Concept Store for upcycled clothing and accessories
With MOOT ("Made out of Trash") and the MOOT concept store we prove that one of the dirtiest industries of all - the fashion industry - can also be sustainable. MOOT focuses on upcycling, the complete reuse of already produced textiles. Our mass-suitable re-design products are made from 100% discarded textiles, which makes them by far the most sustainable way to produce new clothing. We require fewer production steps overall and produce exclusively in Germany.
National
Germany
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-11-01
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): MOOT Upcycling GmbH Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Michael Last name of representative: Pfeifer Gender: Male Nationality: Germany Function: Co-Founder & CEO Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Charlottenburger Straße 79 Town: Berlin Postal code: 13086 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 176 63442934 E-mail:info@moot.ecoo Website:https://moot.eco/
With MOOT we want to make the complete reuse of already produced textiles (=upcycling) suitable for the masses. To bring our clothes and message to the people we have opened a Concept Store in Berlin with an area of more than 100 m². Our re-design products consist of 100% discarded textiles, such as bed linen, wool blankets, curtains or sofa cushion covers, which allows us to use the potential of intact textile surfaces. The name "Made Out of Trash" is symbolic for the radical approach of producing new clothing exclusively from supposed trash, and thus forms the most sustainable form of production of new clothing. Started with t-shirts made from bed linen, the constantly growing range currently consists of 11 products: t-shirts, longsleeves, dresses and tops made from bedding, jackets, scarves and coats made from wool blankets, fanny packs made from old leather jackets, bags made from sofa cushion covers, belts made from safety belts and scrunchies made from leftover fabric scraps.
The journey of our products begins where it usually ends for clothing - in clothing donations. Social organizations manage textile donations, pass them on to the needy and sell another part for self-financing. Our materials are hand sewn into MOOT products in cooperation with a tailor shop of the Berliner union of social Institutions (and other partners). The production takes place exclusively in Berlin. The result is a distinctive and socially responsible product that is not only "Made Out Of Trash", but also absolutely unique.
Upcycling
Fair Fashion
Sustainability
Creating Awarness
Circularity
The most important goal of our project is to offer our customers, through our concept store, an alternative to the traditional and polluting clothing industry.
In addition to donations from the Deutsche Kleiderstiftung (German clothing foundation) and the Berliner Stadtmission (“berliner city mission”) we obtain the majority of our textiles from a clothing sorting facility which is about 400 kilometers away from Berlin. For the procurement of these sorted jersey bed linen and wool blankets a transport is required. 720 kilograms of CO2 emissions for the transport of these sorts were incurred in 2021. It means that only 1.2 kilograms of CO2 emissions are generated per T-shirt, 1.5 kilograms for longsleeves and for tank tops only 1.1 kg of C02. Compared to a standard T-shirt, this results in a saving of 10 kilograms of CO2 (-90%). The extraction of the cotton raw material, the production of the yarn, and the production of the T-shirt and finally the dyeing of the material are usually all taking place in different parts of the world. Thereby a common T-shirt travels around 25,000 km from the raw material cotton to the end consumer while our products only leave a way of 800 km behind. In addition, orders are shipped climate-neutrally throughout Germany with DHL GoGreen.
Furthermore the demand of water for cotton cultivation is immense and exacerbates the problem of providing the population with water all the more. We strive to use water sparingly and use it only for cleaning the garments. So at MOOT it was an average of about 12 liters of water per garment. In comparison to a conventionally manufactured T-shirt, this is only 0.005% and a saving of 2488 liters of water.
We clarify the immense grievances in the production of clothing companies and present an ecologically sustainable alternative.
Besides the production and distribution of sustainable fashion, it is our concern to educate customers about the background and effects of the fast fashion industry and to encourage a more sustainable and socially responsible consumption. That's why we allow customers and interested parties to participate in the value chain in a completely transparent way, completely breaking down costs and profits through informative boards and graphics in our Concept Store.
Furthermore we offer workshops and presentations about upcycling and social entrepreneurship at the MOOT store. We have given lectures for different schools and universities as well as for the german senate department for environment and german federal ministry of education and research. Moreover, we provide an audio guided tour at the Concept Store about consumption, social and environmental exploitation, upcycling and the circular environment. By scanning a QR-code the tour starts.
In addition to that we have the opportunity to directly get in touch with our customers and talk with them about MOOT’s topics face to face in our showroom. Despite a growing understanding of environmental and sustainability awareness, textile consumption is a rather neglected topic in public discourse. Fair fashion (and upcycling even more so) have so far been niche topics. With MOOT, we want to be the pioneer of a movement that educates and makes sustainable clothing consumption the new standard.
Visiting our Concept Store gives the customers more than the feeling of shopping and pointless consumption. It is a whole experience of education, sensitization and creativity that makes our products and Concept Store stand out.
In design, we pay attention to inclusivity and equality - all cuts are unisex and suitable for all genders. We value the work that goes into each MOOT piece and get sustainable one-of-a-kind pieces of exceptionally high quality. While not even 1% of the product price of a conventionally produced item goes to the wages of the seamstresses, at MOOT 14% remains with the seamstresses.
At MOOT we not only prioritize the importance of ecologically sustainable production, but we also make sure to include social institutions in our value chain. That's why we cooperate with an organization that cares for the homeless in Berlin and an organization, where people with mental problems can pursue their activities free of any work pressure.
The mainstream clothing industry goes too far in terms of social exploitation to guarantee low prices for its products. We show that products of the medium price segment do not have to go hand in hand with social exploitation to ensure their prices. On the contrary, we prove that affordable prices can create and secure fairly paid jobs.
