In 2022,
The textile industry plays a huge part in our daily lives. As a consequence, it also plays a huge part in our global economy.
In 2017, it amounted to 1300 billion dollars and employed 300 million people in total.
There are issues no one wants to look at anymore. We want to answer them.
The founders
Charlotte is the relentless one in the team, coming up with a thousand new ideas every time you see her. She’s got her focus on issues and will do anything to solve them. She’s worked for a decade on the reuse of end of life products, following one single mantra: nothing should be destroyed. But she hit a wall when it came to the fashion and textile industry… and found a new problem to solve. How do you change overproduction standards that have shaped the system for decades? What if some people had leftover rolls and others could use them? Wouldn’t it make sense to favour new ways, and furthermore, would it not be a way to invest in a more sustainable and circular future?
Eléonore has big dreams for the world and will wake up every morning with the will to make them happen. She started out in textile in Cambodia, within a social enterprise that produced natural fibres and took a stance for environmental protection and women’s professional reinsertion. There was the seed. A seed that sprouted only years later, when she met Charlotte. They shared values and had a common desire to make things change, and their professional skills just matched. That was the beginning of uptrade.
Our story
Building a sustainable alternative to offer dormant stocks a second chance
On a global scale
The downside to it, which can also be seen as a cause-effect scheme, is the sad records it holds.
This industry is responsible for 10% of our world CO2 emissions, uses 4% of the water available, produces 20% of our soiled waters, uses 25% of the chemical products created each year by men, and generates 7% of our global waste.
Today
There are more and more opportunities for everyone to dress more sustainably: local production, recycled or natural materials, etc.
We have gone way past the cliché of sustainable fashion being boring and dull, to replace it with evidence of a more colourful and glamorous fashion.
By creating uptrade, we have chosen to take an active part in this change, by offering a new service: giving sleeping stocks a second chance.
Revaluing
dormant stocks
In 2019
The figures are dreadful: in all the world, an average of 12% of all the fabric produced in a year is wasted. So what does it all become? Not much today.
When these stocks are not simply left aside, they are often destroyed, by being either burnt or buried in a landfill site. We just found this so alarming we decided to create uptrade. By connecting the fabric companies to the upcycling and recycling market, we fight fashion’s fabric waste problem and sustain circular economies.
💪 By tackling this issue, we are also indirectly tackling all the other ones.
Our values
1
Simplicity
Why do simple when you could do complicated? Or is it the contrary, maybe? Today, it has become almost impossible to remember the way the sentence should go. We are taking it upon ourselves to re-establish the order of things and campaign for simple and transparent processes.
2
Daring
Because we believe it has become urgent to react, we have decided to launch this entrepreneurial expedition to get things moving. And that’s not it. We are also highlighting the know-how, prestige and innovation capacities of an industry that has been put to the test by decades of linear economy.
3
Pro-activity
The law is changing and manufacturer’s accountability is being enforced on a larger and larger perimeter. As a result, they are being denied the possibility to destroy dormant stocks and fabric scraps. It is therefore not only urgent to act and provide them with alternative and more sustainable solutions. We are convinced that one man’s wealth is another man’s waste and have chosen to shake things up by making the new economy of reuse and recycling happen now.
