icebreaker Move to Natural Challenge
CASE STUDY
Created by Redress, 2022
icebreaker Move to Natural Challenge
Textile waste is an environmental issue, with an estimated 92 million tons created annually from the fashion industry.[1] The challenge was for our finalists to work in conjunction with Icebreaker to understand where the textile waste is created within their supply chain. In just six short hours, our finalists were challenged to come up with innovative solutions. Watch to see how the different teams come up with solutions and read on below to understand the learnings from the winning idea!
The Challenge
During the Grand Final Week, Redress held an industry challenge for the finalists to practice their circular fashion skills. We joined forces with a diverse selection of Hong Kong Polytechnic University students, in order to reflect the composition of real-world design and product development teams, working together.
icebreaker wanted a solution reusing their iconic knitted fabric, Bodyfit 200. This incredibly versatile fabric is made from 100% merino and creates products that range from tees to tights, and beanies to underwear. What stands out about this fabric is its durability and recyclability. Within the icebreaker supply chain, leftovers of this prolifically used fabric can be found in both yarn and fabric form, with offcuts varying in size, amount, colours and shapes.
Brand DNA was an important aspect to be incorporated into the design solution for this challenge.The icebreaker identity comes in the form of disruptive design and innovation, so the judges were eager to see how each of the teams infused these concepts into their own solution.
Each team was required to deliver a five minute business concept pitch, introducing not only the product they’d designed but an end-to-end lifecycle consideration so that the waste is addressed from the outset. This pitch included: the insight, the problem, and how their concept can resolve the problem.
A winning Idea
The winning team successfully identified a key hot spot within the processing part of the supply chain.
Image - shows how Team D identified 3 hot spots of waste within the early stages of processing BF200.
Their solution uses the BF200 waste generated during the “Tops'' phase (before the yarn is spun for knitting). By collaborating with the factories, this valuable waste could become padding,which team D recycled as an internal layer for a jacket that also used BF200 as the outer fabric.
They used a familiar silhouette and style for existing customers, yet to attract younger consumers, they fashioned BF 200 offcuts into designs on the back of their garments to create unique limited editions. The padding solution worked to utilise the waste at the early stages of the supply chain and produced an opportunity to elevate Icebreaker products, which appealed to the judges as unique marketability. Using recycled materials as a design feature on familiar products would also appeal to the conscious consumer.
Images Credit: Redress
Judges feedback on this concept included a strong recognition of the icebreaker brand DNA; well thought out considerations on the production stream from end-to-end, and their adoption of the icebreaker language “from Sheep to Shirt” brilliantly. In comparison to other teams, they also considered price control which is an important factor in terms of this idea being commercial.
The fashion industry constantly creates situations when designers are asked to produce solutions rapidly. You may consider what you would do in this challenge and how you would work with others in such a short amount of time. In the video our finalists got the chance to put their skills to the test practice in front of the industry. Would you be ready to take on the challenge?
About icebreaker
icebreaker is part of the Outdoor & Action Sports division at VF Corporation. Organized in 1899, VF Corporation is a global leader in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories, with global iconic brands, 64,000 associates and $12.4 billion in revenue. Their businesses and brands are organized into four categories called coalitions, comprising: Outdoor & Action Sports, Jeanswear, Imagewear, and Sportswear. While VF is highly diversified across brands, products, distribution channels and geographies, their One VF culture and approach to doing business provide a unique and powerful competitive advantage.
About The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
With 85 years of proud tradition and ranking among the world’s top 100 institutions, PolyU aspires to be a leading university with world-class research and education. Their School of Fashion and Textiles is committed to cutting-edge research, and its outstanding research output, both in quantity and quality, ranks top among fashion and textile institutions in the world. In this Challenge, PolyU students worked with finalists to provide their innern sights, added diversity to the finalists and a situation to work with people they may not know.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (2017), Pulse of the Fashion Industry.