In MOOTs concept store, we have face-to-face contact with potential customers. Here we can enter into a direct exchange. Furthermore MOOT has its general educational mission. That is why we offer workshops and lectures for educational institutions such as schools and universities at MOOTs Concept Store.
Continuing larger companies such as Thalia (a group of 340 bookstores in Germany and Austria) have already recognized the value of the MOOT brand and are promoting our products too.
At MOOT, we have implemented all our processes and procedures by ourselves. The main part of our value chain is within Germany to implement that we work mostly local or national. While our design, sales and sewing is implemented in Berlin, a part of our textile sorting is located in the west of Germany. Furthermore we use textiles from textile sorting in the Netherlands. Through our value chain we can insure short supply chains. While a common piece of clothing makes a way of 25.000 km, MOOT products only leave a way of 800 km behind. This way immense amounts of CO2 emissions can be saved.
Moreover we work together with various funding initiatives just as the German federal foundation for the environment, circular futures or the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. Besides, we cooperate in the form of B2B concepts with various stores all over Germany. In addition, we can be found on several online sales platforms, which are strongly committed to slow fashion.
MOOT combines outstanding knowledge about textiles with expertise about company structure and management .Our re-design products form a completely new innovative approach. The textile sorters we work with have years of experience in sorting textile waste. Therefore we can rely on their textiles and get the best quality from them.
The Co-Founder Nils, as a fashion designer, focuses on operational questions such as: where the textiles should come from, which textiles are of high enough quality, which home textiles can be converted into which product, how much processing is required and how the designs should look.
The other Co-Founder Michael focuses on business processes in addition to that he has already gained experience in another start-up. Michael takes care of cost planning, looks at whether possible products are profitable or that they do not incur financial losses due to too high manufacturing and production costs. Furthermore, he takes care of the financing of MOOT as well as the distribution and the searching for retail corporations.
Nils and Michael as the founders of MOOT and representatives of their own knowledge fields work very closely together. They are in daily exchange on all topics. Through the close cooperation of the two directors MOOT already has many learnings on how upcycling of textiles can work in practical implementation as well as how it can be scaled.
Through our innovative business model of upcycling we contribute a part to a circular industrial ecosystem. By producing fair and within Germany we support the social and circular economy. We actively enter into retail corporations to spread our idea step by step.
Within the last year we have brought 1000 kg of discarded textiles back into the textile cycle. MOOT’s 11 different products have been sold over 2500 times last year - a large part of it at our Concept Store in Berlin. Furthermore our Concept Store supports a life-cycle rethinking by educating about the social and ecological issues of fast fashion through our project: the showroom with an online guide and already 16 workshops and presentations that we have given at our store.
Upcycling is an innovative alternative and goes one step further than recycling. But what is the difference between upcycling and recycling? Therefore you need to take a closer look at the term of recycling. Most of the recycled clothes are actually “downcycled”. Downcycling is the term used to describe a recycled product that is not as structurally strong as the original product made from virgin materials. Downcycled materials can therefore only be used to make a different type of product than the original. A minimum of recycled products is fiber-to-fiber recycled, which means the output remains in a similar industry as the input. But upcycling goes a step further: Upcycling is the reuse of discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
Upcycling our products makes our design process different from that of recycled products from mainstream fashion companies. The result is definitely more ecological: We need fewer production steps because we do not need to add any newly produced fibers. Contrary to separating fibers we use the textiles as a whole. In addition we insure shorter supply chains by carrying them out exclusively in Germany rather than transporting textiles and products from continent to continent. Furthermore we guarantee fair wages for employees in the sewings instead of wage dumping as mainstream fashion companies do. While mainstream companies bet on sustainability marketing and greenwashing we share our price transparency through revealing our whole supply chain.
The Concept Store currently functions as the key point of MOOT. Not only do workshops take place here, but all press interviews are always conducted directly in our store. This makes the Concept Store the flagship of MOOT. Additionally, we regularly hold events here where we like to exchange ideas with our customers on a different level than sellers and buyers.
Through our audio guided tour and several graphics customers can learn about the topic of sustainable clothing while experiencing it. Also a wide range of socio-economic groups meet in our store. Our concept should be accessible to all of them, so content can be read in the store or via our QR code on the smartphone. Furthermore, the audio version is available online for listening. All content is always available in German and English.
MOOT as a company can be a role model and inspiration for the circular economy. Our company can be an impetus for rethinking in the clothing industry. MOOT strives for an expansion to various branches within the clothing industry. For example we are working on children's clothing. Especially our showroom is something that should be replicated by other fashion companies with the mission to do more than just selling clothes. However, upcycling is by no means a concept that can only be established in the clothing industry.
In the last years we have gained a lot of experience with the handling and processing of old textiles, a knowledge we would like to share. For instance, we now know that bed linen is the most suitable of home textiles for making shirts. Moreover, we can imagine that upcycling can be established as a service for large companies. Concerning to establish upcycling as a service for companies, not only textile waste but also masses of sorted out b-stock can be used and upcycled by MOOT.
The textile and clothing sector is the second most polluting industry in the world. That is why MOOT makes it its task to change the attitude towards clothing fundamentally and in the long term: clothing is not a disposable, throw-away commodity, but an elaborately produced consumer good. We educate about the inhumane, profit-maximizing conditions of the fashion industry and are pioneers of a movement that creates awareness for the value of clothing.
We want to raise awareness for ethical consumption and value the work of all those involved in production again - and we do this by having fair and environmentally conscious production.
Therefore we set a good example as a role model and limit our value and supply chains to produce locally, fairly and transparently. Globally, many small circular economies can coexist. In this way, the textile waste problem can be solved locally and through that circularity can contribute to the greater good.
