Last month’s call from the Gap to bring in an old pair of jeans to receive 30 percent off a new pair was a great marketing campaign in more ways than one. With more than 1,000 Gap stores across the U.S. and Canada participating in the drop-off, I’m sure there are people who would like to know what their donations contributed to.
Thanks to customers bringing in their forlorn duds for two weeks, The Gap’s “Recycle Your Blues” drive received more than 270,000 pairs of donated jeans. According to a Gap press release, this matches the amount of denim collected in the four year history of the campaign led by Cotton Incorporated, the research and marketing company representing upland cotton.
The donated denim will now be converted into UltraTouchTM Natural Cotton Fiber housing insulation for 500 homes in under-served communities, as well as for special projects including the rebuilding effort in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.
“Through Recycle Your Blues, Gap and our customers demonstrated our strong commitment to doing what’s right for the environment and our communities,” says Ivy Ross, EVP of Marketing for Gap. “We are thrilled with the connection we made with our customers, and their incredible response to the recycled denim campaign.”
One can only hope the Gap continues to embark on projects like these but might want to employ the savvy entrepreneurial skills of a company like New York City based Denim Therapy where one can fix their favorite denim and re-wear.
The company swears they can fix any hole, hem, or broken denim regardless of damage severity, and will do so with unconditional love, carefully repairing all denim as if it was their own.
Kudos to Denim Therapy for providing a sustainable alternative to offset consumption.