Can the circular economy be a tool for brand

revitalization? The case of Petit Bateau and

the second-hand market
This case was prepared by Professors Olga Unilov and Linda Lemarié of Audencia Business School.
It is intended to be used as the basis of class discussion rather than illustrate either effective or
ineffective management of a situation. The case was compiled from published sources, internal data
provided by the company, and interviews with key players.

© 2022, Audencia Business School

No part of this publication may be copied, stored, transmitted, reproduced, or distributed in any form
or medium whatsoever without the permission of the copyright owner.

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 Table of contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3
History of Petit Bateau .......................................................................................................... 4
The second-hand clothing market in France ......................................................................... 6
Who are the second-hand customers? .............................................................................. 7
The Vinted-ization of the second-hand clothing market in France ...................................... 9
Petit Bateau and the second-hand in France ........................................................................ 9
Petit Bateau and the conquest of the second-hand market ................................................. 10
Looking ahead .................................................................................................................... 12
Focus on the place of the internet in the growth of second-hand ..................................... 12
Focus on the development of a rental service.................................................................. 13
Focus on vendor remuneration ........................................................................................ 13
Appendix ............................................................................................................................. 15
1. The essentials of the circular economy ..................................................................... 15
2. A summary of Hugo Clement's documentary "Where do our clothes end up?" ......... 16

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Introduction
"If we love our Petit Bateau clothes, it is because they have a thousand stories to tell."
(Petit Bateau communication [@petitbateau] 2021)

In June 2020, when Guillaume Darrousez replaced Patrick Pergament as head of

Petit Bateau, he had to figure out precisely what he was getting into. His first action upon
taking up his new position was to launch a DBT (dynamic brand tracker) driven by the parent
company Yves Rocher to analyze the brand's health, connection and consumer perception.
The results are surprising, to be honest: Petit Bateau's brand awareness, which has long been
100% in France, is declining, especially among young mothers. This situation was not
expected for this established brand, created in 1893, introduced on the fashion runways by
Karl Lagerfeld and which is, for many French people, part of the national heritage.

Without further hesitation, this new CEO, who began his career at the Boston
Consulting Group, decided to rethink the brand's mission, positioning, and commitments. In
short, he asked the founding question: what makes Petit Bateau?

Based on customer feedback, the new Petit Bateau signature appears in three words
"Freedom, Quality, Sustainability". For Guillaume Darrousez, it was evident that to revive Petit
Bateau; the team will have to rely on the multiple lives of its clothes:

"Because children will always grow up too fast, our clothes are designed to live several lives:
little sisters and little cousins, friends or playmates to discover. Given, repaired, offered,
bought or passed on, a Petit Bateau garment is always full of stories to tell". (Petit Bateau
Brand Book1)

A Petit Bateau garment is made to last, and, therefore, it is also made to be passed on
according to the new CEO. The circular economy (see appendix 1: "The essentials of the
circular economy") and, within it, the development of the second-hand offer becomes a
strategic objective for the brand. Petit Bateau must engage in a new market, still unknown to
the company butthat exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic: the second-hand market.

Nevertheless, how should the brand promote its place and ambition in a second-hand
market dominated by second-hand platforms and, notably, in France, by Vinted? How to
create value for customers to encourage them to use the brand rather than independent
second-hand platforms? Finally, what model of a second-hand brand should be adopted to
satisfy customers and the brand's development strategies?

1 Source from the Petit Bateau intranet (not accessible to the public).

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History of Petit Bateau
The history of Petit Bateau begins in 1893. Pierre Valton opens in Troyes, under the name
Valton-Quinquarlet & son, a hosiery factory specialising in underwear, including long johns
and undershirts. In 1918, Étienne Valton, his son, invented legless and buttonless underwear
and replaced wool with white cotton knitwear. The company had just created the "panties,"
which did not exist yet, at the time, people wearing as underwear, long johns going up to the
knees or even ankles.

The brand Petit Bateau was registered in 1920, inspired by a traditional French nursery
rhyme, "Maman les p'tits bateaux”. The logo accompanying it would have been made, for the
anecdote, by a little girl who was a family acquaintance.

Petit Bateau sold more than 30 million pieces of underwear between 1921 and 1930
and was awarded the "Grand Prix for Innovation" in 1937 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris.
The small company from Troye became a successful brand despite the Second World War.

