Primark has announced a series of new initiatives aimed at promoting clothing durability and repair. The move is part of the company’s commitment to become a more circular business in line with its long-term sustainability strategy, Primark Cares.
According to a leading climate action NGO, WRAP, wearing clothes for longer can significantly reduce the environmental impact of clothing. To promote this, Primark is launching a range of new initiatives to help ensure clothes can be loved and worn for longer.
One of the key initiatives is the establishment of an industry-wide durability standard, which will be developed in partnership with WRAP through its Textile 2030 agreement. The new enhanced durability wash standard developed by Primark has already been tested on denim products, with 60% passing the new standard. Socks and all jersey categories across womenswear, menswear and kidswear are now being pilot tested in line with this new standard.
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Another initiative is a research project in partnership with environmental and behaviour change experts, Hubbub, which aims to understand the factors that impact on how long clothing lasts. The research will test the physical durability of women’s and men’s clothing of different price points under controlled conditions, as well as examining consumer attitudes to clothing and their wearing and washing habits in practice.
Primark is also expanding its free clothing repair workshops following a successful 12-month pilot. The workshops cover basic repair skills such as sewing buttons, zips and mending tears, as well as lessons in customisation. Primark has also created an online customer hub featuring repair videos that will be available across all its social channels.
Commenting on the initiatives, Lynne Walker, Director of Primark Cares, said: “We believe passionately that more sustainable fashion should be affordable for all and whatever your budget you should be able to trust that the clothes you are buying meet a certain standard and can go the distance. That’s why we want to see the introduction of a durability standard across the fashion industry, and we want to help people learn new repair skills to be able to sew, fix a button or even customise a piece of clothing and give it a new lease of life.”
Catherine David, Director of Collaboration and Change at WRAP, also praised Primark’s initiatives, saying: “WRAP’s research shows that wearing the clothes we own for longer has a positive impact on the planet. WRAP welcomes Primark’s engagement with our work on the development of durability guidelines for clothing and share their mission to help customers love their clothes for longer.”
