A few years ago, as a response to the heavily polluting denim industry, Dutch entrepreneur Bert van Son launched the lease concept of MUD Jeans.

The consumer can choose between buying or leasing MUD jeans: each month he pays a small fee, and after a year he can decide to either keep his jeans or to exchange his rental pair for another one.

MUD’s efforts for a circular fashion industry extend into every part of a jeans’ life:

• Design:
  First of all, MUD takes recycling into account from the very design. This means for instance attaching no leather labels to the back of the pants; rather, the label is printed on the inside of each pair, which facilitates the recycling process.

• Retail:
  Clients can either buy or lease their pants. In the second case they pay a one-time membership fee of €25, and then €7,50 each month for a year. At the end of the year, the client can decide to keep his pair or to exchange it for a new one.

• End of life:
  All the pants that are returned are recycled or upcycled to vintage items. This is MUD’s way of avoiding waste and closing the loop.

• Resources:
  MUD retains ownership of the cotton, encouraging customers to return their worn out jeans. Bottomline: the customers own the pants they wear, but MUD owns their resources.

• Consumption:
  In addition, MUD offers a free Repair Service to keep their customers’ jeans in perfect shape.