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Industry Talk

Champion Athleticwear partners with apparel renewal company

Brand launches new collection that expands responsibly made products and supports ‘Be Your Own Champion’ campaign.

3rd September 2021

Knitting Industry
 |  Winston-Salem, NC, USA

Sports/​Activewear

As part of its global ‘Be Your Own Champion’ campaign, Champion Athleticwear is to launch Champion Renewed in partnership with The Renewal Workshop – a company that renews apparel that would have otherwise gone into landfill.

The partnership aims to help extend the lifespan of the brand’s apparel and reduce waste, while supporting the ‘Be Your Own Champion’ campaign inspired by Champion’s consumers, who care as much about how they play the game as the end result. “It also articulates the brand’s commitment to designing stylish, athletic apparel and footwear that enables everyone to be a champion by confidently expressing themselves … and feel good while doing it,” Champion says.

We’re thrilled to have Champion join our growing list of brands, and we’re eager to support the brand in its larger efforts to salvage apparel, giving clothing a chance for a second life

“To us, ‘Be Your Own Champion’ means encouraging consumers to do things the right way and do them with heart – both on and off the field,” said Jon Ram, group president of global activewear for HanesBrands, owner of Champion. “Extending the life of apparel that would have likely ended up in landfill is part of that effort, and it gives our consumers yet another reason to be proud to wear our brand.”

The Renewal Workshop uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to measure the impact of the textile fibres most frequently received, such as cotton, polyester and wool. Using this data, in addition to each garment’s weight, the organization can evaluate energy savings, greenhouse gas reductions, and water consumption decreases, among other things, for each item that is renewed. The Renewal Workshop then sorts, grades, thoroughly sanitizes the products using state-of-the-art waterless technology and repairs them to like-new standards. Once inspected and verified to joint quality standards, they are given a Renewal Workshop tag and made available for purchase.

“We’re thrilled to have Champion join our growing list of brands, and we’re eager to support the brand in its larger efforts to salvage apparel, giving clothing a chance for a second life," said Nicole Bassett, co-founder, The Renewal Workshop. "By having a brand as iconic as Champion begin the process with us, we’re encouraged that others within the industry will soon follow suit."

The partnership between Champion and The Renewal Workshop is part of the brand’s promise to increase the use of responsibly made fabrics and find ways to creatively reuse products to reduce energy use and water consumption during the manufacturing process. As part of the HanesBrands family, Champion’s efforts support the company’s 2025-2030 global sustainability goals, which include all of its brands having a fully circular product or significant circularity initiative by 2025.

Champion has already made significant progress reaching ongoing sustainability goals, including offering classic jersey tees made with 100% U.S. cotton, which is traceable and some of the most responsibly produced fibre in the world; introducing two environmentally conscious collections, Natural State and Rally Pro Earth, in 2021; and manufacturing “Game Day” sweats using 95% recycled polyester fibres, as well as other Sport category apparel with a significant percentage of recycled polyester fibre.

To learn more about the brand’s ‘Be Your Own Champion’ campaign and sustainability efforts, visit www.Champion.com.

www.renewalworkshop.com

The collection ranges from $30-$45 (40% off the original MSRP) and is available at www.renewalworkshop.com/pages/champion.

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