{"id":162215,"date":"2025-04-25T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=162215"},"modified":"2025-04-22T15:11:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T13:11:05","slug":"how-wrangler-created-affordable-circular-jeans-for-walmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/how-wrangler-created-affordable-circular-jeans-for-walmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How Wrangler created affordable \u2018circular\u2019 jeans for Walmart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/trellis.net\/article\/wrangler-kontoor-affordable-circular-jeans-walmart\/#\"><\/a>Key takeaways:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The pants stand out for their low price point and high percentage of recycled material.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Brands, yarn and fabric makers, working with nonprofit Accelerating Circularity, collaborated to build a circular production system.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The effort demonstrated that blending fiber from secondhand clothes with virgin cotton is technically feasible for denim at scale.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"626\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/04\/WranglerAcceleratingCircularity2025.webp\" alt=\"Wrangler x Accelerating Circularity jeans debuted on March 7. \" class=\"wp-image-162262\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.6357827476038338;width:694px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/04\/WranglerAcceleratingCircularity2025.webp 1024w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/04\/WranglerAcceleratingCircularity2025-300x183.webp 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/04\/WranglerAcceleratingCircularity2025-150x92.webp 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/04\/WranglerAcceleratingCircularity2025-768x470.webp 768w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/04\/WranglerAcceleratingCircularity2025-400x245.webp 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wrangler x Accelerating Circularity jeans debuted on March 7.\u00a0\u00a9 Trellis \/ Wrangler<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Wrangler\u2019s latest jeans for Walmart are the first relatively inexpensive fashion product to feature a significant amount of recycled cotton from used clothes. The dark men\u2019s jeans, which are also recyclable, debuted March 7 and were the result of a collaboration with waste collectors, yarn spinners and denim makers to scratch-build a circular manufacturing system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The $39.99 Accelerating Circularity jeans contain 26 percent recycled cotton, half from pre-owned garments and half from factory discards.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat is the thing, that it can go to the mass market level,\u201d said Dhruv Agarwal, vice president of innovation and research and development at Wrangler\u2019s parent company, Kontoor Brands. \u201cThat is the signal we are sending \u2014 that we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The jeans are double the price of other Wranglers at Walmart but remain less costly than others with recycled fibers. For example, in 2022 Levi\u2019s Circular 501 jeans, costing more than $100 each,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/trellis.net\/article\/3-lessons-bankruptcy-circular-fashion-startup-renewcell\/\">blended recycled Circulose material from waste textiles with organic cotton<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Wrangler made fewer than 2,000 of the new jeans for online sales only, circularity advocates see them as a sign of things to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWrangler\u2019s Accelerating Circularity jean stands out by utilizing pre-existing waste, effectively giving materials a second life,\u201d said Chana Rosenthal, founder of reDesign consulting in New York City and a former Ralph Lauren denim design director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a hero story,\u201d said Lauren Fay, founder of the Seattle fashion sustainability consultancy BFG Lab. \u201cI hope that Walmart and Wrangler have aggressive plans to scale this model that is not connected to the ROI on the jeans project.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/trellis.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/WranglerMensACPStraightFitJean.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"The Wrangler x Accelerating Circularity jeans at Walmart.com.\" class=\"wp-image-73860\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.8188277087033748;width:766px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Wrangler x Accelerating Circularity jeans on Walmart.com. \u00a9 Walmart<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The effort is Kontoor Brands\u2019 latest experiment to diversify sourcing and therefore reduce dependence on natural resources, including virgin cotton and water, according to Agarwal. However, further mainstreaming circular fashion requires driving down the costs of materials and processes that treat waste as a resource \u2014 which policies and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/trellis.net\/article\/this-polyester-t-shirt-can-be-recycled-forever-if-french-startup-carbios-has-its-way\/\">advances in chemical recycling<\/a>&nbsp;could accelerate, he added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou cannot just achieve 100 percent recycled; you basically start somewhere,\u201d Agarwal said. \u201cYou need to see the economies of scale. You need to see the quality of the product. It\u2019s a dynamic, continuous improvement process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Kontoor\u2019s climate targets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Kontoor, spun off from VF Corporation in 2019, is based in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Wrangler jeans emerged in the late 1940s as a favorite among rodeo cowboys. Kontoor also runs the 136-year-old Lee and 3-year-old Rock &amp; Republic denim brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using more recycled materials is a small but important component of the corporation\u2019s goal, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, to shrink emissions by 46.2 percent by 2030 across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 over a 2019 baseline, according to Agarwal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company is developing a strategy for \u201ccircular pathways\u201d of recycling, resale, upcycling, reuse and repair, according to Agarwal. Designing durable garments with circularity principles is another element. Among Kontoor\u2019s other attempts to advance circularity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2023, a Circularity Working Group at Kontoor began embedding circular principles into product design standards. Designers and product developers also work together with procurement and sustainability staff to incorporate circular principles into garments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>By 2023, Kontoor\u2019s sourcing had reached 74 percent \u201cpreferred cotton,\u201d which includes verified recycled cotton, toward a target of 100 percent for 2025.