Purpose

The process of redesigning is one of the essential steps in upcycling, which comprises ideation, reconstruction and fitting. This paper aims to study the best practice of upcycling in the clothing industry. This study is an attempt to standardise upcycling/redesign process.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory approach was adopted to perform the research. This study draws on the multiple organisations involved in the upcycling of clothes. The organisations chosen for this study are located in Sweden and Romania using the snowball technique. Semi-structured interviews, direct and participatory observation approaches were used to collect information. The collected data are systematically analysed using NVivo 10 software.

Findings

This paper provides empirical insights into the diverse practices of upcycling. Process, product and demand-based were three fundamental approaches to performing the redesigning process. The fabric quality and durability, variations in size, colour and pattern, skills and efforts required in the extraction of parts and environmental consciousness and awareness were the main factors influencing upcycling process.

Research limitations/implications

The use of the European case may miss best practices from the other region. This study may help scholars to understand the method of upcycling. A practitioner of upcycling can use the findings to improve and standardise the existing process. This research is beneficial for society, as this leads to the reduction of textile wastage.

Originality/value

This paper conceptualises some of the best practices of clothes redesign. This provides a good insight for the organisation for the improvement in the redesign business.

The article describes how the European Union is committed to transforming European production and consumption and achieving a circular economy. The transformation is supported by policy work, and especially crucial for the fashion and textile industry are the European green deal, the Circular economy action plan, the EU waste policy, the strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, and the digital product passport project. The article ends with reflections on how the European transformation influences the production of fashion and textiles in India.

Reverse logistics is a concept that maximizes utility of a product after its end-of-life or end-of use. Different disposition options such as reuse, repair, recycle, remanufacture, incineration and land-filling determine the flow of the product through reverse logistics. In reverse logistics the products flow upstream from consumers as they are returned for recycling or reuse. Multiple aspects of reverse logistics in the fashion industry are highlighted in this chapter, including criteria for effective decision-making along the different value-addition stages of collection, sorting, reprocessing and upcycling. Mostly the charity organizations carry out reverse value chain of the fashion products though new forms of collaboration are evolving to tap this potential market. The process of up-cycling is not so popular in practice even though maximum valorisation of the product can be attained through it. Availability of fashionable products at a lower cost acts as a barrier to the growth of reverse logistics in the fashion industry. Apart from emphasizing these characteristics, the chapter more specifically argues that there are six critical success factors that influence reverse logistics performance in the fashion industry. These are: (i) strategic partnership and collaboration, (ii) design for “second” life consideration, (iii) optimal recovery processes and channel structure, (iv) access to information, (v) legislative and regulatory instruments, and (vi) consumer relationship management and awareness building.

The present paper aims to investigate the practice of upcycling and redesign. The study draws on the multiple organizations involved in the redesigning activities. The organizations selected for the study are located in the northern part of Romania. Semi-structured interviews along with direct observations were used to collect information. The paper provides practical insights to upcycling process.Various kinds of redesigned products are made out of consumer and industrial wastes such as redesigned clothes, accessories for ladies, handbags, ladies purses and office stationery. Upcycling is generally considered as economically non-feasible. However, this study has found contradictory results. The demand-based redesign activities can help an organization to earn a profit. Two out of three selected organizations are able to self-sustain. One of the organizations is newly entered into the Romanian used clothing markets and ables to compete with existing players. This study could be seen as one of the early attempts to empirically explore the practice of textile and accessories upcycling practice in Eastern Europe. The findings from the current case study can provide several useful insights for other similar companies to make redesign activities profitable.

Reuse is a strategy to render fashion retail sustainable and an example is the take-back schemes established by international retailers. Managerial aspects are important in a reuse system, but management issues have seldom been studied. Accordingly, empirical investigations of the management of reuse systems are needed. Hence, the purpose of this study is to show the complexity in the management of fashion-retail based on reuse by identifying and explaining obstacles in the process. This is achieved by an analyze of ReTuna, a shopping mall based on reuse, from the perspective of institutional logics. ReTuna opened in 2015 and consists of approximately fourteen stores. The shops at ReTuna sell reused products, but this unconventional sourcing of goods aside, ReTuna aims to be a traditional mall. Most shops are staffed by the owner(s) and in some cases an employee. Garments and textiles that are sold origins from donations that are collected by the mall. The case illustrates the complexity, as it failed in establishing reuse-based fashion retail, despite its success in achieving enough donations and creating publicity. The analysis shows that the goal of re-circulating fashion is hindered by actors not being able to equally integrate the divergent sustainability dimensions in the mall owner’s goals. The obstacles are a result of the actors prioritizing the logics differently at the same time as not being able to fulfill the demands of the logics due to a lack of knowledge, experience and skills, and coordination.

