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Not Your Average Knit: How We Blend Soft & Sustainable

Not Your Average Knit: How We Blend Soft & Sustainable

Feb 25th, 2022

Here’s the deal, at Blue & Yellow, we have high standards. The highest even. The only thing higher than our standards? Our goals. They’re lofty. Real lofty. We want to help save the planet one hoodie at a time.

And if you know you know, our hoodies (and everything at B&Y) are the softest. The fit is fab, the cotton is the coziest and most importantly, they’re sustainable. Meaning, minimum water use, water pollution and chemicals, too. But we’re knitting new fabrics in beautiful colors. How are we doing it? Well, we have a partner that knows what’s up.

As well they should. They’ve been perfecting their process since 1947.

They’re called Recover™ and here’s their story. But first, a staggering fact. Every year, 48 million tons of clothing are discarded worldwide every year. Only 25% of that 48 million tons are collected. (That means 73% wind up in landfills or the incinerator.)

Less than 1% are upcycled into new clothing. Yikes. But your Blue & Yellow purchase is helping to grow that number. At least that’s the hope. Turns out that After School Special was right, knowledge is power. We’re about to drop some in a completely digestible way, because what we’re doing and what YOU’RE doing, really does matter. Recover™ is here to help make it happen.

What makes its way to Recover? Post-industrial and post-consumer waste. Post-industrial, of course, being fabric scraps from clothing and textile factories, and post-consumer being that t-shirt you bought last summer that never quite fit right and made its way out your closet and into a donation bin.

Once these discards arrive at Recover, they’re sorted by material - Cotton and CottonBlend. They’re not sorted by human hands, either. They make their way onto a conveyor belt, a robot scans them and then sorts them automatically.

Next, they go through a process to remove all non-textile materials. (Like inks, tags, zippers, etc.) Once sorted by color, the fabric heads over to the chopper, a state-of-the-art machine that literally shreds all the fabric while maintaining maximum thread length. The threads are then wrapped on industrial spools and sent off to partners to be re knit or re woven into your new favorite thing.

It’s an incredible process and we’re so fortunate to partner with such an industry giant. Next time you pop on your pullover, think of the journey it made just to be with you. Then add a bit of gratitude, tell Planet Earth you’re welcome and maybe, just maybe, pay it forward and gift one to a friend.