I think of MTTR as a quest-ion, not a business:
In the face of the Climate and Ecological Emergency, can business be done in a different way?

MTTR [or MATTER] is an acronym. It stands for:



Make noise. Not jeans.

Think ‘forever’.

Truth be told.

Respect. Reject.

It’s a values thing.

You can read what that actually means here.


MTTR makes jeans from waste materials for rebels with (and without) a cause.


But I’m just as interested in what MTTR doesn’t do.


For example, MTTR doesn’t have a focus on growth.


Production will be limited to ‘enough’.


(Not unlike nature — which optimises — not maximises.)


The global denim industry is a dirty business.

It needs to be cleaned up.

Along with the social impacts, which include low wages (below fair living level), forced and child labour, gender inequalities and deficient working conditions — the environmental impacts of the denim industry are huge.

Depending on which report you read, it’s estimated it takes between 4,000—7,000 litres of water to grow the cotton and manufacture a typical pair of jeans, as well as large amounts of pesticides, fertilisers, chemicals and energy.

Multiply that by the 2 billion or so pairs of jeans produced globally each year, and you get an idea of the astounding environmental impact of the denim industry.

And of course the vast majority of those jeans quite soon become part of the 15 million tonnes of clothing waste which go to landfill and incineration each year.

To make matters worse, most denim production is centred in countries where water and energy scarcity is at its greatest.

This linear ‘take-make-waste’ model is destroying natural habitats, workers’ health and our home planet.

We really can’t go on this way. 


Let me say up front, I’m not a smart guy.

Everything you’re reading here I’ve recycled from great thinkers, makers and doers who are all working for a better future for the next generation.

Trailblazers like Clare and David Hieatt, Malinda and Yvon Chouinard, Bisi Williams and Bruce Mau.

What I’ve learned about using waste and why designing with waste is going to be important, I’ve learned from Christopher Raeburn and Katie Tregidden.

Put simply, 200 years of take-make-waste means the stuff we need is increasingly in landfill, rather than in the ground.

Did you know, we're running out of many of the mined essential elements needed to power our high-tech future? Such as Europium and Indium which are crucial for televisions and touch screens.

Helium is another dwindling non-renewable essential element which is used in MRI machines… yet we’re still putting it in party balloons!

As a species I guess we’re not that smart, either?


I believe waste is a design flaw.

It’s why the MTTR jean has been designed using circular design principles.

Circular design is about creating products and services that no longer have a lifecycle with a beginning, a middle and an end (that’s landfill).

The purpose is to design products that can “be made to be made again”, as Tim Brown, CEO of design firm IDEO puts it.

The MTTR jean has been designed for disassembly and without using any virgin fibres.

A repair service will extend the life of the jean.

And when it finally reaches the end of the road, I will take your MTTR jean back and recycle it to make more jeans.

And the whole process starts again.

The MTTR jean has been designed for disassembly and without using any virgin fibres.

A repair service will extend the life of the jean.

And when it finally reaches the end of the road, I will take your MTTR jean back and recycle it to make more jeans.

And the whole process starts again.

The MTTR jean has been designed for disassembly and without using any virgin fibres.

A repair service will extend the life of the jean.

And when it finally reaches the end of the road, I will take your MTTR jean back and recycle it to make more jeans.

And the whole process starts again.

You get the idea.

Like most things, it’s more complicated than that.

Take your classic 5 pocket blue jean.

It has metal rivets, metal buttons and a leather patch.

As well as thread and internal labels probably made with polyester.

And possibly elastane to help the denim stretch.

Everything that makes the jean so iconic is the very reason it’s hard to recycle.

And for the world’s most popular and enduring garment, that’s a big problem.

The MTTR jean is different by design.

It’s made from 100% post-consumer waste and cellulose material, right down to the thread.

There are no rivets to make recycling difficult.

Fly buttons are detachable, reusable and infinitely recyclable.

The leather patch doesn’t need to be removed, either. Because there’s no leather patch.

And all labels are made from the same innovative material as the thread, so the recycling process is not contaminated.

This jean’s about doing more.

With less.

If I’m being honest, yes, it is. Which doesn’t feel great.

In part, this is because I’m at the start of a journey to ‘more good’ and because I don’t have all the answers.

But also because the narrative around the climate emergency is often so polarised.

At one end we have the science which is telling us to stop burning fossil fuels, stop flying, stop driving, stop eating meat and stop buying stuff.

At the other end we have the cynics who are saying ‘stop with the lies’.

In between is a vast space with people trying to find answers within their own lives.

And trying to navigate the terrifying reality of climate breakdown in a world where we* are born into modes of extraction, consumption and waste.

It’s messy, confusing and at times feels hopeless.

This is where MTTR is.

To think we are easily going to separate ourselves from the capitalist model that’s destroying our living planet, I’m afraid is wishful thinking, no mater how desperately urgent it is.

The shifts we need to make to our collective values – as well as what we value – to avert a hellish nightmare is immense, radical and on every level: personal, political, societal and systemic.

And it’s going to take time, acceptance, co-operation, humility, fairness and will.