In the 50s, the Valton family innovated again by inventing a new way of putting on baby
bodysuits inspired by the American soldiers' outfits. Thanks to an oval neckline, this "American
neck bodysuit" can now be put on by the head. In the 70s, the iconic knit "milleraies" meaning
1000 stripes per kilogram, made its appearance at Petit Bateau and quickly became
representative of the brand. From now on, no Petit Bateau collection without the famous
stripes.

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 From the 60s to the 80s, the French textile sector went through a highly complicated
period, mainly due to the development of international outsourcing. Petit Bateau invests in
new production units in Tunisia and Morocco to make part of its clothing. On the verge of
bankruptcy, the Rocher group saved the brand in 1988 by buying it and focusing the
development of the brand on "popular high quality" products.

The '90s gave a new impetus to the company. For one of his fashion shows, Karl
Lagerfeld, artistic director of Chanel, chooses to dress his star model, Claudia Schiffer, with a
white Petit Bateau tee shirt under her Chanel jacket. The brand then became a ready-to-wear
brand also for adults. Several products participated in its development, in particular, the launch
in 1995 of the striped sailor suit and in 1996 the famous yellow raincoat, both of which became
iconic products of the brand. The '90s was also the time of emblematic advertisements of Petit
Bateau, which broke all the codes of advertising for children. In 1994, instead of well-behaved
children, nice and cuddly, we saw mischievous children appearing during the commercial
breaks on television, ready to do all sorts of mischief under the sound of the famous song of
Jacques Dutronc "Fais pas ci, Fais pas ça". The quality and durability of the products are also
highlighted with the slogan: "What is the point of having clothes if you cannot do anything in
them".

Today Petit Bateau is a clothing and underwear brand with over 100 years of history
and is present in some fifty countries worldwide. It employs nearly 2,800 people worldwide,
including 500 in Troyes in its historical site, where the factory still produces 40% of the brand's
knitwear. It launched its e-commerce website in 2006. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the
brand has seen its online sales multiply by 2.5, going from 15% of turnover in 2019 to 28% in
2020. It ranks fourth in the French children's market with a 5.5% market share in 2020, behind
budget brands such as Okaidi, Orchestra and Kiabi (see figure below).

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Source: Euromonitor International

The second-hand clothing market in France

The global second-hand clothing market is undergoing a significant evolution with, in 2020, a
global market value of second-hand and resale clothing estimated at 27 billion US dollars
which is expected to reach 77 billion dollars in 2025 (thredUp’s 2021).

The French Fashion Institute (IFM 2019) estimates the French market at one billion
euros and states that 30% of French people bought second-hand garments in 2018, compared
to half that in 2010. This evolution is mainly explained by the accessibility created for more
exclusive products, but also by the important environmental awareness of consumers (BCG
2020). The most common obstacle is the concern for the hygiene and quality of textile and
footwear products (Refashion 2018 in Statista), which still seems to stop a part of potential
consumers. At the same time, 27% of French buyers mention feeling guilty systematically or
often after purchasing new clothes (Observatoire Cetelem 2020 in Statista). Consistent with
these results, 28% of consumers say they are ready to favour buying or renting second-hand
to help protect the environment and limit global warming. In comparison, 40% already do so
(Elabe 2019 in Statista). A study conducted by Statista in France in the summer of 2021
(Statista 2022), shows that 47% of respondents have already purchased a second-hand
product (all types of products combined) in the last 12 months. For 23% of them, it was a
garment piece, and for 12%, it was shoes.

If the total budget dedicated to textiles is decreasing between 2019 and 2020 (from
888 to 828 euros), the share of second-hand is more important and increases from 8.4% to
9.3% (which corresponds to 77 euros) (Kantar 2020). The study conducted by thredUp’s
(2021) goes even further and suggests that by 2028 the second-hand market will overtake the
fast fashion market. The diagram below offers a visual representation of the distribution of the

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different sources of fashion purchases by Americans. Thus, the second-hand would represent,
in 2028, 13% of ready-to-wear purchases against 9% for fast fashion.

