Sports team recycles clothing from players–creates unique merch

Dec. 18, 2018

Each year, the average American person throw away 80 pounds of used clothing. Meanwhile, in the US alone over 12 billion dollars is being spent on sports merchandise every year. That’s why Tellus Bandy – an elite sports team from Sweden – now are recycling their players’ clothing into a unique series of merch they call "Sustainable Merch".

Each garment is collected from a player in the team’s wardrobe. All with a unique story told in a hand written hangtag, and with a specially designed logo attached to the garment.

The "Sustainable Merch" collection is launched in the middle of the Christmas rush as a response to the 2018 ”Christmas present of the Year” in Sweden, which became the recycled garment.

Daniel Eiderbäck, Chief Marketing Officer of Tellus Bandy, says:

"We wanted to create something unique for our fans and at the same time raise the question of elite sports teams’ responsibility in this important question. Our hope is that more teams will take after this concept"

 

Aksel Örn Ekblom, one of Tellus Bandy’s players, says:

"Fans have a unique relationship to their players. Team jerseys worn by the players are therefore invaluable to many supporters, and they can be auctioned for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But like most people, we have clothing in our regular wardrobes we don’t use"

 

The "Christmas present of the Year" is a kind of award given to a special product each year by the Swedish Retail Institute, in the time before Christmas. The past three years’ ”winners” include the electrical bicycle, the VR headset and the robot vacuum cleaner – which made the recycled garment stand out in a spectacular way.

The "Sustainable Mercy” collection can be bought at Tellus Bandy’s home games and at facebook.com/tellusbandy/shop, and 20 % of the collected money will be donated to charity.