Isle Of Wight Brand Turns Black Friday Waste Into New Recycled Clothing Collection

As Black Friday arrives today, Isle of Wight clothing brand Rapanui is urging shoppers to rethink fast fashion — and showcasing how discarded cotton can be turned into something new.

Every year, millions of impulse Black Friday buys end up in landfill.

Globally, just 1% of clothing is recycled back into new garments, and an estimated 80% of Black Friday purchases are eventually thrown away.

Rapanui, founded in a shed in 2009 by Island brothers Martin and Rob Drake-Knight, has spent more than a decade tackling that problem through circular design.

Their innovative manufacturing platform, Teemill, now helps thousands of brands create clothing on demand, avoiding overproduction and excess waste.

To close the loop, the pair also created Remill — an open take-back scheme that accepts 100% cotton clothing from any brand.

Returned items are shredded and respun into new fabric, producing T-shirts made from 50% post-consumer recycled cotton and 50% organic cotton.

In 2025, Remill recovered more than 14,000 kg of cotton, bringing the total collected since launch to over 102,000 kg — roughly the weight of 887 giant pandas.

“Black Friday is a symptom of how waste has been woven into the way our world works,” said co-founder Mart Drake-Knight.

“Products have been designed to be thrown away. We built Teemill to solve that issue.”

To mark Black Friday, Rapanui has launched a new collection printed on T-shirts made from Remill-recovered cotton.

The nature-inspired designs — including tree rings and dandelion blooms — reflect the idea that materials should return, not be discarded.

The clothing is made using renewable energy and designed to be recycled again.

After wear, customers can simply scan the QR code inside each product or request a label at remillfibre.com, returning the item for recycling and earning store credit in the process.

The new collection is available now from Rapanui.