Source: thredUP’s
Also, in light of the development of environmental conscience, second-hand clothing
generates a growing interest, both on the part of buyers (who want to limit the production and
distribution of new clothes) and sellers of second-hand products. The dissemination of
information about the "real use" of clothes deposited in collection bins (see appendix 2: "A
preview of Hugo Clément's documentary: Where do our clothes end up?") has also prompted
the French population to look for new ways to dispose of their clothes. In parallel and as a
result, the historical players of second hand - mostly humanitarian organisations collecting in
order to finance themselves or to equip people in need - are observing a drop in the quantity
(from 248 547 tons in 2019 to 204 291 tons in 2020) and quality of clothing collected
(Refashion 2020 in Statista). The second-hand market is undergoing a radical transformation
with the development of online sales, resulting in fewer clothing donations.

Who are the second-hand customers?

As briefly mentioned above, if financial motivation is preponderant in the purchase of second-
hand clothes (69% of second-hand buyers do it to save money, to spend less), ecological
awareness is evoked by 45% of buyers, a proportion that increases by 10 points between
2019 and 2020 (Kantar 2020). According to the same study, half of the second-hand buyers
come from relatively small cities with less than 20,000 inhabitants. The youngest age groups,
18-24 and 25-34, are overrepresented among second-hand buyers (Elabe 2019 in Statista).
In 2020, the share of purchases allocated to second-hand was equivalent to new clothes for

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the 25-34-year-old category (Kantar 2020). For this category, of the last six pieces of clothing
purchased, three were second-hand. In terms of gender, more women (71%) than men (66%)
are interested in second-hand for ecological reasons (Elabe 2019 in Statista).

The study conducted by BCG (2020) offers a more refined categorisation (see table
below) of second-hand users and classifies them into six segments that take into account the
variation in participants' engagement with the second-hand market (buyers, sellers, and
mixed), including their motivations (economic or ecological), how often they buy or sell items,
and their preferred markets. These six categories are grouped by interest in buying, selling,
or both. Thus, in the profiles interested exclusively in buying, we find the broadest category:
"Second-hand trialists", who are mainly seduced by the possibility of buying pieces with high
value at attractive prices. "Uniqueness seekers" hunt for vintage and unique pieces. As for the
"Amateur merchants", they are older and appreciate the convenience of resale. In the mix, we
have three subcategories: "Impulsive sophisticates," "Trendy millennials", and "Sustainability
adepts". If for the "trendy millennials", the main advantage of the second-hand is that they can
follow the new trends with restricted budgets, for the "sustainability adepts", the objective is to
get involved in shared consumption.

Source: BCG analysis

Based on the Kantar study published in September 2020, it is possible to define the
particularities of second-hand adepts in France. According to this study, 29% of French people
are second-hand buyers, and 36% are second-hand sellers. Among this 65% of people active
in the second-hand market, 20% have a mixed profile, i.e. they buy and sell second-hand
products. On average, they receive 97 euros from selling and make purchases for an average
amount of 88 euros. These mixed profiles have an annual budget for ready-to-wear of 964
euros, a budget situated between exclusive buyers (712 euros) and sellers (1052 euros).
Among these mixed profiles, 67.3% are families, and their purchases are made in several
categories (women, men, children, babies). The mixed profiles have a strong appetite for
online purchases, primarily via Vinted. It can be explained by the possibility of carrying out
transactions in both directions (purchases and sales) via a "circular wallet". There is no need

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to take money out of one's pocket at the time of purchase, as the money from previous sales
is directly stored on Vinted. On Vinted, the average number of items purchased by users per
year is 13 for the baby category, 6.3 for children, and 10 for women and men combined. Vinted
is particularly aggressive in the baby and children's market.

The Vinted-ization of the second-hand clothing market in

France
The two major players in the second-hand market in France are Leboncoin and Vinted. Their
awareness has really exploded since 2018 (Kantar 2020). Leboncoin is a collaborative
consumption platform connecting individuals wishing to sell or buy products. Its business
model is based on its free service for individuals. Its turnover reached 237.2 million euros in
2020 (BFM Verif 2022 in Statista). In February 2021, Antoine Jouteau, CEO of the Leboncoin
group, announced on his Twitter: "This Sunday, 20.4 million visits were recorded on
@leboncoin. A historical record, as we approach our 15th anniversary, which confirms that
the circular economy is now embedded in the daily lives of the French."

