Re-Shirts are t-shirts with a history
Re-Shirts lend exceptional value to the life story of a piece of clothing. Based on this idea, an entirely new type of merchandise trade was created that preserves resources in a particularly entertaining manner.
Ever since the book “Travels of a T-Shirt” we all know that you can describe the complex structures of the global economy with a simple textile product. That this same piece of clothing can also have a lasting effect on merchandise trade and at the same time be incredibly entertaining is something new. Re-Shirts represent a unique world-wide economic experiment. At the center of it all are used T-shirts and a question: Do products last longer if you know their history?
Good Stories are What Re-Shirts are Made Of
The Re-Shirt is different from its used compatriots in that it has a story to tell. It all starts with a T-shirt that someone associates with a special memory: an important career step, an unforgettable football match, a demonstration in Guatemala, the feeling of an entire stage in their life. These shirts are collected, quality inspected, and put on display at www.re-shirt.net. When one of these shirts is purchased, it is given its very own orange Re-Shirt Label, a number is printed on it, and it begins a new registered life. Every future owner can now document the experiences they have with their Re-Shirt online and continue the story of this piece of clothing.
The First Shop with a Memory Function
www.re-shirt.net is an online shop with a long term memory that documents the life journey of every Re-Shirt around the world. Such goods are no longer treated (and traded) as inanimate objects, but instead as unique stories linked to emotions. Here is a concrete example of how it works: a regular guest at a performing arts venue in Vienna donates a shirt and some weeks later the same shirt turns up with an artist in the middle of the Mojave Desert in America. A pleasant surprise for both of them.
Shopping with Depth
Re-Shirts create a desired side effect: People do not simply throw away products that have a life of their own, even if they are getting old. The longer they circulate, the more interesting their history becomes. And just as important: if no used T-shirts are donated, then no Re-Shirts are available. Nowhere else can a circular flow economy be experienced so up close and personal. And what do the people who donate all of these T-shirts get out of it? They get to watch how a personal piece of clothing writes history instead of just sitting around in the closet taking up space.
The Makers Behind the Re-Shirts: About Shapeshifters Information Management
The company behind the brand “Re-Shirt” is Shapeshifters Information Management GmbH, a globally active knowledge management agency with its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Among other things, Shapeshifters currently runs the platform www.shapeshifters.net for professional creatives around the world. The Re-Shirts were developed as an independent communication project with the goal of giving a human face to globalization.
Re-Shirts Make the Best Out of Existing Resources: About the “Social Upgrade” of Products
Wolfgang Wimmer, internationally renowned expert for eco-design and sustainable product development took a close look at the Re-Shirts from an environmental standpoint:
“Re-Shirts clearly represent a whole new way of managing resources. With the comparatively low amount of energy needed to wash, print and deliver the Re-Shirts it is possible to keep existing cotton resources in circulation. The fact that the stories of the previous owners are of central importance for the Re-Shirts can also be seen as a âsocial upgradeâ. Re-Shirts are a concrete example of how we can come to understand circular flow economy. A model that we should most certainly also consider for other resources and products.”Facts and Figures about Conventional T-Shirt Production:
- Cotton production and processing is organized globally : Each year more than 20 million tons of cotton are produced.
- Extremely large amounts of water are used in the cotton production process. On average, 20,000 liters of water are needed to produce 1 kilogram of raw cotton.
- The extreme amounts of water needed for growing cotton have resulted among other things in the drying up of the Aral Sea, one of the biggest environmental catastrophes of our time.
- On top of that are the use of pesticides and the high energy consumption: approximately 10% of the pesticides produced world-wide are used in cotton growing.
- Environmentally safe cotton growing is a viable alternative. Intelligent watering can reduce the amount of water needed by two thirds. That is of course only possible if the total production amounts do not continue to increase.
- Approx. 30 megajoule (or 8.3 kWh) are needed to produce 1 kilogram of raw cotton fibers. In Germany alone, the average cotton consumption per person and year is 11 kilograms.
