Levi’s: with Wellthread against fast fashion

In a move to slow down the fast fashion trend and to increase sustainability with durable materials instead, the privately held US denim and apparel maker Levi Strauss & Co. introduced its new Dockers Wellthread process for

 responsible sourcing at the company’s new Eureka innovation lab in San Francisco last week. But that’s not all; the new process also takes the environment and the well-being of the workers manufacturing the clothes into account.

“How you make a garment is just as important as the garment itself. Our company has been guided by the same principles since its founding 160 years ago. We believe that we can use our iconic brands to drive positive sustainable change and profitable results. Progress is in our DNA. We invented a category and with that comes the responsibility to continually innovate for each new generation of consumers,” commented Michael Kobori, vice president of social and environmental sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co. "The fashion cycle that seeks to reinvent itself every six months? It doesn't ask, 'How do we improve the lives of the people we touch?," explained Paul Dillinger, senior director of color, concept and design for Dockers.

Levi's focuses on sustainability, environment and workers

According to the company, the new approach “combines sustainable design and environmental practices with an emphasis on supporting the well-being of the apparel workers who make the garments”. Though ideally, this should be a given when producing garments, this is not only the first time Levi Strauss has incorporated these three benefits into the process but that any clothing company has put sustainability, environment and workers in the center.

The Dockers Wellthread design team turned to history for inspiration and studied garments from the company’s historical archives to see how clothing has held up over time. Then, the designers created a pilot collection of khakis, jackets and t-shirts consisting of eight pieces, keeping factors such as water and energy use in the production process in mind and the ability to recycle the garment after its use.

In terms of production at the factory end, the Dockers Wellthread khakis for example are made exclusively at one of the company’s 'Improving Workers’ Well-Being' pilot sites in Bangladesh - factories that support programs that will improve the lives of its workers. They currently focus on five core areas: economic empowerment, good health and family well-being, equality and acceptance, educational and professional development and access to a safe and healthy environment. Apart from making the workers’ lives a bit easier, they also signal to the factory owners that taking care of their workers makes good business sense.

“The Dockers Wellthread process is a remarkable achievement for the apparel industry. The company took a risk on this ground-breaking vision and then supported it all the way through its implementation,” said Nancy McGaw, founder and deputy director of the business and society program at the Aspen Institute that sponsored the First Movers Fellowship under which the Dockers Wellthread line was developed.

Consumers will be happy to know that the design team also placed emphasis on the collection’s durability by “reinforcing garments’ points of stress and making buttonholes stronger and pockets more durable”. And once the garment is worn out – hopefully after years of use – it will be easier to recycle because it is made of a unique, long-staple yarn developed by Levi’s and grown in Pakistan to take advantage of the fact that extremely long staples of cotton can be recycled more easily.

The new Wellthread process is also easier on the environment as it “utilizes specialized garment-dyeing to reduce both water and energy consumption with cold-water pigment dyes for tops and salt-free reactive dyes for pants and jackets”. The fact that the clothes are dyed in the factory and not in the mill is also beneficial as they can thus be dyed-to-order.

For those who are still not convinced, here’s the clincher: Wellthread garments, available from next spring, will be 30 percent cheaper than conventionally produced ones. This would be a first and will hopefully inspire other fashion companies. There is a catch though: The new collection will be sold in stores and online in Europe only, with currently no plans to sell it in the US. If this is a reflection on the US brands and retailers reluctance to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and a broader doubt if sustainability can be successfully marketed and sold to consumers in the US remains to be seen.

But if the idea catches on, it could revolutionize the way we think about fashion – as Dillinger said: "Maybe one day, discussions of the celebrities' red carpet choices will be go beyond daring color and revealing neckline to include the use of sustainable fibers and natural dyes. If you're going to dream, dream big, right?" We would agree.