Are activities to protect the global environment something only environmental organizations can do?
One way for us as ordinary consumers to contribute to environmental protection is to buy products with a low environmental impact.
However, it is difficult to understand a product’s impact on the environment just by looking at it on a store shelf. To choose products appropriately, it seems necessary to know about the production process.
The apparel brand land down under offers “circular jeans” that produce no waste by circulating resources.
Yoshiyuki Ikegami launched land down under after deciding to introduce the concept of a circular economy into jeans-making, drawing on his experience as a Community Revitalization Cooperator in Kojima, Kurashiki City.
Here, we share an interview with Mr. Ikegami about the story behind the founding of land down under and its circular jeans.
The information presented is as of the article’s publication in July 2021. Please note that it may differ from current information.
The apparel brand “land down under,” aiming for a circular economy
What is land down under?
Concerned by the apparel industry’s structure of mass-producing products and then discarding them in large quantities, Mr. Ikegami founded land down under in January 2021 to bring the concept of a circular economy into jeans-making.
A circular economy is the idea of using as resources products that would otherwise be discarded once they can no longer be used, and creating the same products from them.
land down under aims to realize a circular economy in jeans-making and offers “circular jeans.”
How to buy “circular jeans”
Circular jeans can be purchased from the land down under website.
They come in six sizes: 3S, SS, S, M, L, and LL.
The website explains land down under’s concept and the idea of a circular economy in clothing production, so take a look if you’re interested.
The background of land down under representative Yoshiyuki Ikegami
Interested in clothing production, Mr. Ikegami joined a major apparel company after completing his master’s degree.
Later, wanting to become more directly involved in making clothes, he left the company and moved to Kojima, Kurashiki City, a jeans-producing area, as a Community Revitalization Cooperator.
To identify new community revitalization projects, he visited many textile-related factories.
Questioning the reality of an apparel industry that mass-produces products and then discards them in large quantities, he came up with the idea of circular jeans.
Even after his term as a Kurashiki City Community Revitalization Cooperator ended in March 2021, he has continued to pursue jeans-making based on the concept of a circular economy as the representative of land down under.
An interview with land down under representative Mr. Ikegami
How he became a Community Revitalization Cooperator
What led you to become a Community Revitalization Cooperator?
Ikegami (surname only)
I was interested in making clothes, so after completing graduate school, I joined a major apparel company.
However, as I had expected before joining, a career at a major apparel company starts with working as a sales associate in a physical store.
Much of the work involved practical sales duties, such as arranging the sales floor and managing inventory, and I was unable to gain enough knowledge about making clothes, which had originally interested me.
Of course, at a large company, there was a chance I might be assigned to a department directly involved in clothing production, such as the production department, but it seemed it would take about five years to transfer.
I decided to quit after four months, thinking that it would be more worthwhile to spend my time in a clothing-production region.
Why Kojima, Kurashiki City?
Ikegami
Generally, clothes lose value when they get sweat stains or fade.
Jeans, on the other hand, are distinctive in that they develop character the more they are worn.
I was drawn to the unique quality of jeans, whose value increases as they age.
So I looked into Kojima, Kurashiki City, a jeans-producing area, and happened to find a recruitment notice for Community Revitalization Cooperators.
His work as a Community Revitalization Cooperator
What did you do when you first arrived?
Ikegami
Through the Kojima Chamber of Commerce and Industry, my host organization, I was introduced to and visited factories producing Kurashiki City specialties other than jeans, such as canvas, tatami edging, and Sanada cords.
I continued visiting places and asking them to introduce me to other related businesses.
I also went to Ojigadake Hill and Washuzan Hill to admire the wonderful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea, joined in residents’ casual conversations at a nearby cafe, and tried to observe what the town was like.
For about three months, I focused on going to various places to gather as much information as possible.
What challenges did you identify?
I visited all kinds of places in Kojima over several months, but I didn’t have many opportunities to interact with people of my own generation.
At companies, older people often showed me around, so the people I became close to were one or two generations older than me.
I also realized that there was no place to interact with people visiting Kojima from outside, such as tourists.
So I came up with the idea of a combined guesthouse and cafe where tourists and local people could interact and visitors could learn about Kojima’s textile industry, and I got involved in setting it up.
Do you have any tips for gathering information about a community?
Ikegami
It’s important to view events taking place in a community from multiple perspectives.
When you organize information gathered in the community from multiple perspectives, you can see that even when it’s the same event, different people can have completely different perceptions of it.
