R-Coat - together with the community, we turn broken umbrellas, a non recyclable material, into fash
We are a circular and community based fashion brand to reduce waste.Together with the community and our network of 32 collection points, we reintroduce broken umbrellas, a non recyclable material into the loop - upcycling them into eco-designed clothes that are functional yet beautiful. We believe that with creativity and innovation, trash doesn't exist.
Cross-border/international
Portugal
Italy
{Empty}
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
SMALL BUT PERFECT - Systemic change within the fashion industry will come not from any one place, but through collaboration, education and innovation within the SME ecosystem.
Co-Founded by European Union
No
Yes
As an individual
First name: YASMIN Last name: MEDEIROS Gender: Female Nationality: Brazil Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: TRAVESSA DO MONTE 7, 2 DIREITO Town: LISBON Postal code: 1170-254 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351912998458 E-mail:yasminhmedeiros@gmail.com Website:https://r-coat.com/
We are a circular and community based project to reduce waste.Together with the community and our international network of 32 collection points, we reintroduce broken umbrellas, a non recyclable material into the loop - upcycling them into eco-designed clothes that are functional yet beautiful. We believe that with creativity and innovation, trash doesn't exist.
Circular economy
climate action
eco design
creativity
innovation
There is too much waste production and waste management is not efficient, and one of the examples is a simple umbrella that each one of us have lost or broken on a rainy day. More than a billion umbrellas are thrown away every year, and they are not recyclable. On top of it, fashion industry is one of the most polluting in the world. Every second, a truck full of clothes ends up in landfills, incinerated, or contaminating natural areas, and the same happens with the umbrellas. The industry is overproducing poor quality products, exploiting workers and also the environment in a take - make - dispose consumption model.
By promoting a circular economy, we create awareness and educate people to develop more conscious habits. We integrate the community to the circular economy giving them the opportunity to become agents of change and decrease their footprint once they help us to collect broken umbrellas from the streets and natural areas and drop them off in our collection points. With this valuable resource, considered trash, we can make our pieces.We also have the plan to provide patterns to the community, so they can transform broken umbrellas into their self made eco-designed products.
We use social media as a platform for digital activism and we impact approx. 13k people daily @shoprcoat pushing them to consume consciously and to become active agents for systemic change, as well as for individual change of habits. Along with broken umbrellas, we use deadstock fabric for the lining and when needed we opt for recycled and recyclable materials. We also saved the metal parts, and transformed them into earrings.
Waste is a design problem. We are committed to use design as a sustainable tool to create a better future.
Our product development considers environmental aspects at all stages, striving for products which make the lowest possible environmental impact throughout their life cycle.
Our core value is to prove to people that with creativity and innovation, trash doesn't exist. In the heart of our eco-design process you find sustainability and waste reduction.
Our water resistant ,functional and high quality pieces are made manually with broken umbrellas and deadstock fabric; the umbrellas are saved through our national network of collection points and the deadstock fabric is saved from a textile factory in the north of Portugal.
R-Coat style is influenced by the happiness of sunny days and the functionality of nordic design; we make colorful but
timeless products for people that prioritise sustainability and a good design in their fashion purchases. We invest a lot
in branding to tell people stories based on community connection, simplicity and playfulness.
To create social impact is our reason to exist! Through the circular economy we empower our umbrella heroes to become active agents in waste reduction, showing that this small action can make a difference. With them, we saved approx. 3000 umbrellas, established 30 collection points in Portugal and two in Italy.
We have an action plan to provide patterns to the community in an open source model, so they can produce their own products and sell them if they want - generating income for those who need.
We also trained 5 senior seamstresses that now work with us to produce beautiful garments, and we want to generate more job opportunities with upcycling and circular economy in fashion.
The local community from Portugal and Italy can benefit from an exclusive National Service of collection points to drop off their broken umbrellas and the ones they find in the streets.
Till now we have already created a big social impact with the local umbrella hero community, reflected in the amount of umbrellas collected (3000) and the universities, shops and entities that volunteered to help us.
We are a young and ambitious project made by two female immigrant entrepreneurs in Portugal. So far, we count on the collaboration of stakeholders for 5 pillars:
1) Collection points
We have our collection points thanks to entities, schools, universities, stores and companies that believe in the project. Many places even today volunteer to become collection points.
2) Mentors for Project Development
We received some mentoring in the areas of finance and marketing from consultants to make sure we are on the right track.
3) Project Dissemination
we are constantly featured by platforms, traditional media and other businesses in the area of sustainability and fashion
4) Help to Search for grants
entities such as Impact Hub and IAPMEI are responsible for raising awards and programs, which made it possible to bring the project to life.
5) Brand Collaboration
We count on a partnership with a factory in the north of the country that gives us deadstock fabric to produce our products with superior quality. We also count on the collaboration of digital influencers who promote us in their communities.
