Two big names in the Los Angeles area, Guess Inc. and Homeboy Industries, released an upcycled denim collection, marking the launch of a new social enterprise called Homeboy Threads.
The newest division under Homeboy Industries provides apparel sorting, grading, storing and routing services. The program touts a more lean supply chain for brands and continues Homeboy Industries’ broader focus to provide former gang members with job training, education, legal aid and mental health support among other assistance.
The Guess Originals x Homeboy capsule released this week includes 10 stock-keeping units. The collection ranges from a pillow and dog bed to drawstring jeans and denim bustier. Pricing runs from $89 for the patchwork pillow to $198 for a denim jacket.
The collaboration comes a year after Guess and Homeboy revealed their partnership for an in-store recycling program at Guess stores. Customers are incentivized to bring into stores unwanted garments in exchange for a 15 percent off discount.
Homeboy Recycling, a recycling division of Homeboy Industries, then works with Vancouver-based fashion reverse logistics and textile recycling firm Debrand, to process the items for upcycling, recycling or donations.
“Through this partnership, our employees at our fatest-growing social enterprise, Homeboy Recycling, will gain more job skills and training, which we are very excited about,” Homeboy Industries CEO Chris Zwicke said in a statement at the time of the partnership’s initial reveal last year.
Homeboy Industries originally started as a rehabilitation program in East Los Angeles and is now part of a national network of more than 250 similar organizations around the world.
The link with Guess pushed the non-profit’s Homeboy Recycling into textiles for the first time after focusing exclusively on electronics. Although, with the establishment of Homeboy Threads, the fashion recycling services are formalized under this latest endeavor.
For Guess, the collaboration is in line with the denim maker’s more ambitious goals of greening its product mix. This year the company aims to have 30 percent of the materials it uses be “more sustainable,” will employ circularity for all major categories and all packaging for footwear and accessories will be made from recycled materials.
Guess said by next year its goal is to have 75 percent of its denim made from Guess Eco, which uses Tencel fibers.
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