All things which are in short supply in this moment.

But it’s not beyond us. Just yet.

So looking objectively at where we are now, we need alternatives which work within our planetary boundaries, because we’re going backwards when it comes to burning fossil fuels, flying, driving, eating meat AND buying stuff.

Make no mistake, I don’t believe for a minute we’re going to spend ourselves out of the mess we’re in.

It’s business as usual which got us here.

(And even so-called ‘conscious consumption’ has its limits. And also limits participation.)

But within this mess we need new ideas, some good old-fashioned wisdom, action and hope.

I’m hoping MTTR can be a part of this?

*When I write ‘us’ and ‘we’ I’m referring to us folk in the Global North who have created this mess.

Ouch.

Maybe you’re right?

There are a lot of words there.

We’ll have to see.

Because it doesn’t matter if I think MTTR is a good idea or not, it will be a community of rebels that decide.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep reminding myself of the story of the hummingbird.

I don’t.

Without doubt there needs to be an adjustment in global consumption.

It’s why I set limits to what MTTR makes.

But it's not just ‘think before you make’ that's important, I want a customer to ‘think before they buy’.

(Not just MTTR jeans, hopefully everything?)

It's why I’ll only sell you one MTTR jean at a time and take care of that jean until I take it back.

Because I don’t believe in sustainability, I believe in responsibility. Or to put it another way: Own your shit.

I’ve added the ‘Think Before You Buy Button’ to the checkout page.

And I’m radically honest about where your hard-earned money is going.

If this thing catches fire, perhaps people will demand the same from other brands?

But it’s true, MTTR jeans are not going to help our planet.

It’ll be the people who wear them.

Fair point.

First, let me say I have the deepest respect and gratitude for those who have campaigned for decades on my behalf for the protection of all life on Earth.

People who haven’t just sacrificed their time and careers — endured abuse, hardship and prison — but also given their lives.

The short answer is, this is where my passion and personal values come together. And where I feel I can make a small difference.

MTTR is my way of protesting from inside the big problem of fast-fashion – it’s my way of showing up.

I also feel there isn’t just one way to protest.

Take the Craftivism movement for example.

Because right now we need EVERYONE showing up imperfectly.

Not just a few protesting ‘perfectly’.

Please don’t.

The world has enough jeans to be getting on with.

Allow me to ask you a question…

How can a product which needs to be sown, grown, harvested, combed, spun, dyed, woven, cut and stitched, finished, labelled, packaged and transported only cost a few pounds?

Someone somewhere is paying for it.

And when you buy fast-fashion, it’s not you.

I’m not suggesting those who can afford MTTR jeans are more ethical than those who can’t.

That in itself would be deeply unethical.

The simple truth is, under capitalism what we buy is fundamentally determined by our income.

But let’s be clear. Fast-fashion is not pro-working class.

It’s a product of corporations’ drive for profits, at any price.

It’s not the fault of people with limited resources.

Again. Fair point.

I don’t have a problem with making money.

Because to do any good MTTR needs to stay in business.

But I agree, there is an obvious tension for a ‘do-gooder’ brand to be making money under the banner of ‘the planet is burning’.

If it helps, anyone who knows me would tell you I’m not motivated by money.

But talk is cheap.

To show you I’m serious, I get £1 from every sale with the majority of the cost going to the makers — which is only right.

(And the Tax paid on every sale goes to support important services, like our NHS.)

Well, my old boss told me to ‘build something you’d never sell’.

That feels like pretty good advice.

But if I had to think about selling MTTR, and right now that’s a very big ‘if’, it would be for reasons outside of my control. And I hope the community of rebels which built MTTR would take it forward.

Oh, sorry about that.

I don’t think Twitter or any of the social media platforms are healthy places for me to spend my time.

But I’m not judging.

Please send your hate to: iprobablywontreply@mt-tr.com

Thanks.

That’s right!

Much of MTTRs direction I’ve learned from activist and Earthling, Dan Burgess. Dan is such a wonderfully thoughtful and intelligent soul. He’s the real deal and has dedicated his adult life to bringing people together to find solutions to the mess we’re in. If you’re ready to be educated and entertained on our climate and ecological breakdown, listen to Dan on The Spaceship Earth podcast. It’s brilliant.

It’s always a good idea to keep an open mind about anything you read on the internet. Especially when it comes to ‘facts’. The numbers quoted for the amount of water required to manufacture a typical pair of jeans comes from a widely referenced report by Levi’s in 2015. And a book called Your Water Footprint: The Shocking Facts about How Much Water We Use to Make Everyday Products (2014) by Stephen Leahy.

The amount of jeans sold globally each year was sourced from an article published by Greenpeace in 2016. And Earthcheck in 2017.

And the horrendous number of 15 million tonnes of clothing going to waste each year came from The Ellen Macarthur Foundation website.

'Waste is a design flaw.' is a phrase first coined by Kate Krebbs.

The story of the hummingbird originates with the Quechuan people of Ecuador.

I nicked the 'iprobablywontreply' email address from Mr Bingo. It always make me laugh.