for people and the environment. 

“We are very excited to build the Switching Gear network together with Fashion for Good. We strongly believe that connecting a powerful and active community of brands, solutions providers and experts is key to advancing the practical implementation of circular business models in the market”, said Gwen Cunningham, Program Lead of Circle Economy, in a news statement. 
 
The first founding members of the Enabling Network were also announced and include Eileen Fisher, Gibbon, MUD jeans, Reflaunt, RePack, Stuffstr, Style Lend, The Next Closet, and The Renewal Workshop.
 
The network, supported by C&A Foundation, is part of the Bridging the Gap initiative, a group of six organisations working to stimulate sector-wide collaboration, facilitate innovative technologies and the design of best practices to enable the implementation of circular business models in the fashion industry’s supply chain.
 
“Working together as part of the Bridging the Gap initiative, Circle Economy and Fashion for Good can assess the needs of brands and connect them with innovators and experts working to solve the issues preventing the implementation of circular business models. This network will be a powerful platform to create and share knowledge about how to implement and give scale to the clothing rent and re-commerce system, so we can make fashion a force for good”, added Douwe Jan Joustra, Head of Circular Transformation at C&A Foundation. 
 
The project will work with six brands on a circular innovation process that will help them to design and launch these new types of business model pilots by 2021.