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High-quality denim is made to last. But as you move through the phases of your life, changes to your taste and body mean that a pair of jeans that suits you today may not be right for you years down the line. To help ensure that your jeans have a long lifespan—whether you’re the one wearing them or not—Madewell partnered with ThredUp and just launched Madewell Forever, a denim recycling and resale program.
Madewell and ThredUp first partnered in 2019 through Madewell Archive, offering in-store denim buybacks and pre-owned jean shopping in select stores. With Madewell Forever, this endeavor has a broader reach, starting with over 3,000 used Madewell jeans available to purchase online and in select stores. The secondhand jeans are all priced between $35 and $50 in regular, petite, tall, plus, and maternity categories.
On Madewell Forever, you can filter by waist size, cut, inseam, rise, price, color, wash, condition, and accents to find the perfect pair for you.
Looking for a pair of 32W dark-wash blue jeans with frayed edges? On Madewell Forever, you can filter by waist size, cut, inseam, rise, price, color, wash, condition, and accents to find the perfect pair for you. New styles are to be added on an hourly basis and returns can be made within 14 days.
Additionally, you can bring any pair of jeans (all brands are welcome) into a Madewell store and trade them in for $20 towards a new pair from the brand or a pair of pre-owned Madewell Forever jeans. Traded-in Madewell jeans that are in good condition will be sold through Madewell Forever, while good-condition non-Madewell jeans will be sold through ThredUp. Jeans that don’t meet resale standards are sent to Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green program to be recycled and used for projects like insulating houses.
Through Madewell Forever, the companies hope to double the lifespan of each pair of each resold pair of jeans and to collect 1 million pairs by 2023—and that would be a notable sustainability win, in line with green company intentions. Madewell’s “goal is to give its clothes the longest lifespan possible, as exemplified through its many ‘Do Well’ initiatives aimed at finding circular solutions to extending the life of denim,” reads a statement from the company. “Through these initiatives, the brand has diverted nearly 550 tons of denim waste from landfills to date and (in 2019 alone) saved 1.6M+ liters of water.”
And while this venture alone aims to make a difference, there’s reason to believe we may see additional updates of this nature in the months and years to come from the fashion industry. According to ThredUp’s 2021 resale report, the secondhand shopping market is expected to double from $36 billion by the end of this year to $77 billion by 2025. So basically, get ready to get comfortable walking in someone else’s shoes (or jeans or jackets or anything else).
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