Example: Rapanui
Overview
Apparel producer, who aspires for sustainability and circularity. But goes beyond the usual material, efficiency, and manufacturing promises. They have built the consumer in at the end and completed the circle.
Sector: Fashion Apparel
Link: https://rapanuiclothing.com/
Notable Endings
The end is on the product at purchase and usage.
Financial reward baked in to the relationship and delivered at the end. This helps keep consumer engaged.
Product identified at the end
Integrated in to database product
Return postage covered. Considerate to help consumer off-board and send back.
Rapanui Clothing (www.rapanuiclothing. com) is a T Shirt company working with natural materials, renewable energy and plastic-free packaging. Returning the product at the end is considered central to their consumer experience.
Rapanui Clothing have thought
about the end early on in their product development. The founders, Mart and Rob, have felt strongly, not just about the material side of the business, but the consumer side. They don’t make excess products. Each order is fulfilled uniquely at time of order. They say “Everything we make is designed from the start to be sent back when it is worn out.”
They show a clear route to enable the consumer to deliver the best end possible. “It’s free to send our products back to us, and we pay the postage in the UK. We’ll recover and remanufacture the material into a new product, and we’ll reward you with a coupon that you can use to save money on your next purchase.”
It is common for companies to talk about sustainability in their manufacturing nowadays. They offer their circular economy credentials and quote their use of recycled materials and sustainable sources. But few talk about the consumer’s role in this. The circularity tends to begin with the resources and end once the product has been sold. This overlooks the consumer’s critical role in the whole process. Without this, the process is far from being circular.
Rapanui make the consumer off- boarding experience visible, actionable and creates a bond between the customer and themselves.
