Saving the environment, one Uniqlo bra top at a time

SINGAPORE – Uniqlo’s line of bra tops are so popular worldwide and in Singapore that the Japanese retailer has designated it “mainstay” status in its fight to be more sustainable.

Mainstay products are styles that are either stocked year-round in stores or return on a seasonal basis, such as the Pufftech jacket, which is sold during winter. Both the jacket and bra tops are currently available at Uniqlo stores here.

The popularity of such styles is an indication for Fast Retailing, Uniqlo’s parent company, to make more of these products and less of others, thereby reducing the amount of unsold clothing. There were more than 50 styles identified globally as mainstay products in 2024, three times more than in 2017.

By expanding the number of mainstay products, Fast Retailing can reduce unnecessary styles offered and focus on those that customers really need, said Mr Dai Tanaka, group executive officer of Fast Retailing. He was speaking at the company’s annual “LifeWear = a New Industry” briefing in Tokyo on Nov 13, where he covered the group’s sustainability progress and initiatives.

Information is key at Fast Retailing. A total of 31.4 million inputs of feedback were collected worldwide in the company’s financial year that ended August 2024, said Mr Tanaka. The information is channelled into the Management Cockpit, its companywide platform, in real time, which enables management to respond quickly and make changes in operations if needed.

The weather is also taken into account. The longer summers and warmer winters due to climate change have resulted in Fast Retailing changing its approach to products, said Mr Tanaka. For instance, T-shirts, sweatshirts and jeans are now sold year-round in Uniqlo stores in Japan.

“Expanding year-round staple items helps us to reduce inventory rundowns and levels,” explained Mr Tanaka. “We satisfy customer needs without holding unnecessary inventory by frequently ordering and stocking the products to meet demand.”

He added that this has greatly reduced leftover items at the end of the season. Mr Tanaka said that while the volume of clothing production grew by 20 per cent, sales grew by 70 per cent.

“The most important premise to reducing the environmental load is trying to ensure we are not making, transporting or selling things that are not necessary,” he said.

With fashion being one of the most resource-intensive industries, Fast Retailing said during the briefing that the company is doing its best to become a more sustainable business end-to-end, overseeing every aspect, from raw material procurement and fabric manufacturing, to partner factory standards, transportation processes and retail operations.

For example, the company monitors its stock of clothing on a weekly basis and makes the necessary adjustments to produce more or less of an item. With a more flexible and efficient production system, the company is able to shorten production lead times and manage the stockpiling of production materials.

While the aim is to reduce plastic in packaging, plastic that is used for protecting products during transportation is also recycled into things such as chairs or paving materials. Fast Retailing works with material manufacturer Toray Industries to do so.

Fast Retailing has switched to paper packaging where it can, with the aim to achieve zero waste. The group also has a policy to not dispose of clothing.

Mr Koji Yanai, Fast Retailing’s director and group senior executive officer, said mass production, transportation and carbon dioxide emissions are concerns that customers have about the apparel business at large.

“But if the volume of clothing (we produce) is exactly what customers need and where they need it, somebody needs to supply it,” he said. “If Uniqlo is supplying that suitably, as long as it’s not being disposed of, that’s one reason why customers would choose Uniqlo. Our goal is in the right direction.”

Mr Yanai added that in 2023, 8.5 per cent of the company’s entire products were made using recycled materials. For 2024, it stands at 18.2 per cent.

Aside from cutting down on unnecessary production, the company is also in the business of repairing and reusing clothing, and selling pre-owned clothing under its Re.Uniqlo initiative. Donated clothes by customers are also forwarded to those in need or recycled into new products or materials.

Customers can repair, remake or customise their Uniqlo clothes at the Re.Uniqlo studio, which was started in 2020. The Re.Uniqlo service is available in 51 stores across 22 countries, and will expand to 60 stores worldwide by the end of 2024. In Singapore, it can be found at Uniqlo’s Orchard Central and 51@AMK stores.

But there is still some way to go before selling pre-owned clothing becomes a sizeable business for Fast Retailing, said its executives.

Hurdles to overcome include securing a stable supply of pre-owned clothing, the lack of people buying pre-owned clothing, and difficulties in selling used clothing online. This is despite Uniqlo’s Furugi Project (Japanese for old clothes) initiative being well received when it was trialled in Japan in late 2023, later leading to in-store sections of pre-owned clothing in selected stores in October 2024.

Mr Yanai said: “The market is small. Among the Japanese, people who purchased at least one piece of pre-owned clothing is about 20 per cent. Unless that population grows, that business will not grow.”

As some used clothing is altered by the original owner, it may not fit as it says on the clothing size label. The dyeing of clothing can also cause it to shrink, again resulting in complications on the fit.

“For pre-owned clothing, you need to try it on to see if it suits you, so that’s one thing that we need to anticipate (when selling it online). We need to provide customer service to avoid such issues,” said Mr Yanai.

“A lot of these things are what we learnt from experience when we started the project, so we are in the trial stage and checking each issue to see what we need to do when we launch this as a full-fledged business.”