This article was originally published in The Interline’s second Sustainability Report. To read other opinion pieces, exclusive editorials, and detailed profiles and interviews with key vendors, download the full Sustainability Report 2024 completely free of charge and ungated.
The clothing industry clearly has a problem, ranked the fourth highest for its negative impact on the environment and climate change and the third highest for water and land use [EEA (2022) Textiles and the environment: the role of design in Europe’s circular economy]. As consumers, we are buying more clothing than ever before, with clothing and footwear consumption expected to increase by 63% by 2030 [European Environment Agency (EEA) (2019) Textiles and the environment in a circular economy]. Yet the average number of times we wear our garments has decreased dramatically, resulting in a truckload of textiles being sent to landfill or incinerated every second [EMF A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future].
These stats are not new, the fashion and clothing industry has for a long time been aware of its impact but has preferred to kick the thorny issue of taking responsibility for its emissions and environmental damage into the future by setting action plans and reduction targets into the ever-distant future. 2030 net zero targets have become 2050 targets as brands realise the challenges they face in making systematic changes in how the industry works in what essentially equates to 11 buying seasons.
We have seen some progress by global brands who are investing in circular business models such as rental, resale and repair services, but many of these seem tokenistic, used primarily for marketing purposes while lacking significant investment and are under pressure to deliver profitable numbers rapidly. With the legacy of poor sales during Covid and ever-increasing competition, sustainability and transitioning to new ways of working such as circular business models are being sidelined in a bid to drive sales through the traditional linear model of take-make-waste.
While smaller brands, which tend to have sustainability as an integral part of their DNA from the start, are pioneering circular business models such as The Little Loop for rental and resale childrenswear and The Seam for high-quality repairs, they often face investment challenges and can struggle to get to the tipping point of scale needed to make these circular business models commercially viable long term.
After 20 years working in innovation in fashion, holding multiple roles from being on the ground in the supply chain to being part of the decision-making team in the board room, I understand the constraints brands are working under. Circularity is great as a theory, especially in a perfect world, but putting that theory into practice with today’s unpredictable, ever-competitive retail landscape is a different matter. However, with a new raft of legislation being driven in the EU outlined in the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, brands who want to future-proof themselves need to start transitioning to new business models now, and implementing strategically considered systems change. Sadly, the speed of change seems woefully slow, at times it even feels as if the industry is going backwards in making change. When time is of the essence and winning the battle against climate change is fundamental, can the sports sector help lead the way towards transitioning towards a circular fashion industry?
After decades in the fashion industry, I now specialise in sports apparel, specifically professional and replica football shirts. Why – because sports have a unique power to influence, motivate and drive mass change in the behaviour of billions of fans, aka consumers. Fashion items and football shirts have a lot in common, both are highly desired items, which can hold significant emotional value, they are mass-produced using globalised supply chains, and both become redundant within a season. Football clubs traditionally release at least 3 new replica shirt designs per season, home, away and third, not to mention special edition kits (Napoli released 13 shirts in one season alone!). Shirt designs are updated seasonally giving replica shirts a seasonal shelf life of around 10 months. While on the professional side, around 60% of all professional football kits are destroyed by landfilling or incineration at the end of the season.
Circularity in the context of football shirts involves designing and producing shirts to minimise waste, maximise the use of sustainable materials, extend product life and facilitate reuse and eventual recycling. This approach encompasses several stages, from material selection to production processes, digital integration, usage, and end-of-life management. The challenges involved in achieving circularity in football shirts mirror those faced by the wider fashion industry, including the need for innovative technologies, stakeholder collaboration, consumer engagement, and systemic change. So, what do football and fashion have in common and what can football teach fashion about circularity?
Material innovation and sustainable fibers
A critical first step in creating circular football shirts is choosing sustainable materials that perform both on and off the pitch. Traditional shirts like many fashion garments are typically made from polyester, a petroleum-based synthetic fibre that poses significant environmental challenges, such as high carbon emissions during production and microplastic pollution during use. However, unlike many fashion brands, many Premier League football clubs are now using recycled polyester as standard, (currently, most of the recycled polyester is derived from plastic bottles).
