Giving a new life to about 20,000 pairs of post-consumer jeans and transforming them into high-quality recycled feedstock for a textile-to-textile recycled denim capsule is a hard challenge.

Re&Up Recycling Technologies, a circular-tech company part of Sanko Group, has reached this goal through a strategic collaboration with American denim brand Madewell and global fabric manufacturer Isko. Together they developed the Madewell x Re&Up X Isko capsule collection . 

Re&UP operates through a seamless circular ecosystem that transforms end-of-life textile waste into high-quality raw materials at scale. They are next-gen cotton and next-gen polyester obtained by recycling textiles into new fibers that maintain the same performance as virgin ones.

Madewell, a US premium denim founded in 2006, is known for its commitment to responsibly sourced materials and sustainable practices. 

The company was already involved in offering year-round denim recycling through its Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green™ program, and it has accomplished its denim trade-in initiative for more than a decade, giving worn denim a new life and collecting and recycling over two million pairs of jeans.

The new partnership marks a technical evolution, as Re&Up’s advanced recycling technology allows these pre-loved garments to be deconstructed and re-engineered into next-gen cotton and polyester fibers whose durability and aesthetic meet the requirements of the premium denim market.

Re&Up’s proprietary process can handle diverse polycotton blends and turn them into a “raw canvas” for new production. The global denim specialist Isko engineered the resulting fibers into Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certified fabrics that maintain the stretch, strength, and comfort required by modern consumers.

The new Madewell x Re&Up X Isko capsule collection is available on madewell.com since yesterday, April 8 at prices ranging between €148 and €185 for jeans, and €88 for shorts.

“Closing the loop on post-consumer denim requires industrial precision,” said Marco Lucietti, head of global marketing and communications, Re&Up.