Introducing Eco Stretch
Our new fabric uses recycled poly thread with 38% of composition made from plastic bottle waste. Designed with both the environment and wearability in mind, Eco Stretch stays true to classic, crisp suiting fabric but gives you flex where you want it and comfort where you need it.
How It's Made
First, we collect PET bottles—those made of clear, strong plastic. After being sterilized, dried, and crushed into small chips, these bottles are made into pellets. Heated and passed through a spinneret, the pellets are transformed into springs of yarn and wound up in spools.
To create a fluffy, wooly texture, the yarn fiber is passed through a crimping machine. Finally, the yarn is baled, dyed, and knitted into the recycled fabric we use to make our suits.
The Earth Day Suit
In an effort to bring SuitShop closer to the true sustainability on our horizon, we set out to design a North Star guiding our next steps. The result? Just in time for Earth Day 2022, we made one completely biodegradable suit.
The Motivation
This biodegradable suit, what we're calling The Earth Day Suit, serves as an exploration of how we can minimize our part in the worldwide problem of apparel waste. The suits we offer are fashion staples; while a suit may be purchased for a specific event, it can be reworn countless times afterward. What happens after it is discarded, though, is just as important as its green production and reusability.
The Way Forward
We’re using what we learned from The Earth Day Suit—from a new mentality in sourcing materials to production costs, decomposition, and beyond—to help ensure our next steps measure up to our intentions and promises. The Earth Day Suit challenged us to consider the final stages of life for our products in new ways, and these lessons inspire and advance our ultimate goal: circular retail.
The Future: Circular Retail
With thought toward what happens to our products once our customers are finished with them, one of our main sustainability objectives is a circular retail model.
We are working toward creating ways for customers to return their items free of charge for donation or green disposal, which we've begun with ongoing partnerships and donations to Agentcy Collective & Dress for Success. Moving forward, we are considering every stage of life our products go through and their overall impact.
