For Days, a closed-loop clothing line, is turning the idea of consumption on its head.
The company has raised $2.8 million in a round of seed funding led by Rosecliff Ventures, joined by Collaborative Fund and with participation from Bleu Capital, Closed Loop Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Gramercy Fund, Ride Ventures and Third Prime Capital.
Co-founded by Kristy Caylor, former creative director of ethical luxury brand Maiyet, and fashion veteran Mary Saunders, For Days cuts through the fashion industry’s textile-waste problem with a direct-to-consumer, zero-waste membership model.
Customers can purchase one, three, six or 10 new shirts for $38, $108, $210 or $340 a year, respectively. Should a shirt rip, stain, pill, fade, stretch or no longer fit, they can request a replacement as often as they like, paying only an $8 “refresh” fee each time. The new shirt comes with a pre-paid envelope for sending back the old, which For Days will sanitize, julienne and reinforce the recycled with virgin fibers before blending everything into fresh yarn for future products. At the end of a year, customers can opt to keep their shirt (or shirts) or choose to renew for another year at a discounted rate.
Available in several styles for men and women, including a cropped sweatshirt and a ribbed tank top, each item is made in Hawthorne, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles. For Days adopts only 100 percent American-grown, Global Organic Standard (GOTS)-certified organic cotton, a tack it claims has saved the environment more than 235,000 gallons of water and 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide.
“Traditional cotton uses 25 percent of the world’s pesticides and that is polluting water sources globally,” it explained on its website. “Organic practices reduce water usage and employ better land management practices.”
Related Stories
The company further says its closed-loop system has diverted 1,500 pounds of clothing from the landfill. More than 15 million tons of textile waste is generated annually in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The average American tosses nearly 80 pounds of used clothing every year.
“Collaborative Fund began with a thesis that a sharing economy would emerge to monetize underutilized assets and ensure more efficient and sustainable consumption of resources,” Taylor Greene, partner at Collaborative Fund, said in a statement. “So far, most companies have sought to either innovate on the materials or the business model, but few have successfully combined the two. Now, more than ever, we need businesses like For Days to exist and we couldn’t be more excited to join Kristy, Mary and their team on this journey.”
Besides expanding its assortment with new colors and styles for the 2018 holiday season, along with new product categories early next year, For Days says it’s embarking on a “zero-waste manufacturing initiative” for 2019 that leverages technology, renewable energy and water reclamation programs and “innovative principles of biomimicry.” (The last refers to the design and production of materials and systems that approximate those found in nature.)
It’s also designing its own factory in Hawthorne to “verticalize” production and hasten the advent of the circular economy.
“Rosecliff supports dynamic founders building innovative businesses and immediately saw an opportunity for For Days to disrupt the retail model,” said Michael Murphy, founder and managing partner at Rosecliff Ventures. “With a focus on amazing product, a superior customer experience, and a scalable sustainable platform, For Days is poised to be the future of commerce.”