Reimagining supply chains:

Pangaia x unspun Everybody Jeans

A pair of jeans made with PANhemp™ denim in rinse wash features Pangaia’s signature text block, which imparts the plant-based materials composing it.

Uniting sustainability strategies

The clothes make the person; the supply chain makes the brand. We partnered with Pangaia’s denim designer Jonathan Cheung to chart new ways to reduce the fashion industry’s environmental impact. Our goal was to make the greenest garments possible with existing manufacturing techniques.

Guided by Cheung’s expertise, we also envisioned creating pairs of blue jeans that would be as fashion-forward as they are earth-friendly, with emphasis on the former. Committing to sustainability, we decided, need not come at the expense of experiencing style.

We approached our vision from different points on the supply chain. At one end, Cheung helped to develop a new denim fabric that blends organic cotton and hemp, called PANhemp™. Because hemp requires minimal water to grow, this denim is less resource-intensive than conventional cotton denim by nature. At the opposite end, the unspun team worked with Pangaia to implement our on-demand manufacturing process: each custom-fit pair of PANhemp™ jeans would only be cut and sewn only after it was ordered and specced by our fit algorithms.

With the links in the chain hammered out, we devised several styles of jeans inspired by the baggy fit trend. Released in November 2021, the Pangaia x unspun collection could be mistaken for boutique denim, but for its intentional methods of production. Done differently, when the doing is needed.

Pangaia invents fibers from underutilized materials, and unspun produces clothing on demand, to leverage Earth’s natural resources.

Using what’s available when it’s called for makes for less impactful apparel.

Each pair of PANhemp™ jeans is treated with PPRMINT™, an oil derived of peppermint plants that controls odor and reduces the need for washing, saving water even after purchase.

Pangaia

Sui generis in the industry, Pangaia channels materials innovation into a clothing brand for the express purpose of correcting fashion’s wasteful production practices. Its conceit is to transform abundant and often wild plants and foliage into fibers, and combine different fibers into distinct fabrics. In so doing, the company demonstrates the resource efficiency of nontraditional harvesting and manufacturing as well as demystifies the supply chain through vertical integration. Though synonymous with its mission, Pangaia is perhaps best identified by its chic, minimalist loungewear. After all, a surefire way to drive the adoption of ecologically sound production is to make its products cool.

What our partnership shows

The fashion industry supply chain can be reinvented

Reassessing what materials are used to make clothing, and how often they’re used, introduces opportunities to reorganize the structure and operation of the fashion supply chain toward greater transparency. Active management of materials may simplify the traceability of raw fibers, shed more light on field and factory working conditions, satisfy demand for sustainable textiles, and shorten the timeline to bring a new product to market.