Gerry Weber and AMD Akademie students develop new products from surplus

Remnants, leftover production and returns are a problem for many brands and retailers in the fashion industry. Gerry Weber International AG has teamed up with Akademie Mode & Design (AMD) students to tackle this problem.

Under the motto "Destroy was yesterday, today we recycle", 41 students from the Master's programmes "Fashion and Product Management" and "Fashion and Retail Management" worked together with Gerry Weber to develop eight upcycling fashion concepts using surplus and returned material from the clothing company.

The aim was to develop holistic concepts on the basis of remnants and fabric scraps from the three brands Gerry Weber, Taifun and Samoon in order to be able to put them to sensible use in the future in the sense of the circular economy. The results were presented by the students at the end of July and evaluated by a jury consisting of AMD lecturers and Gerry Weber executives.

"It is insanely inspiring what such young people see in our products and our brands," commented Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus, who as CEO at Gerry Weber was also part of the jury, in a press release. "The topic of circular economy is immensely important for our industry, but at least as challenging. Especially in view of this constellation, we have to leave well-trodden paths, develop new ideas and also keep trying something new."

"What distinguishes our teaching and studies at AMD is precisely the combination of scientifically and socially relevant topics with our own problem-solving skills. The students demonstrated this in this project with their own product know-how and transferred it into reality," added Fashion & Product Management Dean of Studies Prof. Peter Schmies, who led the interdisciplinary project.

Two winning projects were finally selected by the jury from the diverse concept proposals, but some approaches will be used by the Gerry Weber Group as orientation for a future upcycling strategy. For marketing professor and juror Dr. Marion Steffen, this is the special feature of the cooperation. "The connection of the relevant as well as the current topic of the options of circularity in the fashion sector to an approach that can also lead to a repositioning in terms of marketing strategy has created the excitement in this project."

This article was previously published on FashionUnited.de