Leboncoin is a generalist platform, but a significant evolution is also observed on more

specialised textile platforms such as Vinted, which was propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2020 Vinted is in France's top 3 most used fashion marketplaces, behind Amazon and
Veepee (Statista 2021). Vinted has become the most extensive online ready-to-wear seller by
volume, surpassing other major players such as the pure specialised player Asos
(Foxintelligence 2020 in Statista). This success is based on the high purchase frequency of
Vinted customers, with more than five purchase acts performed per year on average and
almost 100 euros spent by its customers on the platform. In the second-hand market in France,
more than one in two second-hand purchases are made on the Vinted online platform
(FashionNetwork.com 2020).

Petit Bateau and the second-hand in France

The place occupied by Petit Bateau on the second-hand market in France is far from trivial.
The brand claims the five lives, sometimes even the seven lives, of its baby and child clothing.
A Petit Bateau bodysuit goes from the first child to brothers and sisters, cousins, and even
neighbours and/or friends before reaching the end of its life. What used to be done privately
within family and friends' cells becomes visible for the brand during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Indeed, when Guillaume Darrousez arrived as CEO of the brand in mid-2020, it was no longer
800 000 Petit Bateau pieces that were available on Vinted as of March 2019 but about 3 000
000. According to Statista (2021), more than 80% of online purchases for Petit Bateau are
made via Vinted and correspond to second-hand products. In comparison, purchases on
Vinted for brands such as Nike and Adidas only account for 11% and 13% of the total online
sales of these brands, respectively.

In February 2020, Petit Bateau had 4 000 new ads published on Vinted and 900
products sold daily for a total of 450 000 products sold yearly. With an average price of 6.2
euros, this would represent a potential turnover of 2.790 million euros. The brand ranks first
for children's and baby sales on Vinted: 12.5% of Vinted's overall baby sales and 5.5% of
Vinted's overall children's sales are Petit Bateau products.

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 Best-selling second-hand fashion brands on the Vinted.fr platform in France in 2020

Source: Foxintelligence. Statista Inc.

On 14/02/2022, we found on Vinted 2.9 million Petit Bateau items for 306 000
subscribers (people who subscribed to follow if new Petit Bateau products will be put on
sale). If we compare to the Kiabi brand: 376 000 subscribers for 15.5 million articles.

Petit Bateau and the conquest of the second-hand

market
The brand can be presented as a pioneer in France in the world of second-hand. In 2017, it
launched its app "Les occasions", which later became "Changer DeMain", allowing its
customers to resell their children's clothes that are no longer used. However, it is really in
2021, following the redefinition of the brand's mission, that the second-hand turn is really
made.
With its new triptych: "Freedom, Quality, Sustainability", developed in response to
customer feedback, the second-hand becomes a significant issue for the brand. In December
2020, Pascale Quiles, marketing manager at Petit Bateau, was appointed to the newly created
second-hand omnichannel project manager position. She is in charge of developing second-
hand within the brand.
In addition to the application offering a C to C resale service similar to the one offered
by Vinted, the brand has decided to invest more and take control of the second-hand. To do
this, it was first decided to outsource this work to a partner with the skills and infrastructure
necessary for the rapid development of Petit Bateau second-hand. Among the various
potential options, the company partnered with the second-hand platform "Il était plusieurs fois".
Ten brand stores collected the first pieces that would be resold on the partner platform. The
collected clothes are then sent to the partner platform, which takes care of the entire process
of putting the products on sale, from the reception, the control, the shooting and the online
publishing of the second-hand Petit Bateau products collected by the stores.
Quickly, this model of second-hand development needs to be improved and especially
with regard to the strategic ambitions of the brand in terms of social and environmental

