Forever in green jeans

Levi’s is clearly motivated to be a leader on sustainability in the clothing sector. Do you think it is the most pressing issue in this sector right now? 

Paul Dillinger: I wouldn’t say it’s the most pressing issue in this sector right now; I think it’s the most pressing issue in every sector. The impacts of human industrial activity and consumer behaviour on global climate change are incontrovertible.

I don’t think that anyone ever intended to create barriers to circularity by making our clothes more difficult to recycle – but it happened.

 The pace of climate change is accelerating, and its harms are becoming more plainly evident. Any company in any sector that fails to appreciate the urgency of the [climate] issue and their obligation to participate in the solution will find themselves without customers or markets in the near future.  

I can’t think of anything less relevant than making short-lived, disposable clothes from materials that deplete natural resources or harm the environment.

As a fashion designer, it’s my job to create clothes that are relevant - thoughtfully investing each garment with purpose, utility, and beauty. Relevance is about making clothes that are better, and I can’t think of anything less relevant than making short-lived, disposable clothes from materials that deplete natural resources or harm the environment. Relevant design is sustainable design. 

Above: Paul Dillinger, VP Global Product Innovation at Levi Strauss & Co. 

Can you expand on how Levi’s has been working towards the goal of bringing true circularity to production processes of the 150-year old 501s. 

PD: I don’t think that anyone ever intended to create barriers to circularity by making our clothes more difficult to recycle – but it happened. 

There were perfectly good reasons to introduce synthetic fibres into our products:  Polyester made our pocket bag fabrics stronger and helped our zipper tapes last longer and hold their colour. Elastane made our denim more comfortable. Sewing with synthetic threads was more efficient and made the seams more durable. A Levi’s red tab made from polyester will stay red forever.

The impacts of human industrial activity and consumer behaviour on global climate change are incontrovertible.

The industry-wide adoption of mixed-fibre manufacturing standards was well-intentioned; it improved manufacturing efficiency, consistency, and durability at a time when garment recycling was a very low priority, but now that well-intentioned efficiency has left us with a steady flow of unresolvable complexity; cheap clothes that can’t be effectively recovered and reused as an alternative to conventional virgin material inputs.  

Even a garment labeled '100% cotton' has a mix of synthetic fibre components, labels and sundries that complicate the recycling process and degrade the value of the 2nd generation recovered material outputs.

Even a garment labeled '100% cotton'” has a mix of synthetic fibre components, labels and sundries that complicate the recycling process and degrade the value of the 2nd generation recovered material outputs.

Importantly – before we started talking to the consumer about our Circular 501, we sent samples of these new jeans back to ReNewcell’s laboratories to put them through their recovery system and to confirm that our efforts had, in fact, produced a truly circular product.  Only after confirming the industrial viability of our jeans for circular recovery did we start to tell people about it.    

For all the R&D and innovation embedded in Levi’s Circular 501, the most important feature is its anonymity and familiarity. It’s been designed to look and feel and perform like any other pair of 501s. These are the same jeans you’ve always known and loved – made better. 

 Above: Still from Levi's 'Going Out In Style In The Greatest Story Ever Worn - Legends Never Die'.

Can you tell us more about your work with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation? We understand 501s were the first Levi’s jeans to meet the requirements set out by the Jeans Redesign initiative by using recycled cotton. 

PD: The Jeans Redesign Initiative of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation [charity committed to promoting the circulation of products and materials and elimination of waste and pollution] published its initial guidelines for circular denim production in March 2019.  When Ellen MacArthur and I first discussed the barriers, challenges, and opportunities for industrial circularity on stage at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit in May of 2018, Levi’s had been working on circular innovation for about six years.

The EMF’s Jeans Redesign guidelines are much broader than just a mandate for recycled cotton content.  They cover the issues of mixed materiality I described above, as well as mill and laundry-level chemistry management, product durability standards, and the communication of ownership guidance to the consumer. 

Recent innovations in chemical cotton recycling demonstrate a promising alternative to the textile grinder.

The guidelines continue to evolve and adapt to new science, shifts in the industrial textile recovery landscape, and market influence. It’s important to have a standard in place to keep brands honest, but certification is the opposite of innovation, and we don’t map our product innovation pipeline against a fluid external benchmark.

For the Levi’s Circular 501, we did not engineer a product to meet the EMF’s guidelines. Rather, we designed toward our own aspirations for a circular industrial ecology.  I’m happy that our Circular 501 was aligned with the Jeans Redesign guidelines and able to be EMF-certified.  However, we don’t defer to those guidelines as limiting parameters on our future product innovation initiatives. 

Above: Still from Levi's 'One Fair Exchange In The Greatest Story Ever Worn'. 

What are the challenges of using recycled cotton/denim while also trying to insure product longevity and quality? Is it less durable? 

PD: Until recently, conventional cotton textile recovery involved a mechanical recycling process called garnetting – pulling apart textile waste and reducing it to fibre. The machinery works a lot like a giant coffee grinder for clothes, and the resulting cotton fibre is, literally, ground to pieces. 

If only four of 10 garments were worth buying and keeping for a year, should the other six even have been made in the first place?

Recent innovations in chemical cotton recycling demonstrate a promising alternative to the textile grinder. Companies like ReNewcell are finding ways to turn old cotton garments into cellulosic pulp rather than linty fluff. The pulp can be processed and extruded as a “man-made cellulosic fiber” – like viscose or lyocell. Conventional MMCs that would normally be made from virgin timber can now be made from recycled cotton waste. 

These cotton-based man-made cellulosic fibres provide a high-quality alternative to conventional viscose and can be blended with cotton to reduce our reliance on virgin materials. Our Circular 501, for example, is a blend of 40% ReNewcell Circulose and 60% certified organic cotton, with the same wearing experience as a 100% cotton garment. 

Above: Still from Levi's 'One Influential Island in the Greatest Story Ever Worn - Precious Cargo'.

In the recent campaign The Greatest Story Ever Worn, 501s are celebrated as being garments to cherish, how do you balance promoting the longevity of your clothing alongside the desire to increase sales of new stock?

PD:  Over the past few years, we’ve been challenging the consumer to take a more thoughtful approach to shopping through our “Buy Better, Wear Longer” campaign.  We believe that if we use our share of voice to educate Levi’s fans to shop responsibly, to care for their clothes with kindness, and to give old garments a second life through recommerce, we can influence and bend the demand signal toward a more sustainable supply paradigm.  

Respectfully, I think the notion that quality and longevity are inconsistent with our aspirations for business growth presents a false dichotomy. 

…but let’s be honest – this industry overproduces. 

A recent McKinsey & Company report on the State of Fashion estimated that six out of 10 garments made each year are buried or incinerated within 12 months of production.  Other reports put that estimate at 85%. If only four of 10 garments were worth buying and keeping for a year, should the other six even have been made in the first place? How much better could those four surviving “necessary garments” have been if they had been invested with the resources that were wasted on those six “unnecessary garments”. 

There’s plenty of room for healthy growth and necessary garments like the 501, but those unnecessary garments need to stop. 

I believe that a pair of Levi’s 501s are in that category of “necessary garments.” They last. They improve. They hold their value in the re-sale market. They’re more likely to be repaired and less likely to be thrown in the trash. 501’s are designed for lasting value; they hold a sense of emotional durability.   

Respectfully, I think the notion that quality and longevity are inconsistent with our aspirations for business growth presents a false dichotomy. 

There’s plenty of room for healthy growth and necessary garments like the 501, but those unnecessary garments need to stop.