I majored in cultural anthropology as a student.
Cultural anthropology is the study of going into communities, gathering information through fieldwork, and understanding cultural phenomena.
Perhaps my studies helped me develop the habit of setting aside conventional wisdom and thinking things through.
A few years after completing graduate school, I looked back and came to realize that my experiences as a student had been useful in my current work.
About land down under
What led you to start land down under?
Ikegami
As I visited production sites, I learned that large quantities of denim fabric were being discarded because defects such as flaws made them fail to meet specifications.
There are brands that use fabric that fails to meet specifications, but they buy the denim fabric at almost no cost.
In fact, denim fabric is a product with a high cost of materials, and losses from out-of-spec fabric are quite significant for factories.
I felt uneasy about the structure in which the trading companies and brands placing orders bear no risk, while only the factories suffer the losses.
I decided to make jeans using out-of-spec fabric in a way that would reduce the risks for factories.
land down under buys the fabric at a price higher than its production cost and uses it to make jeans.
How did you come up with the idea of a circular economy?
Ikegami
Using out-of-spec denim fabric alone doesn’t solve the problem; if the products don’t sell, they become waste.
So, to make jeans that consumers would choose, I thought more deeply about how to solve the problem, and that led me to the circular economy.
Even when a product becomes difficult to wear, we have begun creating a system based on the circular economy that keeps out-of-spec denim fabric from becoming waste by circulating resources.
We aim to be a brand that encourages people to reconsider mass production and mass consumption by helping consumers connect with land down under’s concept and choose its jeans.
Could you explain the basic idea behind a circular economy?
Ikegami
One common way to reuse textile products that are no longer used is as cushioning material for things like sofas.
Reusing a product to make something else is called downcycling; eventually, it creates waste, and resources do not circulate forever.
By contrast, the basic principle of a circular economy is to make the same product from the same product.
In other words, the ultimate goal is to keep making jeans from jeans that are no longer used.
land down under is building a system to circulate the materials used in jeans.
Features of “circular jeans”
What makes a design easy to recycle?
Ikegami
Because different materials cannot be recycled together, jeans need to be separated into cotton and non-cotton materials when they are recycled.
To eliminate the need for sorting, land down under jeans have no metal rivets, and their sewing thread has been changed from polyester-blend thread to cotton thread.
In fact, polyester is commonly used in the sewing thread of jeans sold in general stores.
We also made a point of using cotton for brand labels and care labels, which are often made with polyester.
To recycle jeans, used products are first cut into scraps about four centimeters on each side, then processed in a fiber-opening machine to turn them into cotton-like fibers.
Removing metal rivets and polyester sewing thread takes time and money, so we designed the jeans from the outset to avoid that extra work and make them easier to recycle.
Is 100 percent recycling possible?
Ikegami
Recycling denim fabric at 100 percent is considered difficult to achieve.
When woven fabric is broken down into cotton-like fibers, the fibers become shorter, so they need to be blended with natural materials to ensure strength and comfort.
However, growing cotton requires large amounts of water, so recycling is said to have a lower environmental impact than making everything from natural materials.
What will you do next to realize a circular economy?
Ikegami
Recycling tends to attract attention, but resource circulation in jeans-making is not limited to recycling.
There are also circular approaches such as repair, which involves patching holes in a product with fabric, and remaking, which involves taking a product that can no longer be worn apart into fabric and sewing it back together.
Recycling takes time and money to break fabric down into cotton-like fibers, and carbon dioxide is emitted during transportation by truck and the process of turning the fibers into yarn.
Based on the concept of a circular economy, it is important to prioritize small-scale cycles with a low environmental impact.
The systems for recycling are gradually being put in place, so we are also considering establishing systems for repair and remaking.
After hearing about “circular jeans”
As awareness of the natural environment has grown, we have increasingly heard the phrase “low environmental impact.”
However, I think many people are confused because they cannot tell what kinds of products have a low environmental impact.
With “circular jeans,” a system for circulating the materials used in jeans, based on the concept of a circular economy, is likely helping to reduce environmental impact.
More specific examples include removing rivets from jeans and using natural thread rather than petroleum-derived fibers for sewing, both of which can also be said to reduce environmental impact.
The vague phrase “low environmental impact” became clear through concrete examples, and I learned a lot from hearing about Ikegami’s efforts.
What I learned through “circular jeans” seems likely to help me identify products with a low environmental impact in other fields as well.
I hope this article will serve as a reference for new ways of making things based on a circular economy.
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