However, from the 24/25 season, Puma is producing all its replica shirts from textile to textile recycled materials, through their initiative Re:Fibre. Puma has aligned with strategic partners including clubs such as Man City to encourage fans to donate old shirts and clothing by setting up donation points in the selected stadiums. Clothing is collected and reprocessed to be made into new shirts. Puma has also held activation days and upcycling workshops to involve fans in extending the product life of their garments. This approach not only supports in educating a wide audience of fans who may not otherwise know or care about sustainability, it also reduces dependence on virgin materials. While we have seen collection bins in retail stores for fashion for some time, we have yet to see textile to textile materials being used at a mass scale in fashion, or a genuine concerted effort by brands to mobilise their consumers to extend the product life of their garments.
Beyond recycled polyester, there is a growing interest in bio-based materials, such as biodegradable polyesters or fibres derived from plant sources like bamboo, hemp, or algae. Forest Green Rovers football club previously used a blend of coffee grounds as a feedstock for part of the material for their shirts. These materials offer the potential for reduced environmental impact compared to conventional synthetics, particularly if they can be grown and processed using sustainable methods and meet the same performance standards as polyester shirts.
Localised and on-demand manufacturing
Typically manufacturing football shirts, as with fashion garments, involves long, complex supply chains, often spanning multiple countries and continents. This globalised production model is associated with high carbon emissions, resource inefficiency, and limited transparency, all of which are barriers to circularity. To address these issues, some manufacturers are exploring localised and on-demand production models, using AI and data analytics to help optimise production and inventory management, reducing overproduction and waste. Brands are increasingly investing in blockchain technology which can help ensure that materials are sustainably sourced, production processes are ethical, and recycling options are available. By producing shirts closer to the point of sale and in smaller, more customised batches, brands can reduce transportation emissions, minimise waste, and better respond to consumer demand.
For EU clubs, Portugal could become a production hub enabling smaller quantities using micro-factories cutting transportation lead times and emissions. FC Internationale Berlin 1980 E.V a grassroots club based in Germany have chosen to manufacture their shirts in Portugal for this exact reason. They have created the world’s first football shirt which uses cradle-to-cradle gold certified materials, proving that even with limited resources change and implementing higher standards is achievable at grassroots level given ambitious leadership.
Technologies like 3D knitting, digital patternmaking, and automation in textile cutting and sewing can facilitate these new manufacturing models. 3D knitting technology for example, allows for seamless construction of garments, reducing fabric waste and increasing production efficiency. Additionally, digital manufacturing tools enable rapid prototyping and shorter lead times, making it easier to produce shirts in response to real-time demand rather than forecasting sales months in advance, reducing waste and excess inventory.
Extending product life using connection and legacy
A key aspect of circularity is extending the lifespan of products through design. For football shirts, which retail at a much higher price than many fashion items (on average for Premier League clubs at £80) this means designing for frequent use, washing, and wear while also considering eventual recycling. To extend the shirt’s usable life, supporting fans on how to care for their garment is vital. Implementation of digital product passports embedded in garments, which store detailed information about a garment’s composition, production, care instructions, and recycling options, can facilitate circular practices by making it easier for consumers, recyclers, and manufacturers to access relevant information. Smart labels, such as QR codes or RFID tags, can be scanned to access this information, enhancing transparency and enabling better decision-making throughout the product’s lifecycle.
Beyond the practical, designing for circularity means designing a shirt that embodies the history and heritage of a club. Creating an emotional connection through fabric, colours and iconography that bonds club and fan across seasons, creating a legacy that negates the need to buy a new shirt next season. This bond has an emotional durability which encourages fans to retain, care for and value the shirt they own rather than see it as a seasonal disposable item.
