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Sustainability

Since the beginning, our mission been to drive and implement change in the entire fashion industry by showing others that you can produce sustainably, without sacrificing great quality and design.

Introduction

At Swedish Stockings, we exist to drive change in the hosiery industry. Sustainability is embedded in everything we do, from the materials we choose and how we manufacture, to how we care for garments at the end of their life. This page outlines the key steps we take to reduce our impact and contribute to a more circular future.

Read more about our commitment to responsible production in our sustainability edit below.

Our Vision

To be the most sustainable hosiery brand in the world.

Our Mission

Drive and implement sustainable change in the fashion industry.

Sustainability Report 2024

At Swedish Stockings, sustainability is at the core of everything we do. As we reflect on 2024, this report aims to keep our stakeholders informed about our ongoing journey toward a more responsible and transparent business.

In a time where expectations are rising and the environmental and social landscape continues to evolve, we are committed to staying at the forefront of our industry. This means not only driving innovation in sustainable production but also holding ourselves accountable to the highest ethical standards.

This report is an opportunity to show the concrete results of our efforts, highlight the actions we’ve taken, and share how these align with our long-term goals. Equally important, we strive to be transparent about how far we’ve come and what challenges still lie ahead.

By sharing both progress and areas for improvement, we hope to foster trust, encourage dialogue, and strengthen our partnerships across the value chain.

Sustainability Edit 2024
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split banner sustainability swedish stockings 1_0f49a450 2eb9 4b13 8544 88bc75b4dc7a

Our Focus

Social responsibility

Our policies and guidelines outlining our social sustainability requirements and expectations to our suppliers. These policies outline the standard we expect our suppliers to uphold, ensuring workers in our supply chain are treated fairly and with respect.

Responsible Production

Our factories are using energy from renewable sources, such as wind or solar. Our dyeing facilities use equipment resulting in a 20% less energy consumption as well as re-using 50% of the water, whilst the remaining 50% is purified.

Sustainable Materials

We carefully select all of our raw materials after how they are processed and manufactured. We use certified materials or responsibly sourced materials, both regarding textiles and packaging.

Longevity

We design and produce tights to last longer. Longevity is an essential building block when working towards shifting the idea of tights being a wear-and-tear item, to a garment that you can wear time and time again.

A pair of tights are normally worn a handful of times and then discarded, adding to the other 8 billion tights already thrown at landfill each year.

Functional improvements such as extended toe reinforcements, soles on sheer tights and material technology are just a few of the upgrades we are constantly testing and improving to achieve more durable products.

the return rate was as low as 1.2%

Materials

We strive for a production that impacts our environment as little as possible. We carefully select all of our raw materials by how they are processed and manufactured into finished products. By using mostly recycled and bio based fibers we can reduce the industry's reliance on virgin resources and minimize its overall ecological impact.

We use certified materials or responsibly sourced materials, which are essential when creating sustainable products. Polyamide is the best choice for a pair of tights today and has been since the industry started in the 1960s. Swedish Stockings was the first hosiery brand to use recycled polyamide in 2013 and has been consistent ever since! Last year our sold quantity was made in 82% recycled polyamide.

82% was made from recycled polyamide

Production

Our products are knitted in Italy, not only because the Italians have been producing high quality hosiery for a long time, but also because the factories we work with have extremely high ethical, social and environmental standards. 

The people and factories we work with are carefully selected by Swedish Stockings. We work directly with suppliers or through our hand selected, locally based partners to monitor the practices of each supplier on a regular basis and ensure good working conditions and much more on site. We aim to maintain an open and collaborative relationships with our suppliers.

The CO2 impact was 52% less than industry standard

Traceability

Our quest for full product transparency began in 2023, aiming to offer customers and partners complete visibility into our products. We are targeting full traceability for all styles by 2025.

Our traceability platform BCome has helped us track and evaluate our product’s journey through our supply chain. For instance, we have been able to track CO2 emissions and water usage, and define and determine every step in the value chain from raw material to point of sales.

Having a comprehensive global perspective on our supply chain has been instrumental. It has provided us with understanding of our operations across the globe and has allowed us to identify key areas where we can focus our efforts. We remain dedicated to promoting circularity and full transparency in our practices by using this system to measure, report and minimise our impact.

The traceability through the platform gives us the opportunity to show our customers how we measure the environmental impact of a product or material throughout its life cycle.

The supply chain transparency rate was 86%

Our Footprint

Behind every product is a whole world of development and processes, social, economic and ethical implications. We measure our foot print through benchmarking of environmental impact with industry standard and make it visible on our website. These measurements are conducted specifically on our running assortment.

We measure our foot-print in four main areas:

Water scarcity

Refers to the situation where the available water resources within a region or area are insufficient to meet the demands of its population and ecosystems.

55% savings compared to industry standard

Abiotic depletion

Refers to the reduction or exhaustion of non-living (abiotic) resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels, due to human activities.

55% savings compared to industry standard

Global warming

Refers to the long-term increase in Earth's average surface temperature, primarily due to human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

52% savings compared to industry standard

Eutrophication

Refers to a process whereby water bodies, such as lakes, rivers, and coastal areas, become excessively enriched with nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients typically originate from sources like agricultural runoff, sewage discharge, and fertilizer use.

81% savings compared to industry standard

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Circularity

To help clean up the hosiery industry and provide a better alternative to discarding of modern pantyhose, we started Swedish Stockings Recycling Club in 2016. With the ambition to divert nylon tights from ending up at landfill, anyone can send us their worn, torn or used tights and we will grind them down and add them as filler material together with recycled fibreglass.

In 2020 we launched our collaboration with furniture designer Gustaf Westman. We managed to give a second life to your old tights by using our own production facilities – mixing recycled tights with recycled fibreglass and turning discarded pantyhose into modern tables. Each table contains between 80 and 350 pairs of tights that have been diverted from land-fills through our recycling program. They are all unique and can be used both indoors and outdoors.

We estimate that we have recycled tens of thousands of tights since the launch of our recycling program in 2016 and produced almost 200 tables.

We produced tables containing 8000 pairs of old tights