First off, it is important to mention that 100% sustainable hoodies and sweaters simply don’t exist. So if you see any brand claiming to sell 100% sustainable hoodies and sweaters, or anything else for that matter, know that they are straight up greenwashing.
Why? Because when you produce anything, there is an environmental footprint attached to it. Naturally, the same goes for sustainable hoodies and sweaters. It’s as simple as that, and no carbon offset program will change that fact. In order to prevent leading you on with false promises, we like to use a more relative phasing when it comes to describing products as sustainable. We prefer to use ‘more sustainable hoodies & sweaters’ whenever possible, because while our products are more sustainable when compared to the industry average, they will never be 100% sustainable. In order to be 100% sustainable we would have to not produce anything at all. So, with that in mind, let us tell you how exactly our sustainable hoodies and sweaters are more sustainable than your average highstreet garms. To us, more sustainable hoodies & sweaters are made from a blend of 50% recycled and 50% virgin organic cotton. They are manufactured in Europe and are designed to be recycled once they reach the end of their life cycle. This design approach, combined with our SWAP program, enables us to keep our hoodies & sweaters out of the landfill by taking them back, shredding them into fibers, and turning them into new ones. This circular model is what grants us our name (Full Circle), and is ultimately what enables us to proudly stand behind the fact that we make more sustainable hoodies and sweaters. If you would like to learn more about our production process, make sure to check out our sustainability section.
As mentioned in the previous section, one of the key reasons we stand behind our claim of being able to produce more sustainable hoodies & sweaters is the fact that they are designed with circularity in mind.
Circular hoodies & sweaters are garments that are made in such a way that they can be shredded, recycled, and their raw materials - in our case cotton - be brought back into the supply chain to be used over and over again. Naturally, the materials we use to make our hoodies and sweaters play a big role in making this work, which is why they are composed of a mono material (cotton) and consist of a 50/50 blend of recycled and virgin organic cotton fibers. This applies not only to the fabric, but also to the stitching yarn, rib, and labels that are used to construct our hoodies and sweaters. This way, when our garments are not wearable anymore, they can be thrown into the recycling machine in their entirety, without leaving small components behind which cannot be recycled. The output of this recycling process are cotton base fibers, which are then blended with virgin organic cotton fibers and spun into yarn. This yarn is then woven into fabric and used to make new circular, and this more sustainable hoodies and sweatshirts; again and again and again. The reason we currently do not make circular hoodies and sweaters from 100% recycled cotton is because the cotton fibers are damaged during the mechanical recycling process, meaning that a fully recycled garment would not be as durable. And since our objective is to make the most sustainable hoodies and sweaters possible, we opt for a 50/50 blend of recycled and virgin organic cotton fibers in order to ensure that the fabric, and in turn our circular hoodies and sweaters, will last for as long as possible. After all, the most sustainable hoodies and sweaters are the ones you wear for as long as possible (aka not buying new ones all the time), so we try our best in helping you do so by making sure they are made to last.
We believe in radical transparency across all aspects of our business; our pricing structure, production partners, and the environmental impact that we have as a brand. The latter is measured and outlined in a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), conducted by an independent third party organisation called True Cost Label.
Why? Because when we claim that we make more sustainable hoodies and sweaters, we want to be able to back it up with credible data. Each Life Cycle Analysis starts by breaking down the product at fiber level, looking at every single kilogram of material and type of fiber within. Based on this, the environmental and social impacts of the production of raw materials and the manufacturing of those materials into fabric is collected and used to calculate the total impact figures. From the spinning of yarns from fiber, to the weaving of yarns into fabric, the dyeing, the cutting, sewing, packaging and shipping and anything else imaginable within the typical supply chain of fashion products. Another important aspect of the LCA is transport. For every product that True Cost Label investigates, the transportation route from the very first fiber to the brand’s store is tracked down and included in the impact calculation. This way, the total amount of kilometers our sustainable hoodies and sweaters have traveled is displayed in its True Costs (see what we did there?). All in all, having this LCA conducted by a third party organisation gives us the confidence (as well as concrete data) to claim that we do in fact sell more sustainable hoodies and sweaters when compared to the industry average. If you would like to see by how much, you can download our full LCA here.
With sustainability becoming increasingly important, many brands nowadays are producing organic cotton hoodies and sweaters. While it’s a good step in the right direction, we believe that the use of organic cotton should be the bare minimum when it comes to the production of sustainable hoodies and sweaters.
Or for any type of clothing production for that matter. “Okay, but what would be a better alternative to organic cotton then?”, you might ask. Well, the most attainable and scalable solution for us at this point in time is to reduce the amount of virgin organic cotton by 50% and replace it with 50% recycled cotton instead. This is because re-using an existing resource, in this case recycled cotton, does not require virgin natural resources to be extracted or grown. So by simply using 50% recycled cotton, we reduce our hoodies’ and sweaters’ impact by 50% when compared to 100% organic cotton hoodies and sweaters. But we don’t plan on stopping there, as producing more sustainable hoodies and sweaters is a never ending process. We are currently working on changing the virgin cotton fiber used in our 50/50 cotton blend from organic cotton to regenerative cotton, as this holistic way of cotton production is even more sustainable when compared to organic cotton production practices.
So yes, our sustainable hoodies and sweaters are at least 50% more sustainable than their 100% organic cotton counterparts...for now.
