FOR BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTS
The fashion industry is facing major challenges, and it is inevitable that our products consume resources. There is no point in turning a blind eye to this fact. That's why we design high-quality, timeless clothing that will stay with you for a long time and treat our planet's resources with respect. We are continuously expanding the use of preferred fibers and ensure that we use advanced materials which generate social and environmental value, through industry-specific certifications.
of the used cotton originated from preferred sources. Cotton is our largest fiber group, accounting for 48% of all fibers used.
of the wool used originated from preferred production. Materials of animal origin - mainly sheep's wool and leather - were used in 21% of our products in 2023, making them one of the three most important material groups.
of the regenerated fibers used came from preferred production. Innovative fibers made from renewable raw materials accounted for 9% of the total fiber volume in 2023.
of the synthetic fibers used consisted of recycled polyester made from PET bottles. In 22% of our styles, synthetic fibers complement natural materials with specific properties.
Using and wearing products of animal origin means taking responsibility. We are therefore committed to sourcing materials of animal origin from responsible sources.
Can we claim with complete certainty that our products are vegan? No, because not even our suppliers can do so. Animal products are simply everywhere and despite our best efforts to be transparent, they can be hidden even in our suppliers' dyes and detergents. That's why we don't label our products as vegan. However, we do know whether products contain primary animal parts or not. In our online store, we label them with the note: “This product does not contain animal materials”.
Nobody likes harmful substances, they don't just spread bad vibes, they are toxic and poison their environment. To ensure that your relationship with your favorite DRYKORN item is non-toxic from the get-go, our suppliers adhere to the strict requirements of our list of banned harmful substances. Most of our suppliers have also signed up to the requirements of the ZDHC MRSL. Additionally, we rely on renowned certificates such as STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®. To ensure that our products comply with our requirements and the strict substance limits, we carry out regular spot checks with accredited laboratories at various points along the value chain.
Wear that same shirt! All right, same shirt, here we go! Some clothes are like songs that are stuck in our heads - we can't get rid of them. Even better: the more often you wear your pieces instead of buying new clothes, the smaller your ecological footprint will be. That's why we do everything we can to ensure that our products stand the test of time. And you can do a lot too, to extend the life of your favorite piece. In our Circularity Guides you will find valuable tips on care, repair, resale, and recycling. Unfortunately, not every product gets a happy ending. Instead of simply discarding unwearable or faulty textiles and fabric samples, we work with TURNS®, who recycle these old garments into new yarn or industrial textiles.
Reuse, resell, refurbish - the diverse world of the circular economy is full of r-imperatives. However, the reality is that most textile waste is unfortunately still incinerated, and its value ends up in smoke. If a garment is disposed of correctly though, it will be recycled at the end of its life.
Every day we strive to ensure that our products accompany their owners for a long time before their final journey. But at some point, the life of a DRYKORN product also comes to an end. We take the inevitable into account right from the start of the design process and lay the foundations for complete recycling. For this to be possible, however, several requirements must be met - especially for textiles.
Ideally, recycling is a process in which waste materials of the same or a similar type are collected and processed into raw materials for new products. For this reason, we favor mono materials, which are fabrics that consist of a single type of fiber. If we use fiber blends, we prefer recyclable blends that are ideal for fiber-to-fiber recycling. Subtracting unnecessary trims like buttons, labels, or ribbons already in the design process reduces the recycling effort and increases the purity of the recovered fibers.
The recycling process is complex, but recycling saves a lot of energy, CO₂ and chemicals compared to the production of new fibers. As a result, the process not only indirectly conserves land, but also - in the case of recycled wool - does not require any animal husbandry at all.
Types of recycling
Our employees and suppliers are continuously trained in the latest in textile recycling technology. Here is a summary of the most important information so that you can show off in the next discussion with your friends:
Chemical recycling is used for materials that are difficult to recycle mechanically. In this process, plastics - the polymers - are broken down into their basic units - the monomers - or other basic chemical substances. It enables the production of high purity granulates but requires a considerable amount of chemicals and high temperatures, which makes it complex and expensive. While this is mostly done with plastics, cellulose fibers like cotton can also be chemically processed into a raw material for regenerated fibers.
Mechanical recycling is mainly used for natural materials and usually works without chemicals. However, the process also has its limits. Tearing up textile surfaces using tambour rollers shortens the fibers with each repetition. Therefore, the addition of virgin fibers is necessary in the production of new yarns. As with paper, this process cannot be repeated indefinitely, as the fiber quality decreases with each circulation. Current estimates claim three recycling cycles to be the limit.
Our partnership with hey circle.
We believe that not only our products deserve a long life. For this reason, we have been using reusable shipping boxes from hey circle in our intralogistics for some time now. Hey circle boxes are not only a practical, but also a low-carbon solution. According to an environmental assessment by Ökopol, most of the emissions in the life cycle of disposable boxes are generated during their production. With hey circle boxes, emissions and waste volumes are reduced compared to single-use boxes after just ten cycles. After 50 cycles, hey circle boxes produce 94% less packaging waste and 76% less CO₂ than 50 single-use cardboard boxes. The boxes are made from recyclable materials and, since summer 2023, also partly from recycled materials. Although there are still challenges, we hope to be able to expand the use of hey circle boxes in the future.
Learn more
Used textiles are more than just waste and are far too valuable to simply go up in smoke. Still, many used textiles are incinerated or end up in landfills in developing countries. To counteract this, we started collecting our used textiles, fabric samples, irreparable returns and other textile waste for the company TURNS® in mid-2023.
In 2023, we shipped in 537 kg of textile waste in total, of which the smaller share of 93.5 kg came from used and irreparable textiles and 444 kg from textile swatches and samples. The textile swatches are used by TURNS® and their partners to build a fiber database due to the wide variety of materials and blends occurring in the samples.