In scholarly conversations, reuse is one of the common suggested strategies to render fashion retail sustainable. Previous research has stressed the complexity of fashion reuse and the importance of a well-organized system. The complexity stems from processes that involve many actors as well as products hard to evaluate. Consequently, it is challenging to organize reuse-based fashion retail, and studies are needed to further develop knowledge regarding how to manage such systems. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexity in the management of such an initiative, by identifying and explaining obstacles as well as implications. With institutional logics as a framework, three local logics (shopping mall, reuse, and work integration) are used to analyze the management of a reuse-based mall. Despite the mall’s success in getting sufficient donations and creating publicity, it has struggled to establish itself as viable reuse-based fashion retail. The findings illustrate the complexity created by the interplay of different logics and how the complexity influences both the daily and strategic management of the mall. Further, the outcome of this interplay depends largely on which rationality is enacted by involved actors. The study also extends literature on institutional logics, showing that differences in individual actors’ attention, knowledge, skills, coordination, and material conditions influence how logics are enacted and managed. We suggest that there are inherent managerial contradictions in the sustainable practices in fashion retail. Thus, in scholarly conversations, it is important to discuss what different divergent sustainability dimensions imply when seeking solutions for sustainable retail. In practice, there is a need to acknowledge and balance the presence of multiple logics, making it crucial to have competence in all logics. Also, managers of reuse-based fashion retail must consciously and continuously scrutinize their own strategies and actions to avoid an imbalance between the logics.

Purpose

This paper aims to purport deeper understanding of, and instigate theoretical elaboration to, multidimensional value created through different reverse supply chain (RSC) relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

By capturing the relationships (and their differences) constituted and embedded in three “extreme” case studies from global used clothing supply chain, the sources of multidimensional values are explored in line with Dyer and Singh’s (1998) relational theory.

Findings

In the RSC, when downstream relationships are typically more opportunistic, value is created using inter-personal ways of knowledge sharing and through use of informal safeguards. In contrast, the upstream RSC relationships are more symbiotic, and value is created through more seamless (and routinized) knowledge sharing practices, and additional use of more formal transaction-specific controls or financial incentives as safeguarding instruments.

Research limitations/implications

The use of consolidated case studies may affect the consistency in the findings presented. Another limitation relates to deriving propositions per each source presented in relational theory.

Practical implications

Practitioners particularly from industries whose global RSCs include different natures of relationships and multiple value incentives can be benefited through this study.

Originality/value

The paper extends the original sources of value creation prescribed in relational theory by contextualizing them in RSCs. It depicts how multidimensional values are created relationally by dyadic partners as the nature of relationship differs between upstream and downstream.

The scarcity of natural resources and the problem of pollution have initiated the need for extending the life and use of existing products. The concept of the reverse supply chain provides an opportunity to recover value from discarded products. The potential for recovery and the improvement of value in the reverse supply chain of apparel has been barely studied. In this research, a novel modularized redesign model is developed and applied to the garment redesign process. The concept of modularization is used to extract parts from the end-of-use or end-of-life of products. The extracted parts are reassembled or reconstructed with the help of a proposed group genetic algorithm by using domain and industry-specific knowledge. Design fitness is calculated to achieve the optimal redesign. Subsequently, the practical relevance of the model is investigated with the help of an industrial case in Sweden. The case study finding reveals that the proposed method and model to calculate the design fitness could simplify the redesign process. The design fitness calculation is illustrated with the example of a polo t-shirt. The redesigned system-based modularization is in accordance with the practical situations because of its flexibility and viability to formulate redesign decisions. The grouping genetic algorithm could enable fast redesign decisions for designers.

The present paper aims to explore the current clothes reuse business in order to develop a charity-driven model for the reuse-based clothing value chain. An exploratory study was carried out in Sweden to understand the business flow of clothes reuse. This study builds on the insights gained from the multiple charities involved in the reuse-based clothing value chain. Semi-structured interviews along with direct and participatory observation were used for data collection. In the current study of Swedish charities, the founders and senior managers of the organizations were interviewed. This paper provides several insights in the form of propositions and a model related to different drivers of the reuse-based clothing value chain. In this model, business factors (system, legislation, and awareness), product factors (design, quality, and price), and consumer attitude as donor/buyer are found to be key drivers. Product design, quality, and price depend upon clothes brand, construction, and material, which are collectively important for the sale of used products. In the future, researchers are encouraged to test the present set of propositions and the proposed model across different cultural settings. The model can serve as a framework for practitioners and will be helpful for designing business strategies based on the different factors identified in this study.