WATCH as the curtain gets pulled back on the creation of excess.

Read and learn about LOOPTWORK'S COMMITMENT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

CHOICES, CONSEQUENCES, AND A NEW WAY OF THINKING. EXCESS IN ACTION. GO.

Here at LOOPTWORKS, we are cutting our own trail in the apparel forest by practicing upcycling. This process takes existing materials and makes an equal or superior quality use out of it. With upcycling, the material is already usable and ready for us to turn it into something new, brilliant, and unique.

For the majority of our products, we use pre consumer excess, which is the clean (non-used) excess material resulting from the traditional manufacture of consumer products. There is literally TONS out there, especially from the apparel industry, that we can play with and turn it into clothing and accessories that stylishly give life to what would have otherwise gone to the dump. Plus, you get to look good at a reasonable price, while playing your part in reducing resource use.

How is the different from recycling?

When you toss a magazine in the recycling bin, it doesn’t then get turned back into high quality paper. Instead, each time fibers enter the recycling process they degrade in quality until they become useless . So, while recycling is better than throwing things in the trash and it saves a lot of new resources, it is, in a way, just slowing down the end of life and disposal of a resource. A more accurate name would be downcycling.

Upcycle - The process of using so called “waste” materials to make equal or higher level uses than the original. This is what LOOPTWORKS does, in a nutshell.

Pre-consumer - Materials that have yet to reach or be used by consumers. This is what we use in all* our gear: Top quality, never used, always durable and attractive. (*Exceptions to this rule do happen. For example, our Banner Project takes lightly used vinyl banner material and turns them into awesome tote bags.)

Post–consumer - The waste after you the consumer have had your way with it. This is what gets recycled (or more accurately, downcycled). Very little of our gear comes from these materials but we love the idea of turning old fabric into new one day.

Carbon Emissions Avoidance - An smart way of saying “Pay attention to how you make things and what you purchase, so as to minimize or eliminate unnecessary emissions.” The clothing industry is responsible for 10% of worldwide carbon emissions, and with some thought and diligence, LOOPTWORKS is doing its part to maximally minimize its impact.

Water Conservation - Why is this here? Because clothing and textile manufacturing are an enormous user of water, to the tune of 400 gallons for a single t-shirt! By LOOPTWORKS using materials that already exist, we’ve zeroed out the would be water impact of making our garments.

Closed Loop Manufacturing - A smart way to go. In essence, this is when when all the materials used in the creation of a product, including the product itself, are put back into the manufacture and/or creation of another product when their first use has expired. It's kind of like when fallen leaves break down and become nutrients in the soil for future plants. This philosophy results in fewer virgin materials ending up in the dump or incinerator.

Supply Chain - The process that products travel from material extraction, to store shelves, to the end of their life. LOOPTWORKS thinks there is a lot of room for improvement in the way companies approach this by redefining what “waste” is, minimizing virgin material use, and reducing the environmental impact associated with making new products.

Cradle to Cradle - An obscure horror movie maybe? More like a clever term for closed loop manufacturing, coined by William McDonagh, written about in a brilliant book, and now practiced by innovators in supply chain, material sourcing, and waste.

Story of Stuff - That film you’ve meant to check out for eons that helped popularize and make digestable all this high falutin’ upcycling and cradle-to-cradle business. Go on, here’s the link, watch it now! By the way, they’ve gone on to make many more brain popping films, all on this site.

Revolution In a Bottle - Tasty fun enlightening bio book of Tom Tsaky, Princeton dropout turned worm poop purveyor, now a global upcycling mogul(ish) at TerraCycle.

Wikipedia definition of Upcycling - Oh, if you must, here’s the official definition.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman - Though it sounds like a typical Friday at a suburban nightclub, this is both an harrowing and inspiring book that details how climate change and competition for energy sources are issues that increasingly need our attention. What to do? Hey presto, Geo-Greenism to the rescue, suggests Friedman. In a double win, it not only addresses these issues, it can help us be richer, more innovative, healthier, productive and secure. Yes please!

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins - A hugely inspirational book that first lit the firre under many businesses to change their tune - to one that both benefits the environment and makes a sizable profit. Natural Capitalism proposes bold yet common sense ways to shift how business is done, coupled with solid stats to back it.