TURNS® pursues the goal of finding the highest quality value retention option for each fiber. The main goal is to recover fibers for yarn production. If this is not possible, other reasonable recycling options are examined. Using AI-based material analysis methods, used textiles are sorted by fiber type and collected according to color and quality.
TURNS® sort the textiles themselves and collaborate with partners in Germany, Portugal, and the Netherlands for further processing.
Preferred materials? What does that even mean?
At its core, our understanding of preferred materials lies in their difference to conventional materials. We simply do not want to stylize the fibers, materials and trims that are currently on the market as “better” options in an ecological and social sense, nor do we want to call them “sustainable” or “green”. Why? Because the search for the final solution to the resource nexus has no answer, it is a never-ending (for now) “work-in-progress”. Nevertheless, we want to be transparent here too and show you which preferred materials we commonly select for the DRYKORN products that make up our brand.
Cotton is one of our most important fibers. It is skin-friendly, breathable, very durable with the right care and biodegradable. Sounds like a real showcase fiber, if it weren't for the labor- and water-intensive cultivation in monocultures.
Better Cotton
We partner with Better Cotton to improve cotton farming globally. Better Cotton’s mission is to help cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment. Better Cotton is sourced via a system of mass balance. This means that Better Cotton cannot be physically traced back to the end products. However, Better Cotton farmers benefit from the demand for Better Cotton in the same quantities as the cotton we “source”. We are committed to the goal of sourcing 95% of our cotton as "preferred cotton" by 2024.
Organic cotton
Of course we use organic cotton! We source organic cotton in accordance with recognized certification standards, which set strict criteria for organic farming. No use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or genetically modified seeds while adhering to crop rotation in the fields - sounds great, but controlled organic cotton cultivation is rare and the quantities available are very small and expensive. In 2023, only 4% of our cotton was organically grown.
Renewable cotton
Renewable cotton goes even one step further, as organic farming is taken for granted here. The aim of regenerative cultivation is to enable farmers to grow sustainable, permanently fertile, and resilient cotton plantations. We find this incredibly exciting and keep an eye on it, but the topic is still in its infancy and the fibers are not available to us at this point in time.
Manmade Cellulosic Fibers (MMCFs)
Viscose, cupro, lyocell... cellulose fibers have many names, but ultimately they all have one thing in common: they’re made from cellulose derived from plant matter, which is turned into a spinnable fiber through efficient chemical processes. Specifically, this means that regenerated fibers – under which MMCFs are also known - are made from wood, bamboo or cotton linters and are therefore produced from renewable raw materials. Responsible management of the forests whose trees are used for fiber production is, of course, a must. In our collections, we therefore pay strict attention to sourcing regenerated fibers only from preferred sources.
Leather
First and foremost: we do not use leather from exotic or endangered animal species. All the leather we use is a by-product of the food industry. Nonetheless, we are aware that by purchasing leather, we are sharing responsibility for the way animals are kept and are not merely acting as “waste recyclers” in the meat industry. We are considerate when choosing leather and use it consciously. Further processing, especially the tanning of leather, can also have an enormous environmental impact. All tanneries from which we source leather are therefore audited and certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG) and have at least a “Silver” rating. The LWG evaluates environmental, social, and legal factors in its audits and is regarded as a benchmark in the evaluation of leather companies.
In its audits, the LWG evaluates, among other things:
It must be noted, that there are always innovations in the field of better leather tanning: the vegetable tanning process of one of our suppliers for example not only replaces chrome tanning with a completely vegetable (vegetal) tanning process, but also combines it with an innovative dry tanning process. Veggie waste such as cashew shells and wastewater from olive oil production are used in the tanning process instead of chrome, which is potentially harmful to health and the environment, while - according to our supplier's estimates – saving up to 30% of water.
We associate leather with longevity, naturality, and robustness. Time gives some of your favorite pieces a unique patina. This makes leather clothing a timeless and, with good care, lifelong companion. Nevertheless, rest assured that we are not standing still here either and are always on the lookout for alternatives. For example, we have attached kraft paper compound patches (known as “Jacron”) to around a third of our 2023 five-pocket jeans instead of ones made from genuine leather.
Wool
Wool plays a crucial role in our collections. We use wool from sheep, alpaca, and cashmere goats, with sheep's wool making up the largest proportion. Our preferred type of sheep’s wool is mulesing-free wool. Mulesing is a painful process that is carried out on young sheep without anesthesia. It involves removing flaps of skin from the animal's hindquarters to prevent maggot infestation. It’s considered an unethical and cruel method, which we aim to not support with our business activities. In addition to this preferred wool type, we also use recycled wool. In total, 63% of the sheep's wool in the 2022/2023 financial year was sourced from preferred production and we are working on reaching the 100% mark.
Plastic fibers make up about one fifth of our total fiber volume. They are either produced from primary fossil fuels such as oil or gas or are recycled from existing plastics. The state of the art is quite advanced here, with the result being that many plastic textiles on the market are already made from recycled materials such as PET bottles. Parts of our collection also contain recycled plastic.
It is a serious concern that plastic fibers deteriorate during washing and end up as microplastics in our sewers, sewage treatment plants and ultimately in our local bodies of water and the oceans. We therefore recommend that you wash your DRYKORN items which contain synthetic fibers in special laundry bags. This protects both: the environment and your favorite piece of clothing.
Our recommendation:
Guppyfriend laundry bag
Although their reputation has sometimes rightly suffered, plastics are important for giving textile products a unique look and feel. In our products we therefore use various plastics, including recycled ones, such as polyester, polyamide, elastane or polyacrylic.
To ensure that your favorite DRYKORN item lasts as long as possible, we have put together the most important care tips for you:
