Menswear brand Jack & Jones to prioritise organic cotton

Bestseller’s biggest menswear brand Jack & Jones is committing to securing more traceable organic cotton as it increases its direct-to-farm cotton usage.

For 2023, Jack & Jones will increase its direct-to-farm cotton “significantly” to represent 25 percent of its expected total amount of cotton for the coming year. The cotton will be used for its NOOS (Never Out Of Stock) programme which covers approximately half of the menswear brand’s total turnover and focuses on styles that can be used season after season.

Last year the brand booked lint from various direct-to-farm programmes corresponding to 1,500 metric tonnes of cotton lint for different NOOS styles, and it estimates that this will increase to 6,600 metric tonnes in 2023, the equivalent of 18.5 million cotton T-shirts.

Direct-to-farm is a sourcing model used by Bestseller to create a secure market for organic and in-conversion cotton, as well as offer “premium payment” for the farmers. In 2022, Bestseller saw a decrease in its overall organic cotton percentage, from 21 percent in 2021 to 11 percent in 2022, as it notes that sourcing organic cotton has been “challenging the past years” and demonstrates the need for a dedicated direct-to-farm approach to move the numbers for this year.

Bestseller will increase its direct-to-farm approach with different partners, including the multi-stakeholder organisation Organic Cotton Accelerator (India) and CmiA Organic (Africa) as well as long-standing suppliers such as Bossa (Turkey), Calik (Turkey) and Artistic Milliners (Pakistan).

Danique Lodewijks, senior project specialist at Bestseller, said in a statement: “Direct-to-farm focuses on more than just securing the supply of organic cotton. It’s also about supporting farmers and improving their livelihoods – to benefit the entire local community.”