Private Label Socks Highlight Walmart's Sustainability Efforts
Developing sustainable products is an ongoing goal for retailers today, and Walmart has taken a new step in this effort.
The retailer partnered with UNIFI to launch a line of socks under its Joyspun private brand made from REPREVE Takeback recycled polyester. According to Walmart, the material is a recycled textile designed to reduce waste generated in the production of other garments. Material from other consumer products, including water bottles and varied plastics, is used to help form the resin spun into a new fabric.
“When you’re producing a traditional garment, there’s a lot of waste,” said Debasis Manna, a member of Walmart’s private brand fashion team. “Those leftover pieces of a garment usually end up on the cutting room floor. But not in our case. Polyester-rich fabric is given new life through UNIFI’s proprietary thermo-mechanical recycling process and combined with clean chopped post-consumer bottle waste to create yarn – and that's what goes into your socks. It's a recycled version of polyester utilizing at least 50% textile waste from the garment industry made new again.”
According to Walmart, early data shows the choice has been a success. In its first week, the Joyspun Textile Takeback sock is the second-highest selling style in the Joyspun P6 dress sock assortment.
Officials with UNIFI said 92 million tons of textile waste end up in landfills annually, and more than 15% of fabric in clothing production ends up on the cutting room floor.
“At UNIFI, we are constantly looking for new ways to reshape how products are made with real, scalable solutions that reduce textile waste,” said Eddie Ingle, the CEO of UNIFI. “Our partnership with Walmart to launch Joyspun socks made with REPREVE Takeback is a powerful step forward in making circularity a reality for everyday consumers. Together, we’re demonstrating that circular design isn’t just an aspiration, it’s a practical path forward at scale. This collaboration moves us closer to a future where products are intentionally made to be remade, and waste is redefined as a valuable resource.”
And it's not only discarded fabric from factories that is creating large amounts of waste. Consumers annually throw away more than 80 pounds of clothing, according to Earth.org.
“When you think about clothing, one of the biggest challenges we have today is, ‘When you’re done wearing it, where does it go?’” said Scott Bingham, a director in private brand sustainability for Walmart. “We’re creating a more circular system where, instead of landfills, we take textiles we no longer need and turn them back into products we can use.”
Walmart’s Manna said the introduction of circular garments is a team effort, requiring commitment and cooperation across the business, from fashion to sourcing and merchant teams.
“You’re asking a merchant to take a leap of faith,” he said. “Because they can’t know how customers will react to a totally new fabric. We wanted to pick a product where we could bring sustainability, without impacting quality or cost.”