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responsibility. Indeed, in line with the new definition of the brand's mission initiated by
Guillaume Darrousez, a new CSR program called "Changer DeMain" was created. This
program is based on four pillars: the circular economy, the environmental footprint, sustainable
manufacturing and the mission to "reconnect children with nature".
For Delphine Lebas, director of the new CSR department created in October 2021,
"the real challenges for tomorrow is to close the loop of the circular economy by dismembering
our products, transforming them back into fibre into yarn and then into Petit Bateau product,
called "textile-to-textile". The brand is already committed to recycling by transforming its
production waste recyclable textiles into insulation materials for the building industry and car
seat upholstery for the automotive industry. It is also thinking about transforming this waste
into textiles for re-knitting. The company wants to extend this reflection to end-of-life products
that could be reused to produce new clothes. To do this, the brand needs to integrate its
second-hand model to collect not only the products that can be resold but also the products
that are too damaged to be resold to recycle them.
From this perspective, Petit Bateau decided to end its contract with "Il était plusieurs
fois" and to manage everything internally. The second-hand program "Changer DeMain" is set
up in a few months. The online application changes its name and takes over the program's
name, and three stores are selected to resell from May 2021 the clothes collected within the
brands. The idea remains the same. Only Petit Bateau products are collected, but now even
clothes too damaged to be resold are accepted, which was impossible before with the partner
platform.
The three stores selected to resell the second-hand products are situated in
Aubergenville, Saint-Julien-les-Villas (near Troyes) and Aix en Provence. The first two are
factory outlets, while the last one is a store selling the current collection. Initially, the stores
only had corners for second-hand goods, but from January 2022, the Saint-Julien-les-Villas
store became 100% second-hand.
While still far behind Vinted's figures, the approach attracts customers. In February
2022, the brand has already collected and resold 78,000 Petit Bateau pieces, and 22,000
additional pieces have been delivered to warehouses for recycling. This means that 100,000
pieces have been collected in a few months.
No resale or recycling is possible without prior collection. It is, therefore a major
challenge for the brand. Petit Bateau relies on arguments based on simplicity, security and
trust to encourage customers to return their clothes. Below is one of their internal
communication highlighting the benefits of their internal model compared to Vinted for the
sellers.

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Internal presentation - Petit Bateau2
The current deposit system works as follows: The customers arrive at the store with
their cleaned Petit Bateau products and give them to a salesperson who sorts the products by
condition and performs quality control. The salesperson provides a voucher valid on all Petit
Bateau products, including second-hand products. The customers get an additional 25%
discount if he or she uses a circular wallet, i.e. uses the voucher to buy second-hand Petit
Bateau products. Products that cannot be resold because they are not in good enough
condition are sent to the warehouse for recycling, while the others are sent directly to the retail
stores for second quality control. The products destined for recycling do not give a right to a
purchase voucher.

Looking ahead

Focus on the place of the internet in the growth of second-hand

The fashion market has never been so driven by digital. If in 2010, the share of the ready-to-
wear market carried out digitally represented only 7.5%, in 2020, we were at 23%, with a peak
at 75% in April 2020 (Kantar 2020). The peak is explained by the closure of physical stores
due to Covid-19, but not only. Indeed the evolution towards digital was observable before, with
already in 2018 a market share of 15.3% on the internet. In 2018, the internet was also a
preferred place for second-hand clothing purchases, especially for the youngest category (see
graph below) (Refashion 2018 in Statista).

With the Covid-19 pandemic and the limitation of yard sales and flea markets, the
context becomes even more favourable for second-hand online platforms. In 2020, only 26%
of second-hand buyers made purchases at flea markets and garage sales, which dropped by

2 Source from the Petit Bateau 2022 intranet (not publicly available).

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12 points compared to the previous year. In the same year, 71% made second-hand
purchases on Vinted, which is up 18 points from 2019. At the same time, many marketplaces
(B2C and C2C) have appeared and developed over the last ten years. In the B2C field, in
addition to the Vinted and Leboncoin platforms, we can mention Facebook Marketplace, which
appeared in 2017 but is only starting to make its mark on the second-hand market in France
in 2020. 22% of second-hand buyers have used the Facebook platform, and its awareness
rate has risen from almost 0 to 30% in 2020. This new platform seems particularly appreciated
by young adults (25-34 years old), who are 45% aware of it and 27% who have used Facebook
Marketplace.

Source: Statista

Focus on the development of a rental service

Apart from second-hand, Petit Bateau wants to engage in a global circular economy approach
that goes beyond the simple service of taking back and reselling used clothes.
In June 2021, Kiabi (budget clothing brand) launched its "Rental by Kiabi" service, a maternity
clothing rental service that is based on a monthly subscription price that varies depending on
the number of pieces rented. This idea seems to germinate at Petit Bateau, which also wants
to develop its rental service but will focus only on newborns' clothes. "The idea is to work by
boxes. Parents will pick up a birth box, bring it back a few weeks later and leave with another
box, that is, a series of ten to fifteen clothes from 3 to 6 months, etc.", explained Delphine
Lebas, CSR Director to the daily L' Union (France) on December 28, 2021. The launch of this
service is planned for 2022.

