Is deadstock fabric actually any better for the enviroment?
Ultimately, deadstock is allowing brands to use materials that are already in circulation, which means less resources used in comparison to creating virgin fabrics.
An easy way to understand this is by looking at the world’s most iconic jeans: Levi’s. Levi Strauss & Co. analysed the life cycle of the 501s (which this year turned 149). Over the pants’ life span, they found that more than 33.4kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) would be released into the atmosphere. In particular, the fabric production and fibre stages contributed to over a third of total emissions. So, theoretically, if you were to create a pair of wicked jeans with deadstock that had also released the same amount of CDE, you would no doubt come out on top – environmentally speaking.
That’s not to say deadstock doesn’t come with its challenges. There’s a major lack of traceability and transparency for deadstock, as mills