What is a Circular Strategy?
January 10, 2024
I have the great privilege of being an advisor to a circular children’s brand, Jackalo. I spend an hour every month discussing circular strategy and operations with Marianna, the founder and CEO.
I think there is great value in sharing more detail about what a ‘circular strategy’ looks like and how it comes to life. With Marianna’s approval, I plan to share a regular update of their circular strategy in this newsletter.
Before we get into Jackalo’s strategy, it’s really, truly important to understand the larger context of their brand and product. Marianna started the brand to make high quality, durable children’s clothes that could be used and reused by many kids. She makes clothes with the intention of them being used by wild little people; the knees in her pants are standard reinforced and designed for repair; she uses GOTS Certified fabric so she can be confident it’s not harming the environment in it’s creation; she works with a Fair Trade certified factory to be sure the people that sew Jackalo’s clothes are being treated well and paid fairly. All of these are favorable conditions to build a circular strategy upon. It also all means that her first quality products aren’t exactly cheap; one of their bestselling pant styles is $61. While that’s affordable for some, it isn’t for all, which is actually another great condition for circularity! In my experience, a high-quality product that isn’t cheap is a strong indicator for resale value. People see the value in your products and that value is maintained for the rest of that product’s life cycle. (Just to illustrate this, I encourage you to imagine how long you plan to use or pass on your most recent fast-fashion purchase versus a higher-quality investment piece.)
Here’s how Marianna frames the topic:
Circularity is important to me because we know that secondhand clothes are the most sustainable option, but too often kids' clothes don't last until the secondhand phase. It is possible, and I'm a huge believer that when we think differently we can have an outsized impact.
In our first real conversation on this topic, I asked Marianna to share her vision for what circularity means for her brand. She basically spelled out a fully formed vision, simplified below:
New Clothes / Design for Circularity
The majority of new clothes are and will be made from preferred materials including dead stock, fabric made from recycled content, and recyclable materials
Linking my newsletters Design for Circularity and Material Innovation if you want to learn more.
Take-Back
Marianna already has a take-back and resale program, but it is a very small % of her business. She wants to vastly increase the amount of product taken back and resold. In order to increase take-back, she is focusing on new and consistent customer marketing as well as better technology.
She was doing everything manually in Shopify until recently. Her new resale software partner, The Again Co, is offering her multiple plug-and-play solutions to help her track all of her take-back inventory. (Side note: I also advise The Again Co. I did introduce Marianna to them as one of a few introductions to possible partners she could work with.)
She also just updated her pricing. Previously, it was a flat gift card amount in exchange for good-quality products, but now it’s a different amount per category which will help her make sure she can make enough margin on each resale product. She is also doing a $5 recycling credit for any item that is not in good enough condition to be resold. (A best practice! Always reward your customer in some way for bringing your items back to you.)
Linking my newsletter The Post Consumer Textile Supply Chain if you want to learn more.
Resale
Marianna is bullish on resale becoming a large percentage of her business a few years from now. Marketing, take-back incentives and growing her client base will enable this growth.
Interestingly, Marianna wants to learn more about what is happening to Jackalo product after it’s first owner is done with it. Is it being passed on to siblings and other kids? (Personally, I know I sometimes pass on my daughter’s best quality stuff to other parents.) Down the road Marianna may bring on a student group to do some research on this, which would help her make more informed decisions to get her product back and grow her resale business.
Linking my posts Resale Benefits and Success Metrics (my very first newsletter!), and 2 Keys to Resale Success if you want to learn more.
Repair (Invisible + Visible)
Marianna wants to repair as much product as possible. Currently she is doing the repairs herself, but for the future growth of the company she would like to identify an appropriate repair partner who can efficiently repair Jackalo products. The current focus is on invisible repair, but Marianna also wants to do visible repair collections in the future for items that cannot be invisibly-repaired.
Linking my newsletter The Beauty of Repair for those who missed it or need a refresher!
Remanufacturing
Marianna is interested in two types of remanufacturing. First, what can be made from damaged Jackalo products? Can new, small items be sewn from used Jackalo products? Second, can new Jackalo products be made from post-consumer textiles?
Linking my newsletter Remanufacturing Explained if you want to learn more.
Recycling
When Jackalo products can no longer be used, they will need to be recycled. Marianna uses cotton almost exclusively, so the mechanical and chemical recycling possibilities for her products are high!
Linking my newsletter Textile Recycling if you want to learn more.
I plan to revisit this strategy and share updates with you regularly so you can follow along in one brand’s progress towards become circular. One perfect example of a strategic and circular update:
Through the take-back program, Marianna learned that her pant design had a weakness: the drawstring holes were ripping. The pants had standard button holes, but when children don’t know how to tie a bow, they actually pull the drawstrings in the wrong direction and rip the holes. In the next production run she changed the drawstring holes to grommets and hasn’t seen any defects or damages from the change yet.
This is one advantage of having a take-back program: you get to learn where your product’s weaknesses are and improve them, which is a great way to build your brand and your customers’ trust in you. (Especially if you tell them about your improvements.)
I look forward to sharing more with you about Jackalo’s journey so we can together track what circularity means for a real brand in the real world.
Pay it Forward?
I’m up to 468 subscribers (up from 400 about a month ago) and this due in large part to people sharing my newsletter with their networks. I love offering my content for free (and am so grateful to those who have opted to pay for it); there’s nothing more annoying than hitting a paywall (for me personally, it’s one of my peeves!). I get it, especially if you’re trying to make your living off of your writing, it’s a different ball-game, but at least for now I want to keep my content free for those who want to read it for free, SO I’m just saying if you want pay that forward and share it with your networks I would be most appreciative! My subscriber goal for 2024 is 1,000. I’ll keep you posted on progress.
Only Self-Comparison
This is a quote from a self-betterment/reflection newsletter I subscribe to from Scott Mautz.
Only self-comparison. You know the drill. You downplay your accomplishments by comparing them to someone else’s. You convince yourself that you’re not enough. But you must focus on the only comparison that matters: to who you were yesterday and whether or not you’re becoming a better version of yourself. And you must believe that you’re already enough and are getting better every day.
I am quick to compare myself to others which never helps! I think this is a great way to reframe that urge. (And hopefully not be toooo hard on myself.)
Be in touch for whatever reason! I’m friendly and love to meet new people. cynthia@moltevolte.com
Ciao,
Cynthia
www.moltevolte.com
