The sportswear industry is very related to the fashion industry in terms of the environmental and social impact it has globally. Looking at the UN Sustainable Development Goals we consider that our business model innovation proposal could help tackle the following goals:
Goal 1 – End poverty: the industry can play an important role in reducing poverty through economic development and job creation.
Goal 6 – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all: apparel and textiles are produced in some of the most water-scarce regions, and the industry requires significant amounts of water for fiber production. Textile industry needs to engage in a holistic and collaborative cross-sector approach to address the growing clean water shortfall.
Goal 8 –promote sustained inclusive and sustainable economic growth: the industry can support more sustainable cotton cultivation practices and fluctuations in cotton commodity pricing
Goal 12 – ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns: current global apparel market is estimated at $1.7 trillion (2% of world GDP). Top 8 economies constitute around 70% of global consumption. The industry is testing out more circular models with some success. However, changing consumer behavior will be a large component of the solution to lower consumption patterns.
In order to address the sustainable development goal number 12, “Responsible consumption and production”, we propose a new and innovative business model for a brand such as adidas. The idea is to create a servitization of sportswear based on strategically located pick-up stations where you get your clothes for your work out and once you’re done using them you leave them in the same place you found them.
As a consumer, you have no need to own sportswear, you don’t need to wash your sweaty clothes, you’ll have the chance to continually try out innovations that come out to the market and you know that once the clothes are old they’ll be responsibly disposed or donated.
The social and environmental challenge that this BMI is trying to address, is the fact that sportswear contributes to the pollution of water and other resources in the production process. Added to this, it’s a product that has huge idle time in the wardrobe without being used, so it’s beneficial to find ways to maximize its utility. Finally, once the product is not being used anymore, the brand would take care of its afterlife, making sure that it gets donated or properly recycled.
This new model does not only offer more comfort to the consumer but also does it in a more sustainable way. It builds loyalty among consumers and makes a stronger brand image.
This new way of experiencing a brand and its products can be translated into other categories of consumer products and can be easily replicated in similar environments. Technology and app payment make the process and implementation much simpler, allowing every stakeholder of the transaction to be aware of what’s going on.
It introduces impactful modifications from the supply and demand side. From the supply side, it supports the already traditional of selling sportswear and it expands its distribution reach. All of this is done in a sustainable way taking into account the entire product life-cycle. From the demand side, it offers to a segment of consumers a new and simpler way to source their workout clothing, without the hustle of washing and with the opportunity to try new products in a more sustainable way.
Some of the potential costs and risks we identified are the following:
- Transport costs: Clothes will need to be brought towards the lockers and then back towards the washing places
- Washing costs: Someone who owns his own sportswear is probably not going to wash his clothes after every sports session. In our case, clothes will need to be washed every time
- Disposal of clothes: A sustainable way of disposing of outdated clothes will need to be found
- For scaling this business: lockers in strategic locations will be required. This is not always easy to find
Risks and cost mitigation strategies:
- Transport costs: Use electric vehicles/scooters in combination with a partnership with washing vendors who are very closely located to the lockers
- Washing costs: Use washing products which are eco-sensitive
- Disposal of clothes: Donate clothes and dispose of it in a responsible manner
- Scaling of business: Find lockers which are close to sport fields but also easily accessible for sportsmen
There are also potential negative environmental and social impact involved in the business model:
- Environmental: There is a risk that more clothes are used and that clothes are becoming obsolete more quickly
- Social: Not many employees will be required for this kind of business
Interesting idea. I wonder if this could be directly incorporated into the business models of fitness centers, and gyms. Imagine a class package at soulcycle, for example, could include this service for an additional fee. That would account for the high level of personal preference in the industry, and gyms tend to have washing machine facilities on site.
I really like the idea. It is kind of similar to what hotels offer for travelers who don’t want to load their luggages with gym clothes. However, I wonder if you should rather target a specific sports (people doing cross fit or spinning classes for example). Finding a way to wash the clothes in an eco-friendly manner would also be another issue.
The topic of eco-friendly washing gets right to the point for me too. I wonder if there’s a technology to steam clean sports close to sanitize them? Also removing the smell is important — synthetic quick dry clothing has a way of keeping some odor even when it’s washed. Definitely lots of room for innovation across washing techniques or the textile composition.
great idea! to expand the effort, leverage on existing partnership with known brands / gym chains can help to strengthen this. would also be good to see the % share of sportswear goods in the fashion industry, to see how much impact we can get from utilising this BMI in the sportswear sector. this can help to attract investments from impact investors who are concerned about the reach of the program
I think this is a great idea with a lot of potential to scale up. The brands could also use the sports schools as a channel to receive information from their customers regarding their preferences, for example on to-be-released models/prototypes and feed this back to the design and/or sales teams to optimise.
The nascent market of clothing rentals is definitely intriguing, with more and more start-ups in their ecosystem (i.e. Le Tote, Rent the Runway) and recently a big player entered the picture: Urban Outfitters. Curious to see how it would play out. I definitely see the benefits to the consumer and can see this market/consumer trend gain a lot of traction in the near future.