Former Adidas Executive Scott Hamlin is turning excess fabric into upcycled merchandise. In an interview with CNBC, he talked about working with Adidas, Jockey, and Royal Robbins and seeing the excess of waste from fabric manufacturing.

His company, Looptworks, takes excess textiles and turns them into products like bags, accessories and clothing. Hamlin said in an interview, “I looked at this and thought, now is our chance to make meaningful change to an antiquated industry.” He now works with Fortune 500 companies and now the National Basketball Association. The Portland Trailblazers approached him to help create merchandise for some of their “green games”

And now the NBA is following suit. The NBA has thousands of excess jerseys because one a player is traded, retires or changes sponsorship, their jersey can no longer be sold. According to Hamlin, ” The NBA said, we love what you’re doing with Portland and we’re switching Apparel sponsors from Adidas to Nike. That meant thousands of jerseys that aren’t sellable.”

The business model has seen significant growth as it gets more company partners, including airlines and Patagonia. The interest in upcycling has increased from a customer and partner perspective as sales continue to grow. Companies that are trying to reduce landfill waste can now use Looptworks to create new products.

Check out more One Green Planet resources on Fashion upcycling including How to Recycle Clothes, Zappos Platform for Sustainable Fashion and How to Reduce Your Clothing Footprint.

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