Focus on vendor remuneration

In parallel with these reflections on future developments and the expansion of Petit Bateau's
commitment to the circular economy, there is also the question of remuneration for Petit
Bateau's resellers, i.e., those customers who bring back their used clothing. For the moment,
the model is based on a customer voucher. However, a question is raised internally: whether
to continue or not with this method of remuneration. Is it fairer to issue a gift card than a
voucher, which is perceived as a discount offered to customers and, therefore, as an incentive

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to re-purchase? Could this method of remuneration have perverse effects in terms of the
circular economy?
More generally, should the company pay the customer for this anti-waste approach or
make it a voluntary citizen approach?
Some researchers in the environmental field have already highlighted the potential
rebound effect of second-hand platforms such as Vinted. The rebound effect represents the
increase in consumption of a product due to the reduction of its usage limits. By making
clothing consumption less harmful to the planet and less expensive, Vinted would contribute
to the increase in the overall consumption of clothing. Many items purchased on Vinted would
not be bought as new because of their price or environmental inclination. Would there be other
ways to reward Petit Bateau customers for their gesture, and if so, what form would they take?

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Appendix

1. The essentials of the circular economy

Our society has long operated according to a linear economic pattern summarised by Le
Moigne (2018) as "extract, manufacture, use and then discard". This model has proven
unsustainable in the long or even medium term. It involves too many ecological consequences
due to consuming natural resources to produce goods that will eventually become waste.
Consistent with the principles of sustainable development, society is moving towards a circular
economy model. According to the European Parliament, " The circular economy is a model of
production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing
and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of
products is extended.

Source: European Parliament

While this representation provided by the European Parliament essential steps such
as recycling and reuse, the literature review proposed by Kirchherr et al. (2017) emphasises
the importance of reduction and recovery. Thus they propose the 4Rs rule to define the circular
economy: reduce, reuse, recycle and recover (value). The order of the 4Rs is essential. First,
we need to Reduce our consumption, which would limit waste management that is reduced at
the source. Buying less would also facilitate reuse by using the products to the maximum and
then reducing the content of the recycling garbage cans. Therefore, it is important to be
circumspect because before thinking about recycling, it is crucial to reduce the number of
goods to be recycled. After all, the recycling process impacts the environment (energy and
water consumption). Of course, the recycling stage will be initiated for goods that can no longer
be reused. Finally, recovery is the last step. After reduction, reuse and recycling, it is essential
to recover! Recovery is the process of giving value to a material considered waste. It is the

15
process of turning waste material into a resource. The best example of recovery is composting.
It turns our fruit and vegetable waste into rich soil amendments, commonly known as compost.

2. A summary of Hugo Clement's documentary "Where do

our clothes end up?"
Source: https://tvmag.lefigaro.fr/programme-tv/sur-le-front-france-5-que-deviennent-les-
vetements-que-l-on-donne_0815de7c-5c24-11ec-8986-b8ee2f4285c7/
"Sur le front" (France 5):
what happens to the clothes we give away?
By Nathalie Chuc; 12/19/2021

For the French national channel France 5, the journalist Hugo Clément has traced the second-
hand clothes chain, and his findings are appalling.

The pair of socks that have become shapeless, the torn sweatshirt that even the dog does not
try to chew on anymore and the old jeans that you do not fit into anymore: we have all, one
day, decided to pack a bag of clothes "to give away" after sorting through our closet. What
happens to our clothes once they have been deposited in the designated containers? This is
the question that Hugo Clément asks in his new issue of "Sur le front", and the answer is,
unfortunately, quite dizzying!
Illusions
From the beginning of the documentary, our illusions are shattered: in France, only 5% of the
clothes deposited in collection bins really reach the poor French. The journalist, therefore,
investigated to find out what happened to the other 95%. He went from surprise to surprise.
The film crew chose a terminal at random but stamped with a large sticker "The French Red
Cross - solidarity action, collection of clothing, linen, shoes, fabrics". When we put our clothes
there, we imagine that everything is dedicated to the good works of the humanitarian aid
association. However, only the content of one out of 30 terminals is taken back by the Red
Cross for their solidarity stores where the needy can buy second-hand shoes for 8 euros,
pants for 2 euros or a bra for 5 euros, etc. The money collected by these "Vestiboutique" is
used for other social actions of the Red Cross.
But what happens to the contents of the other collection points? The Red Cross sells them 13
cents per kilo to an industrialist, thus collecting about 8,000 euros per year reinvested in the
association's actions, such as donating hygiene kits to the homeless or food aid. This seems
to be a virtuous circle, but this needs to take into account the fate of the other bags of clothes
sold. They go to Belgium to Evadam, a sorting company of the Boer Groep. It is one of the
giants of clothing recycling. Hugo Clément went there and discovered mountains of clothes.
Here arrive 320 tons of donated clothes per week, collected from all over Europe! There are
seven centres like this one spread out in Europe. In the one in Belgium where Hugo Clément
went, 70 tons of textiles are sorted daily, 15% of which come from France. The quantity of
clothing passing through these centres has increased but not its quality!

