Circular Loyalty Loops
Circular Marketing is more than just convincing people to buy; it involves building a continuous relationship with consumers by supporting life-cycle activities such as repair, reuse, and information exchange. The concept of Circular Loyalty Loops aims to create long-term engagement by encouraging consumers to actively participate in the circular economy. Marketing efforts in this space focus on community building, where repair events, upcycling workshops, and information-sharing platforms create a shared experience for consumers, reinforcing both brand loyalty and sustainability. This unit explores how businesses can foster deeper consumer relationships by integrating circular marketing strategies that promote reuse, repair, and shared responsibility for fashion products.
Case studies
Mud Jeans – Lease A Jeans circular subscription
Mud Jeans, a Dutch denim brand, runs a “Lease A Jeans” subscription model in which users pay a monthly fee to wear jeans and return them after use. Returned garments are refurbished for resale or recycled into new denim, rewarding repeat participation and creating a long-term loyalty loop around circular behaviors rather than one-off purchases.
Project link
Patagonia – Worn Wear repair and trade-in program
Patagonia’s Worn Wear program offers repairs, trade-ins, and resale of used Patagonia products, combined with storytelling about long-term use. By rewarding users with credits for trade-ins and celebrating repair as a badge of honor, Worn Wear builds an ongoing relationship where loyalty is tied to care, repair, and reuse instead of newness.
Project link
Nudie Jeans – Repair, Reuse & Recycle ecosystem
Nudie Jeans operates a global network of Repair Shops that provide free repairs for life, along with Reuse (second-hand) and Recycle streams for worn-out jeans. Users are encouraged to keep garments in circulation through repair and trade-in, and receive store credit for returning old jeans, forming a circular loyalty loop around care, return, and repurchase.
Project link
Levi’s – Levi’s SecondHand buy-back and resale
Levi’s SecondHand is a branded recommerce program where users sell back worn Levi’s garments in exchange for gift cards, which are then resold as authenticated second-hand pieces. The scheme ties economic incentives and brand loyalty directly to circular actions—returning, reselling, and buying used—rather than only buying new stock.
Project link
Baukjen – Circular Fashion take-back and pre-loved shop
Baukjen, a British womenswear brand, runs a Circular Fashion initiative that includes take-back of used garments, resale of pre-loved items, and recycling of non-resellable pieces. Customers are rewarded with discounts when they return garments, reinforcing loyalty while creating a circular loop of purchase, use, return, and repurchase within the same ecosystem.
Project link
References
Armstrong, C. M., Niinimäki, K., Kujala, S., Karell, E., & Lang, C. (2015). Sustainable product-service systems for clothing: Exploring consumer perceptions of clothing repair services. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97, 311–321.
Camacho-Otero, J., Boks, C., & Pettersen, I. N. (2019). Consumption in the circular economy: A literature review. Sustainability, 11(19), 1–24.
Henninger, C. E., Bürklin, N., & Niinimäki, K. (2019). The clothes swapping phenomenon: When consumers become suppliers. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 18(5), 392–403.
Pal, R., & Gander, J. (2018). Modelling environmental value: A conceptual framework for sustainable business models in fashion. Journal of Cleaner Production, 184, 251–263.
Todeschini, B. V., Cortimiglia, M. N., Callegaro-de-Menezes, D., & Ghezzi, A. (2017). Innovative and sustainable business models in the fashion industry: Entrepreneurial drivers, opportunities, and challenges. Business Horizons, 60(6), 759–770.