Hall of fail

We’re not perfect, but at least we’re honest. The HNST #halloffail includes topics that we're still working on and/or struggling with. For a brand like HNST, launching our #halloffail seemed like a logical next step, since transparency is the only driver that can counter greenwashing. The aim? Showcasing our challenges, failures and learnings as a company; the big ones and the small ones. If you have any suggestions, feel free to reach out. We’re always open for a quick chat. 

 

4 — April 12, 2022, 11.26 AM
Stuck between the zipper

To ensure comfort and an elegant fit, all women’s fits have a zip fly. Adding a zipper means we are adding a synthetic material to our cellulose-based jeans, which has to be cut out before recycling. An extra step we would rather drop in the future. 
When sourcing the zippers, we searched for the best solution, ending up with a zipper including a polyester tape made from recycled PET. We continue to look for all possible sustainability upgrades to make sure the extra step of cutting out the zipper won’t be necessary anymore. 

 

3 — April 10, 2022, 8.34 AM
Limited Chlorine use

The fashion industry has a chemicals problem, to say the least. We don't want to contribute to that and that’s why we avoid harmful chemicals at all costs. For ReBlack ™ and Undyed, we succeeded 100%. Unfortunately, we are obliged to use a tiny bit of chlorine in our lighter blue jeans, to give it the desired bright blue colour. The small portion that we're using is limited to the absolute minimum, using 95% less than a conventional jeans. But we'd rather not, so we continue to look for solutions to solve this issue. 

 

2 — April 08, 2022, 2.13 PM
Pushing the buttons

In order for jeans to be fully recyclable, it has to consist of 100% cotton. That means HNST jeans is made without polyester stretch and metal rivets. Plus, you have to be able to easily unscrew the buttons. The downside is that on some occasions, this could result in unwanted loosening of the buttons as well. The R&D team is currently looking into ways to make the buttons more sturdy, but hey, we like to think recyclability is more important than losing buttons. Did you lose a button? No worries, send us an email at info@letsbehonest.eu and we'll be very happy to send new ones. 

1 — February 01, 2021, 5.13 PM
Taking it stitch by stitch 

Did you know that traditional jeans are contributing to the plastic soup? With their use of synthetic fibers and plastics coatings, traditional jeans can contain between 5-15grams of (micro)plastics, which can end up in our waters when being washed. 
Having eliminated plastic fibers and coatings from our jeans we wanted to go one step further and work with a natural stitching yarn to sew our jeans together. It turns out, however, that plastic is stronger than nature as the alternative doesn't offer enough strength. Quality and longevity are essential to us, pushing us to work with an alternative stitching yarn from recycled PET.
In the meantime we'll be working with researchers to quantify the impact in terms of microplastics. Our partners indicate this will be negligible, but we want to be 100% sure.