Fashion, clothing and textiles
What is it? MONTREET offers a rental programme for outdoor sports jackets. This is meant to offer the usage of their jackets to customers that only require the jackets for a certain period, that cannot afford the purchase price, or want to try the product before buying it. The rental is linked to a repair offering should the jacket be damaged.
Why is this important? The fashion industry has a high environmental impact, in its production and use, for instance through using up natural resources, causing water pollution, emitting greenhouse gas emissions and accumulating waste (Allwood et al., 2006). Clothing is heavily underutilized in the mainstream fast fashion system and the number of wears of a garment has decreased by 36% in 15 years (Ellen MacArthur, 2017).
Main resource strategy: Slowing the loop through extending the product use-time and offering a repair service.
Other resource strategies: Closing the loop through upcycling damaged jackets and left-over textile into smaller accessories and bags.
Business model aspects:
- Value Proposition: Pay-per-use for accessing an outdoor sports jacket for a certain amount of time. This can fit customers that only require the item for a specific event, want to test the item or do not want to pay the retail price. Benefits mentioned by MONTREET include resource saving as well as access to the newest MONTREET products and newest styles (MONTREET, 2020d).
- Value Creation & Delivery: Customers request a jacket in their preferred style and size and can decide on a renting time period. Jackets are sent per mail or can be collected and returned at a pre-agreed outlet. Upon return, the jacket is cleaned by MONTREET, minor damage is repaired and ready for the next lease.
- Value Capture: The rental price depends on the chosen jacket style and time period. Rental for 3-4 days cost between €35-38 and rentals of 5-8 days cost €75-78. If the jacket is bought after the lease, the rental costs are deducted from the original retail price. Late returns are penalized through fees of €50 upwards or paying the full retail price plus a fee (MONTREET, 2020a).
Strategies for degrowth/ sufficiency (based on sufficiency strategies from Niessen & Bocken, 2021):
- Awareness-raising: MONTREET consider themselves a slow fashion brand and promote valuing their clothing items and making the purchase of their clothing a considered decision so that the items are used (MONTREET, 2020b).
- Design & Green alternative: The jackets are slightly modular in that sleeves and the back can be shortened or extended to fit different needs (Keuthen, 2020).
- Life extension service: MONTREET connects its products with an in-house repair service in cooperation with a social enterprise in Vienna (MONTREET, 2020c).
- No ownership: The rental service enables the clothing items to be used more intensely, potentially replacing purchases of new products otherwise.
Degrowth: Future growth is only discussed insofar as the company aims to never grow so quickly that their sustainability and environmental standards are compromised (MONTREET, 2020b).
Business model experimentation practices: MONTREET has started offering the rental service in January 2020 and is currently limiting it to their jackets and customers in Austria but aims to expand the range of products on offer in the future.
Tools, methods and approaches used: MONTREET has used surveys to assess customers’ interest in a rental system, willingness to pay and preference for specific jacket models.
Sustainability outcomes: While no actual sustainability impact outcomes are reported, MONTREET mentions that a use-time extension of clothing from one to two years can reduce the associated CO2 emissions by a quarter (MONTREET, 2020c).
Sources
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017). A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future. Accessed 25 November 2020 at https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/a-new-textiles-economy-redesigning-fashions-future.
Keuthen, L. (2020, January 29th). MONTREET – Nachhaltige Sportswear und faire Outdoor Bekleidung. Pepper Mynta – The Eco Magazine. Accessed 26 November 2020 at: https://peppermynta.de/fair-fashion/MONTREET-nachhaltige-sportswear-faire-outdoor-mode/
MONTREET (2020a). Mietbedingungen. Accessed 26 November 2020 at: https://MONTREET.net/mietbedingungen/
MONTREET (2020b). SDG’s. Accessed 26 November 2020 at: https://MONTREET.net/sdgs/
MONTREET (2020c). Über uns und unsere Geschichte. Accessed 26 November 2020 at: https://MONTREET.net/ueber-uns-MONTREET/
MONTREET (2020d). Unser Mietservice. Accessed 26 November 2020 at: https://MONTREET.net/kleidung-mieten-MONTREET/
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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 2020-2025. 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. (2020) Case study: MONTREET Rent a Jacket. Accessed from www.circularx.eu
