Fashion, clothing and textiles
What is it? Remake Society is a social enterprise dedicated to offering a “one-stop shop for companies that want to turn textile surplus into circular and social impact” (Remake Society, 2026c). It addresses a dual mission of both environmental and social sustainability: through repairing and repurposing textiles, waste and pollution are avoided, while at the same time, these activities are undertaken by people with a distance from the labour market who can reskill and gain valuable work experience.
Why is this important? Worldwide, textile waste is increasing through more production and purchases while items are worn for a shorter amount of time (Ellen MacArthur, 2017). In the Netherlands specifically, for instance, customers buy an average 46 new items every year (Maldini et al., 2017) Almost as many (40 items) are disposed of every year, of which the majority (24 items) is disposed with non-textile materials and incinerated (Maldini et al., 2017). That created around 300 million kilograms of waste per year in the Netherlands alone (Remake Society, 2026d). Prolonging the lifetime of these items could reduce waste, save resources and avoid CO2 emissions. At the same time, Remake Society addresses social issues. In Rotterdam, 20% of inhabitants live below the poverty line (Social Enterprise NL, 2026). Remake Society is located in Rotterdam Feyenoord, one of the poorest areas in the Netherlands that has with many newcomers to the country and mothers on welfare (Remake Society, 2026d). By providing training and employment opportunities to people at a distance from the labour market and students, the social enterprise tries to assist them into work pathways (Remake Society, 2025d).
Main resource strategy: Slowing the loop through extending lifespans of clothing with repair and repurpose activities.
Other resource strategies: Closing the loop by finding repurposing options for textile.
Business model aspects:
- Value Proposition: Remake Society offers dual benefits for both society and the environment through repairing and repurposing waste textile in their social enterprise ateliers that train and employ people at distance from the labour market. They work with companies that have textile waste or damaged items and would like to avoid wasting them (Remake Society, 2026e). By offering repair and repurposing options, Remake Society can avoid the products going to waste and instead give them a new life.
- Value Creation & Delivery: Working with corporate partners, like Jeans Centre and Zeeman, the enterprise can save textile from waste and give it new life (Remake Society, 2026e). Remake Society also works with educational institutions, like Albeda College Rotterdam, to provide training in textile crafts to new Dutch citizens and mothers on welfare (Remake Society, 2026b). After a year of working with the enterprise, students are fully qualified fashion tailors with an official diploma (Remake Society,2026b).
- Value Capture: Revenue is generated through partnerships with companies that would like to offer a repair service to their customers or have damaged or waste textiles that can be brought back to life through repair and repurposing.
Strategies for degrowth/ sufficiency (based on sufficiency strategies from Niessen & Bocken, 2021):
- Awareness-raising: Remake Society works with universities and provides internship opportunities to also help students better understand the textile chain and its waste and design with circularity in mind (Remake Society, 2026a).
- Life extension service: By working with companies that have damaged items, Remake Society offers a repair service that can fix clothing and enable it to be worn again (Remake Society, 2026e). Similarly, repurposing activities of waste textiles such as banners can create new products out of what would have otherwise become waste (Remake Society, 2026e).
Business model experimentation practices: Remake Society was founded in 2022 by entrepreneurs Esther Smits and Loes Stapper with support from the Start Foundation (Start Foundation, 2026). While the enterprise was initiated under the umbrella of sustainable fashion brand Oxious, the founder now considers it to have matured and proven itself through its impact (Duurzaam Ondernemen, 19.02.2025).
Sustainability outcomes: Regarding social sustainability, Remake Society states that it has assisted 96 people into work pathways since 2023 and offered 51 internships to students (Remake Society, 2026d). For environmental sustainability, the enterprise says that it has repaired 2,843 jeans, and processed 2,000 kilograms of corporate clothing, 2,200 kg of textile banners and over 4,000 soccer jerseys into new products (Remake Society, 2026d). These repair and repurpose activities saved water, avoided CO2 emissions and prevented pollution (Remake Society, 2026d).
Sources:
Remake Society (2026a). About. Accessed 12 January 2026 at: https://remakesociety.com/en/over-ons/
Remake Society (2026b). Academy. Accessed 12 January 2026 at: https://remakesociety.com/en/academy/
Remake Society (2026c). Home. Accessed 12 January 2026 at: https://remakesociety.com/en/
Remake Society (2026d). Impact. Accessed 12 January 2026 at: https://remakesociety.com/en/impact/
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About project Circular X
Project Circular X is about ‘Experimentation with Circular Service Business Models’. It is an ambitious research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) which supports top researchers from anywhere in the world. Project CIRCULAR X runs from 2020-2027. The project is led by Principal Investigator (PI) Prof Dr Nancy Bocken, who is joined by a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Maastricht Sustainability Institute (MSI), Maastricht School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University. The project cooperates with businesses who want to innovate towards the circular economy.
Project Circular X addresses a new and urgent issue: experimentation with circular service business models (CSBMs). Examples of such new business models include companies shifting from selling products to selling services and introducing lifelong warrantees to extend product lifetimes. However, CSBMs are far from mainstream and research focused on experimentation is little understood. The research aims to conduct interdisciplinary research with 4 objectives:
- Advancing understanding of CSBMs; their emergence and impacts
- Advancing knowledge on CSBM experimentation
- Developing CSBM experimentation tools
- Designing and deploying CSBM experimentation labs
Funding source
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement No. 850159.
Using this information
When you cite this publication, please use the following source:
Circular X. (2026). Case study: Remake Society – The one-stop shop for textile surplus. Accessed from www.circularx.eu