Like fashion, the second-hand market for football shirts is already a thriving space, with fans often trading, selling, or collecting shirts from different seasons or limited editions. Brands and clubs can tap into this existing market by promoting and facilitating resale or even rental models for shirts. Online platforms like Classic Football Shirts and eBay, and speciality sports memorabilia sites already support this ecosystem, but official partnerships or dedicated club platforms could further legitimise and expand these channels. Rental models, where fans can rent shirts for a season or special events, could also be explored, particularly for high-value or limited-edition items. These models are gaining traction in the fashion industry as a way to maximise the use of garments, reduce waste, and provide consumers with more affordable and flexible options.
Engaging fans and consumers in circularity
Brands and clubs can leverage their influence to encourage fans to adopt more sustainable behaviours, such as opting for recycled or second-hand shirts, participating in take-back programs, or supporting initiatives that promote circularity. Digital tools, such as mobile apps or online platforms, which make it easy for consumers to participate, interact with and track the impact of their actions are also growing in importance. Platforms such as Pledgeball allow fans to pledge to take a sustainable action, these pledges can be linked to their clubs which then allows different clubs to compete with each other on a leaderboard with those which have the most sustainable pledges from fans winning the title.
But how can clubs make money if fans don’t buy new shirts anymore? By engaging fans by offering added value, creating a legacy or providing new experiences enabled by digital. This is supported by several upcycling specialists such as FC88 which take damaged or defective shirts and turn them into other items such as laptop bags, by doing this they retain the emotional relevance of the shirt, and create new product streams which can utilise shirts that would otherwise go to waste. re(boot) a company specialising in curated upcycling of football shirts has partnered with Avery Dennison to combine physical products with digital technologies. Not only are some of their physical shirts upcycled from match-worn kit they also contain a QR code which allows the fan to access information about the shirt and in future have the potential to receive updated digital experiences over time.
Key to engaging any community, whether football fans or the fashion crowd, is authenticity and integrity. In a marketing world where greenwashing statements are common, it is vital that any circularity initiatives are done to create genuine change rather than as PR marketing spin.
Leadership
In order to drive a transition towards circularity strong leadership (and governance) is needed. While many leaders are working tirelessly to make change, many more are prioritising profit over the planet. We have seen the contradiction of yearly sustainability reports published detailing changes in GHG emissions year on year and promising reductions, while at the same time, promising shareholders increased profits driven through increasing sales.
The fashion industry is at best moving towards ‘being less bad’ i.e. improving on a linear model of production through investing in green energy in the supply chain for example, but a systematic change in reducing the production of new garments, replacing physical garments with digital experiences or dare I say it even a degrowth model seems at the moment decades away.
Unless brands are forced to change through legislation, they will maintain the status quo. This is why outstanding leadership and collaboration are needed to drive circularity more than ever. It will take ambition, visionaries, communicators and expert stakeholder and change management to implement this transition. It is on this point that sport has the most to teach fashion on how to approach circularity in a new way. Competitive sport is essentially getting the best out of people, it’s about playing as a team to meet a common goal, it’s about thinking creatively and strategically to win the game and it’s about engaging millions in the potential of what is possible. If we can adopt some of those traits in transitioning the fashion industry towards circularity then surely, we will be on a winning streak.
Key takeaways for the wider fashion industry:
- Material Innovation is Key: Prioritising sustainable and recyclable materials, such as recycled or bio-based fibres, is crucial. However, these materials must also meet performance and aesthetic standards, necessitating continued innovation and investment in material science.
- Design for Circularity: Products must be designed with their entire lifecycle in mind, from production to end-of-life. This includes simplifying material compositions, avoiding non-recyclable components, and incorporating features that facilitate recycling or reuse.
- Leverage Technology for Transparency and Efficiency: Technologies like blockchain, AI, and digital product passports can enhance transparency, optimise supply chains, and engage consumers in circular practices.
- Consumer Engagement is Essential: Brands need to actively engage consumers in circular practices by promoting sustainable behaviours, offering take-back or recycling programs, and providing clear information on how to recycle or repurpose products.
- Collaboration Across the Value Chain: Achieving circularity requires collaboration between brands, suppliers, recyclers, policymakers, and consumers. Leadership, shared standards, and joint investments in technology and infrastructure are crucial for overcoming the barriers to circularity.
