Yes

Stitching Together aConscious Collection

A look into SuitShop's sustainability efforts, plans, and goals for 2022 and beyond.

The fashion industry is responsible for 2.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

Discarded clothing is a major culprit, producing methane simply by sitting in landfills. By creating wardrobe essentials woven from recycled bottles to be worn again and again, and through circular retail efforts, we're working to cut this number down.

The SuitShop Standpoint

While SuitShop was built on a foundation of affordability, instead of leaning into fast fashion, we began our business in an effort to slow things down. Thoughtfully designed staple suits are sold to own with a focus on long-term re-use. As we grow, sustainability is planted firmly at the forefront of our goals.

Source: McKinsey & Company, "Fashion on Climate"

Where we started (and where we're growing).

SuitShop launched in 2016 with the goal of providing a quality suiting experience more cost-effective than traditional suit and tuxedo rentals. Ever since, this goal has evolved to meet the needs of our customers—and our planet.

Responsible Factories

From the very beginnings of SuitShop, we have exclusively used certified socially responsible factories with regular audits. Among other standards, SMETA, WRAP, OEKO-TEX, and BSCI assure our factories, materials, and manufacturing methods are healthy and humane.

Fair, safe labor and care for the humans behind our products is an integral part of our sustainability and consciousness.

Smart Sizing

Implementing the Fit Finder, our data-backed online sizing solution, reduced our exchange rate by 25%. We are committed to a perfect fit, and sometimes that means exchanges.

However, we also care about the environmental impact of excess shipping. Calculating accurate sizing before orders are placed means a great fit and less wasteful shipping.

Thoughtful Shipping

Our recyclable shipping boxes are manufactured via Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) certified wood mills and facilities. We ship all orders with UPS & FedEx and have opted into both companies' environmental sustainability programs.

Our participation in FedEx's EarthSmart program supports their commitment to a carbon neutral vehicle fleet by 2040. All packages shipped via UPS are certified carbon neutral.

Introducing Eco Stretch

Better made and better to wear.

Our new fabric uses recycled poly thread with 38% of composition made from plastic bottle waste. Designed with both the environment and wearability in mind, Eco Stretch stays true to classic, crisp suiting fabric but gives you flex where you want it and comfort where you need it.

How It's Made

First, we collect PET bottles—those made of clear, strong plastic. After being sterilized, dried, and crushed into small chips, these bottles are made into pellets. Heated and passed through a spinneret, the pellets are transformed into springs of yarn and wound up in spools.

To create a fluffy, wooly texture, the yarn fiber is passed through a crimping machine. Finally, the yarn is baled, dyed, and knitted into the recycled fabric we use to make our suits.

One truckload of clothing is being burned or landfilled every second. Help us break the cycle.

Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The Earth Day Suit

Creating a 100% biodegradable suit.

In an effort to bring SuitShop closer to the true sustainability on our horizon, we set out to design a North Star guiding our next steps. The result? Just in time for Earth Day 2022, we made one completely biodegradable suit.

The Motivation

This biodegradable suit, what we're calling The Earth Day Suit, serves as an exploration of how we can minimize our part in the worldwide problem of apparel waste. The suits we offer are fashion staples; while a suit may be purchased for a specific event, it can be reworn countless times afterward. What happens after it is discarded, though, is just as important as its green production and reusability.

The Way Forward

We’re using what we learned from The Earth Day Suit—from a new mentality in sourcing materials to production costs, decomposition, and beyond—to help ensure our next steps measure up to our intentions and promises. The Earth Day Suit challenged us to consider the final stages of life for our products in new ways, and these lessons inspire and advance our ultimate goal: circular retail.

The Future: Circular Retail

With thought toward what happens to our products once our customers are finished with them, one of our main sustainability objectives is a circular retail model.

We are working toward creating ways for customers to return their items free of charge for donation or green disposal, which we've begun with ongoing partnerships and donations to Agentcy Collective & Dress for Success. Moving forward, we are considering every stage of life our products go through and their overall impact.