Denim Deal

The Denim Deal was a national government initiative, with most of the preparatory work done in Amsterdam. It focused on the use of recycled cotton fibers in new jeans and denim garments.

Amsterdam has been the denim capital of the world for many years and is home to a large number of jeans brands. The Denim Deal, led by the City of Amsterdam promoted the use of high-performance PCR fibers. Post Consumer Recycled (PCR) material comes from discarded consumer textiles that are no longer wearable.

Results with the Denim Deal

• Participating brands and retailers put a total of 1.5 million jeans on the Dutch market in 2022. Of these, 593,688 jeans (41%) contained at least 20% PCR cotton. This is a relatively small proportion of the amount of jeans that enter the Dutch market each year. The amount of jeans on the Dutch market with 20% PCR increased from 8% in 2020 to 41% in 2022.
• Of the jeans produced by participants worldwide in 2022, 53% contained at least 20% PCR cotton. A substantial growth from 2020. Then 13% of jeans produced worldwide by participants contained 20% PCR.

What was the Denim Deal?

The Denim Deal agreed that brands such as Scotch&Soda, Kuyichi and MUD Jeans would together make 3 million denim garments containing at least 20% recycled textiles.

In addition, all parties agreed to incorporate at least 5% recycled textiles in all denim garments as soon as possible. The deal was part of the regional Green Deal Circular Textiles.

The design of the Denim Deal is seen as a blueprint for making certain types of clothing more sustainable when they’re made with specific materials.