Our founders have degrees in sustainability (Anna) and marketing and design management (Yasmin), as well as personal skills in the fields of communication and fashion and the desire to contribute to sustainable development.
Anna is a content creator at instagram @hero_to_0 page, where she talks about low waste and conscious consumption. her account now has more than 48,000 followers. She is the one responsible for the sense of community and engagement.
Yasmin worked in marketing and fashion for 6 years before joining r-coat, having a broad market vision. She is the one responsible for the branding and high quality eco-designed products.
We also had the help of our university teachers, and mentors in the finance and business areas.
Circular economy is not new: until our grandparents’ generation, linear economy was not a thing, products were not disposable and everything could be repaired or repurposed. Nowadays, most umbrellas are considered a disposable object and that’s when we come in.
Our Circular Business Model is our bigger innovation, combined with our creative design and communication.
We collect broken umbrellas thanks to our community of Umbrella Heroes that save them from the streets and trash cans and drop them off at one of our 30+ collection points around Portugal, then, we transform them into new pieces. The canopy becomes garments, the hard plastic parts become coastes and tree ornaments and the metal part becomes earrings.
The mainstream brands usually work with recycled or technological materials, and average communication. Meanwhile, we have a strong sense of community and engage with them on social media even to create the products. We create our content in house, and we show the behind the scenes of an upcycling brand/project.
R-Coat has the potential to be replicated anywhere in the world, creating a positive impact on the natural environment and various local communities.
The initiative started in Portugal, where the founders are based; we opened collection points all over the country where people drop off broken umbrellas that we then turn into garments. Now we are starting the same process in Italy.
To scale up locally we could open more collection points and do campaigns to invite people to save more broken umbrellas from going to waste in order to have more material to work with, then we would hire more seamstresses for the production processes, contributing to our local economy.
We could be also replicated anywhere else. For it to work we need 1) community empowerment to create collection points and collect umbrellas 2)logistics process with local company or entity 3) storage collection process for broken umbrellas through collection points and the empowerment of local communities. The production can be made locally for own use, with our digital patterns, and with a team of seamstresses to create our original pieces.
Our project is based on the principles of the circular economy, as well as the theory that for the circular economy to happen effectively it needs people to be the key to reintroduce waste into the loop. We believe very much in collaboration and co-creation, and it is through communication and a sense of community that we have been able to have so many collection points and engage people to collect umbrellas - in return decreasing their ecological footprint. For the creation of the products we use upcycling, the principles of eco design and the values for sustainable development as tools.
There is too much waste production and waste management is not efficient, because valuable material like that in umbrellas is not recycled and it is estimated that every year about 1 billion umbrellas are broken, lost or improperly disposed of, contributing to GHG emissions and climate change. Every year the umbrellas wasted would be enough to build 25 eiffel towers and cover a city like New York each year.
As the only National Service that recycles umbrellas, we promote the circular economy and reintegrate them into the circle, avoiding them to go to waste.
At the same time, we give the opportunity for the community to become agents of change. When the “umbrella heroes” save umbrellas from waste, they can decrease their own footprint and be part of a systemic change.
We are the only national service in Portugal for the collection and recycling of umbrellas. Since the project was implemented, we have created 30 collection points throughout Portugal and 2 in italy.
These collection points are schools, universities, sustainable shops, fashion rooms and other projects that truly believe in the project. Today we have people around the world waiting for support and ready to implement collection points in Spain, France, USA and Germany. Our community saved 3000 thousand umbrellas between november 2019 and 2022, taking into consideration a pandemic scenario and zero media investment.
So far we have given more than 30 talks in schools and universities, and we are constantly approached by companies and public sector entities that want to collaborate with us.
For the creation of our products, we trained 5 senior seamstresses in Portugal to work with upcycling, besides making 2 collaborations with other sustainable brands, one of clothes and other of objects and furniture. We were featured in Forbes in 2021 and Fast Company in 2022 with our Christmas ornaments made with plastic lids.
Now, in 2023 we want to take another step towards the Social and Community part of the project.
First, we want to implement the open source patterns and make them available for the community to produce their own products. We are going to provide public workshops and teach the community how to create products from the patterns.
We want to respond to more than 100 requests and invitations from Schools and Universities and work in-depth on sustainable habits and design fundamentals workshops and talks to help the students to develop innovative, sustainable and social oriented skills.
We also want to give more attention to other communities abroad and teach them how to implement R-Coat in their countries.
With our initiative we truly believe that our initiative and the creative approach used in the clothes, we can contribute to integrate sustainability into learning, due to our results and many requests from schools and universities.
Our practices show that circular economy is effective when we facilitate a certain community to act. We are comfortable to say that we can do it in any field.
