Would you rent a pair of jeans?
Bert van Son is betting that you would.
Bert van who?
He’s a Dutch fellow who owns a trendy clothing company in the Netherlands called Mud Jeans.
Since his website is written in his native tongue, I’ll do my best to translate.
(No, I don’t actually speak Dutch. Fortunately, the grapevine is an English-speaking establishment).
The Lease a Jeans program is designed to help eliminate wasteful clothing production (and wasteful spending).
The gist: instead of owning a pair of jeans indefinitely, you can just keep it for a year before you send it back and move on to something new …
or, at least, new to you.
Image by C. H. Trotter via Wikimedia Commons
Van Son doesn’t plan on making a huge profit from his new venture. Instead, he’s hoping to keep tabs on his denim fabric so that he can repurpose it after jeans have run their course. His jeans are made of organic cotton from Turkey, which he says is quite expensive and hard to source. So, it makes good business sense to be able to recycle his own material. Plus, it cuts down on the environmental costs of producing new products.
“We thought it must be possible to get our jeans back somehow, and reuse them in the recycle process,” he says. “So, we thought, ‘Why not stay the owner of the jeans and let people use the jeans, rather than owning them?'”
Customers pay an up-front fee (about $27, shipping included), and then about $7 a month for a year. At the end of the contract, they have a couple of options: send the jeans back and start over again, or keep them for another four months at the same monthly rate, plus another deposit that will be applied toward the next pair.
Depending on the condition of returned jeans, they are washed, repaired, and put back into service, or they’re shredded for repurposing into new products.
“Cotton is a very big polluter in our world. Even organic cotton uses a lot of water. So, if there is a way of helping, it’s good,” van Son says.
Several hundred people have signed up in the month since the lease program launched.
So, maybe the question is:
Is there anything you wouldn’t rent?
Photo by Harry Poulsen via Wikimedia Commons
Interesting concept. I tend to wear my pants until they: a) fall apart or b) become outdated…mostly, both:-) Until most recently, our recycling center used to accept/collect truly worn clothing & re-purpose the textile.
For his cost, it seems cheaper to purchase thrift store finds when possible. The yearly cost seems exorbitant for potentially a used pair of jeans. I would prefer to buy new, wear them out, and repurpose into a braided rug or rag quilt.
Yeah, I’d rent the jeans. I went to the site, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. Maybe it isn’t for overseas customers. Tho I could email them and ask them. Lots of Europeans speak English, lucky for me.
Hi Nan,
If you look at the top right-hand corner when you are on their webpage, there is a British flag. If you click on that the site will change to (mostly) English.
I went through “checkout” to the point of entering my information and it looks like they are restricted to the Netherlands for now. But let’s keep our eyes open! Maybe they will soon be available to the U.S.A. 🙂 -ace