With the launch of the initiative RAW Certified Tailors, Dutch denim brand G-Star RAW wanted to give its consumers the tools to extend the life of their jeans and fight overconsumption. By doing so, they can experience G-Star RAW’s brand mission: to make better quality denim for people and planet. Due to the success of the program, RAW certified tailors are now being trained in other countries, to ensure people not only buy better denim but also wear it as long as possible.

G-Star RAW has always been on a mission to make denim fashion more sustainable.

It is one the few denim brands with the Cradle-to-Cradle certification at the gold level, and it aims to become platinum by the year 2025. G-Star has already launched many sustainable initiatives, such as Raw for the Oceans with Pharrell Williams and Earth colours to make better quality denim that is good for the planet. But making denim the right way doesn't stop people from throwing away their old jeans.

About 87% of all clothing still ends up in landfills. This behaviour must change.

That is why G-Star RAW launched a new initiative that offers people the opportunity to extend the life of their favourite denim and fight overconsumption. With this initiative, G-Star not only shows that sustainability is at the core of the brand, but also helps make denim fashion less polluting.

In every neighbourhood in the Netherlands there are small tailor shops. We offered some of them the opportunity to increase their business by becoming RAW certified tailors. We partnered with tailors in every major city across the country and educated them about RAW denim, our stitching, 3D design, the fit and the fabrics – turning them into G-Star denim experts. We gave them the supplies they needed and specially made signage.

On top of all that, we dressed them in RAW denim and created custom-made aprons.

A PR campaign focusing on the tailors encouraged people to get their jeans fixed by them, completely at the expense of G-Star RAW. At these tailors people can experience the G-Star RAW brand mission in person, which is especially important at a time when many retail stores are closing and people are switching to online shopping.

G-Star RAW has a wide target audience. Its mission is to democratize denim by making better quality denim for people and planet. Most G-Star RAW fans live in urban surroundings and find in G-Star RAW the perfect fit when they buy their jeans. Many people in the target audience are very interested in buying sustainable items, but are still not wearing their clothing as long as possible. Most clothing is thrown away too soon, so that was the starting point of this initiative. We want to fight overconsumption and pollution – not just by educating people, but by giving them the tools to change their behaviour. With the RAW Certified Tailor program, we extend the lifecycle of people’s denim, all expenses paid by G-Star RAW.

We started off with 6 tailors in 6 major cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Haque, Den Bosch, Eindhoven and Utrecht). After searching for the best tailors, we approached them with the offer of becoming a RAW certified tailor. All of them said yes and were invited to the headquarters in Amsterdam for an educational program. We taught them all about RAW denim, our stitching, 3D design, the fit and the fabrics – turning them into G-Star denim experts. We also defined the most common repairs and how to fix them the G-Star way. At G-Star.com, we launched a special page with those common repairs, background stories about the tailors and a map showing where to find them. A video, PR campaign, newsletter and stories on social media encouraged people to get their jeans fixed for free.

The program immediately grabbed the attention of the media and was shared by many fashion blogs and news outlets. The initiative reached over 5 million people. In the first month after the launch, the tailors had already repaired +600 items. Online sentiment was +96% positive. The newsletter with the tailors had an opening rate of +27.4% and 12,500 people visited our tailor feature page on G-Star.com. There were many scale-up requests from other countries, so G-Star RAW decided to launch the initiative in other markets and start partnerships with tailors in the United States, Germany, France and South Africa, as well as in more cities in the Netherlands. The initiative is another brand experience that proves that G-Star RAW takes the lead in making denim sustainable, but more importantly ensures that people not only buy better denim, but also wear it as long as possible.