Manrags offers men’s, women’s and kids’ socks on a subscription basis. (Source: supplied) Subscription sock business Manrags has launched the world’s first digital direct-to-consumer textile recycling initiative in an effort to keep unwanted clothes out of landfill and combat the effects of fast fashion. And already the program has diverted over 50,000 kilograms from landfill. “It gives consumers the opportunity to pack a box of old unwanted textiles and place it out the fr
ut the front of their house. Then one of our courier partners will bring it to us in Victoria for sorting to be repurposed, recycled or reused,” Manrags founder Michael Elias told Inside Retail.
According to Textile Beat, Australians individually buy an average of 27 kilograms of textiles each year and discard about 23 kilograms into landfill – about 85 per cent. Approximately two thirds of this waste will never break down.
According to Elias, Manrags was “accidentally sustainable” due to its subscription model which limits overproduction.
“We’ve put our hand up and said, ‘It makes no sense for us to exist just to produce a product and call it a day.’ We’ll take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of our product,” Elias said.
“And then we asked, ‘Why would we stop at our products? Why not do it for everyone’s products?’”
As a result, the business has been inundated with requests from fashion designers who are looking to donate offcuts from the manufacturing process.
Designer Kit Willow will be launching a line made from recycled denim under her Kitx brand after agreeing to take every piece of unwearable, non-reusable denim submitted.
“If there is a reuse opportunity, we reuse. We have an open door for charities to take what they want. They can sell it in their op shop or give it to homeless shelters,” Elias explained.
“The opportunity for textile recycling is great, and around the world, people are investing in solutions to produce other materials and create true circularity.”
And while Manrags is on track to reach revenue close to a million dollars this year, the business also launched an equity crowdfunding campaign with Birchal to scale it up.
“There are actually three parts of our capital raise – the first is to grow and scale the offering. We want to partner up with companies around Australia to help them find a solution for returns. We know that people want this solution,” Elias said.
“The next one is the focus on sustainability in Australia [and] looking at our product. We believe in the triple bottom line – purpose, planet and profit. What has seen us achieve success is customers becoming advocates for our brand and product, but there aren’t a lot of people who are purely interested in colourful, quirky socks.
“We want to make an investment to create a broader range with a circular-first approach. We’re working to release our first prototype socks that incorporate recycled cotton.”
Part of this capital raising will also help Manrags to invest in machinery to conduct sorting and recycling locally, which is normally outsourced to India.
Additional reporting by Heather McIlvaine
