Swimsor recyclable and ethically made swimwear

Useful information

Team members: Barbara Sorcic Eva Ana Kazic Tesa Jurjasevic Klara Bizjak Bojan Semen
Country: Slovenia
Keywords: Swimwear recycle ethically produced sustainable swimwear sustainable fashion eco-fashion eco-friendly

Short Description

Swimor is contemporary, high quality swimwear made out of recycled fishing nets.

Detailed Description

Swimsor is hand made in Slovenia. We use a infinitely recyclable material Econyl, made out of recycled fishing nets. As a regenerated polyamide, sourced from synthetic waste like industrial plastic, textile leftovers and fishing nets, it is locally re-made into nylon yarn, which is the same quality as virgin nylon. Our yarn has a dramatically smaller environmental impact. Our added value is not only in the material itself but in local production on all levels - the yarn is produced in Slovenia, the material is manufactured 470 km away in Italy and the swimwear is sewn in a renowned factory of intimates in Slovenia. When our customers wear out their Swimsor pieces, they will be able to return them as part of our SorCycle program. The material will be recycled into new pieces or new materials, such as building materials. This way, we’re making the capitalist a better place by pioneering closed loop regeneration processes and delivering sustainable products.

Project Details

Does your design take social and cultural challenges and human wellbeing into consideration?: Swimsor’s goal is a complete integration into economic development of the adriatic local community and including it into a complete circular system of our recyclable clothing. Slovenia and the Balkan region used to be a leading producer of swimwear, lingerie and sportswear in Europe, providing iconic and high quality pieces for luxury fashion houses, as well as early mass retailers such as C&A. Unfortunately, the industry has minified in the last few decades but the know-how is still very much here. We work closely with a Slovenian development company and factory Komet, which is famously known for its work for global lingerie brands and even more for treating their workers as knowledgeable and capable ladies as they are. Our seamstresses are not only numbers, but valuable and fairly paid team members known by their name, which will be hand-written on our labels and their opinion will be consulted. Swimsor doesn’t hide it’s origin, but emphasizes it. We intend to keep our production in the region, as we feel it’s vital to assert the provenance, quality health of all layers of the business.
Our long term goal is therefore to boost our region's employment in the textile production industry and restore it to its previous honor and glory. We vow to stay socially responsible in our production as well as in our marketing strategies - encouraging customers to live more sustainably and rethink their purchasing habits, as well as presenting unretouched pictures, sales strategies - by keeping minimum stock and thus not creating unnecessary stock and finally - in design - by developing sizes and lengths that are well thought out, not only there “for the gram”.

Does your design support sustainable production, embodying circular or regenerative design practices?: Swimsor’s production is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible, including minimizing the impact of transport, using recyclable materials for byproducts, producing very little waste from the material itself and ensuring worthy work conditions for our seamstresses, which are included in the pattern making and design processes.
We have created our own circular system of returns after the customer is done using our product, called SorCycle, which ensures that swimwear is made into new pieces, high quality plastic, building materials etc. We’re wholeheartedly including ourselves into the local supply chain - with our core product as well as with our packaging. Swimsor is sent packed in composted recyclable plant based materials, such as corn, which is compostable in 90 dneh in commercial compost and in 180 days in home compost. All inks used are soy-based, while our wrapping paper includes no acids and has a FDC certificate, which means it’s environmentally friendly, user safe and a byproduct of the circular economy.
Every year, we’ll be dedicating one collection to the protection of animal species, specifically the Hawksbill turtle, which was an inspiration for one of our prints. The turtle is known for its unique shell, which is a subject of illegal mass trade. The species is endangered, so we’ll be donating 5% of sales to seaturtles.org, an organization which helps the turtles, necessary for conservation of the marine ecosystem to get from their beach nests safely to the ocean.

Does your design use principles of distribution and open source?: Our approach to open source is radical, as we’re a completely transparent brand, here for our customer’s needs. We’ll be showing our garment patterns as a design philosophy that focuses on the garment fitting our customer, not the other way around. We will also be abiding to the idea of on-demand production, keeping minimum stock and including our customers into the design and decision making process. Our retailers will be included in this as well, streamlining the process of them adding on-demand products to the inventory. Finally, we’ll be inviting young female graphic and fashion designers to modify or fully design our models. We’ll be using Instagram, GitHub, Reddit and other channels to fulfill these ideas.

Does your design promote awareness of responsible design and consumption?

Swimsor’s brand is all about conscious consumption and mindful consumership. Our web shop (coming in July 2020) will be pre-orders only, which will reduce the stock and transportation costs for multiple orders to the factories.
The future collections will be add-ons to the current and past ones, starting in 2021, when we’ll be adding loungewear to our assortment. This way, our customers will be able to mix and match pieces and not rebuild their wardrobes every fickle and trendy season. We will also use our social platforms to promote our brand, and to invite our customers to co-create our products according to their needs.
We’re also thinking about the maximum longevity of our product and therefore developing a locally produced, high standard soap for swimwear and later - intimates. All our pieces are made from Econyl and sophisticated dyes, which are chlorine, sun and sunscreen resistant.

We’ll be utilizing an inhouse-made size determination system on our website, which will assign the most accurate size option to our customers. This way, we’ll reduce returns.