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2022 and 2024, Kontoor sold&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrangler.com\/shop\/collections-resale-wrangler-reborn\">Wrangler Reborn vintage and upcycled<\/a>&nbsp;denim designs dating back to the 1950s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kontoor participated in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org\/the-jeans-redesign\/overview\">Jeans ReDesign project of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation<\/a>, which from 2019 to 2023 engaged scores of brands to design jeans for circularity.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wrangler\u2019s fall 2021 collection involved an early foray into chemical recycling that used&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/us.fashionnetwork.com\/news\/Wrangler-introduces-regenerated-recyclable-fibers-for-fall-2021,1335873.html\">\u201cregenerated fiber\u201d from Finnish company Infinited Fiber<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to build a circular system<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Kontoor has worked for several years with the nonprofit Accelerating Circularity, which led the partnership to craft the five-pocket Wrangler jeans. Creating a circular production system departed from the typical linear processes of growing a crop, then creating fibers, fabric and a garment that eventually gets thrown away. \u201cWe\u2019re making a transformation, and transformation is hard,\u201d said Karla Magruder, founder of Accelerating Circularity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That effort engaged companies across the apparel value chain. Together, the partners determined how to ensure that the final garment could be recycled, by blending 99 percent cotton with only 1 percent elastane. They settled on mix of mostly virgin cotton, plus waste split between factory clippings and pre-worn \u201cpost-consumer\u201d knits, Magruder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Magruder likened the process of sourcing waste material \u2014 from South America, India and the U.S. \u2014 to growing and harvesting a crop for fiber. \u201cThis is our feedstock,\u201d she said. \u201cBut this isn\u2019t a commodity yet, so we\u2019re having to gather it from scratch and then pre-process it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Secondhand clothing trader Bank &amp; Vogue collected used clothes, and Martex gathered the production scrap. Tons of the material was then shipped to Giotex and Estopas, which shredded and recycled it into rough fibers. After that, yarn manufacturer Parkdale Mills spun both the recycled fibers and the virgin cotton into yarn. Cone Denim wove that into denim on production-scale equipment, according to Magruder. Wrangler\u2019s cutting and sewing happened in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accelerating Circularity\u2019s North American pilot projects have recycled 23 metric tons of waste cotton. The organization plans to recycle 325 metric tons under its commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What sustainability pros can learn from this project<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For Agarwal, working intimately with partners across the value chain illuminated the power of collaboration to change entrenched systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s important, because the apparel industry struggles with scaling circular production partly because the business case is unclear, according to consultant Rosenthal. \u201cWrangler\u2019s successful partnership model provides a blueprint for overcoming these obstacles, proving it can be done. But we need robust financial analysis that demonstrates the economic benefits for industry-wide replication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Says Magruder: \u201cI want the people who are making products to take something away from this. The sustainability people believe in this already.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/trellis.net\/article\/author\/elsa-wenzel\/\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the author: <a href=\"https:\/\/trellis.net\/article\/author\/elsa-wenzel\/\">Elsa Wenzel<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsa Wenzel is a special projects editor and former managing editor at GreenBiz Group. She previously covered business, technology and sustainability for PCWorld, CNET, the Associated Press and MotherJones. Elsa holds an MS from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern and a BA from the University of Iowa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key takeaways: Wrangler\u2019s latest jeans for Walmart are the first relatively inexpensive fashion product to feature a significant amount of recycled cotton from used clothes. The dark men\u2019s jeans, which are also recyclable, debuted March 7 and were the result of a collaboration with waste collectors, yarn spinners and denim makers to scratch-build a circular [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":162263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Although limited in scope, the Kontoor subsidiary's effort offers valuable lessons for sustainability professionals","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,17143],"tags":[10416,11323,22835,10453,22957],"supplier":[22956,13778,26196,690,26195],"class_list":["post-162215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","category-recycling","tag-circulareconomy","tag-naturalfibers","tag-recyclates","tag-recycling","tag-textilewaste","supplier-accelerating-circularity","supplier-infinited-fiber-company","supplier-kontoor-brands-inc","supplier-wal-mart","supplier-wrangler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162215"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=162215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}