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The cause is fast fashion, i.e. these inexpensive clothing brands, which can sometimes be
found on market stalls or in stores but deteriorate after ten or so washes... They are no longer
wearable, and most traditional thrift stores do not want them. Where do these tons of used
and bad-quality clothes go? They end up on the African continent, exported! Unfortunately,
there is no local recycling solution in Europe that is economically viable. Who could have
imagined that our Zara or H&M clothes would end up in Ghana? This West African country
buys 80 million dollars of clothes already worn yearly, five times more than 25 years ago. And
this is a real problem. Hugo Clément visited the markets of Accra, where our old clothes are
piled up. Small entrepreneurs blindly buy large volumes (a "bale" of clothes weighing 55 kg)
without being able to choose its content for 100 euros. For several years, the content has been
often disappointing: the cause (once again) is the clothes' quality linked to this fast fashion
plague.
It is therefore bought at a loss and ... thrown in the trash, or even abandoned on the market
floor. More than 40% of the clothes acquired by Ghana end up in substantial wild waste dumps
at a rate of 400 tons of waste per week! The clothes sort in France go to pollute an African
country. This end of the cycle of our fashion excesses is even more deplorable: the waste
dumps of Ghana are next to the water. The rivers are polluted with textiles, plastic particles
and other chemicals. The clothes themselves wash up on miles of beach.

Hugo Clément au Ghana © Winter productions

Activist
Interviewed by Hugo Clément, Liz Ricketts, an activist and co-founder of The OR Foundation,
which fights against this scourge in Ghana, denounces: "The second-hand is used as an
excuse for rich countries to consume more and more without ever being confronted with the
consequences of everything they accumulate. As long as we continue to send our old clothes
to buy new ones, we will never achieve sustainable development. Rwanda, for example, has
decided to refuse the sale of our second-hand clothes. "On the Front" points out that these
countries do not have the means to manage our poor quality textile surpluses, the pollution
and the environmental impact they generate. We all know that fashion is an extremely polluting
industry," concludes Hugo Clément, "it emits twice as much CO2 as all the world's air

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transport. However, I was far from suspecting that our clothes continue to damage ecosystems
by polluting rivers and African beaches even in their second life. At the same time, while
investigating for "Sur le Front", I became aware that the fashion world is changing. Far from
the greenwashing of fast fashion brands, new designers are militating for truly cleaner clothes.
They want to produce less and better."
Moreover, there are also small things we can do. For example, in addition to buying fewer
clothes, we can bring used clothes directly to the Red Cross clothing stores or other recycling
centres near our homes. The documentary ends on a hopeful note: in the Tarn region of
France, Fabrice Lodetti is the head of the only small business in France, Les Filatures du Parc,
capable of recycling these famous old clothes! This company holds the patent for a unique
machine which creates a thread with the fibres of clothes. Moreover, this 100% recycled thread
is more robust and of better quality than a basic thread. Nothing is lost...

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Bibliography – Webography
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Websites
https://www.petit-bateau.fr/
https://www.instagram.com/petitbateau/
https://www.facebook.com/petitbateau/

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www.capital.fr/economie-politique/voici-comment-revendre-ou-acheter-des-produits-
decathlon-doccasion-186638/
https://tvmag.lefigaro.fr/programme-tv/sur-le-front-france-5-que-deviennent-les-vetements-
que-l-on-donne_0815de7c-5c24-11ec-8986-b8ee2f4285c7/

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