Another British Cycling teamwear debrand success
British Cycling volunteer teamwear debranded by Stuff4Life Second Time
British Cycling and Stuff4Life continue to reduce carbon emissions from teamwear
Following the resounding success of the first release of debranded British Cycling teamwear, we’re excited to share that new stock is now available for members - this time from the Great Britain Cycling Team.
The previous collection sold rapidly, with clubs and volunteers embracing the opportunity to access high-quality kit at exceptional value while directly supporting British Cycling’s sustainability goals.
Many volunteers have already shared how proud they feel wearing teamwear that keeps resources in play for longer, and how impressed they have been by the quality of the de- and re-branding.
“I really liked the premise that we were saving money on buying new kit and saving good quality clothes from going to waste. It's a great concept, the logo cover looks really cool and the cost was very reasonable for such good quality items. The clothing helps identify our volunteers as part of the team and helps make it clearer who to go to for assistance as part of our Limitless inclusive cycling sessions. They were all very impressed with the quality of the jackets, which are perfect for keeping them warm and dry whilst year round whilst supporting our sessions"
Becky Cox – British Cycling Swindon Partnership, Moredon Sporting Hub
Each garment in the new collection has been carefully debranded through Stuff4Life's unique 'visible repair' approach, ensuring the items can be reused while avoiding the environmental impact of throwing away perfectly good products and producing fresh teamwear. These new garments are perfect for club volunteers, event teams, and community leaders who want functional, durable clothing that also supports a circular future for the sport.
Members can browse the updated collection now via the Stuff4Life Second Time shop at https://stuff4.life/bc-shop
#WEAR YOUR COMMITMENT
BACKGROUND
Scope 3
Achieving net-zero and reducing carbon emissions is a challenge for all organisations, and it means leaving no stone left unturned, especially when it comes to impacts from the things we use every day - our supply chains or ‘Scope 3’ emissions.
This includes the branded uniform and teamwear worn by employees and athletes. One of the challenges with teamwear, especially as a national governing body or indeed any elite sports organisation, is that sponsors come and go. This meant there was a small amount of unused, brand new kit in stock that couldn’t be used.
Debrand - the Second Time service
To solve this problem British Cycling teamed up with social enterprise, Stuff4Life Second Time, to use their simple but highly effective debrand and rebrand service. This means the leftover uniform and teamwear can be used as originally intended – now available in the Second Time Shop.
Why it’s important
Every kilogram of sportswear (typically made of polyester and other polymers, made from oil) contains around 4 kilograms of embedded carbon. It’s very difficult to recycle this material as there are currently no commercial scale facilities for synthetic composite clothing. This means if it can’t be reused, any leftover teamwear or sportswear is highly likely to be incinerated. By rebranding its teamwear, British Cycling is able to avoid significant carbon emissions.
Each garment that is rebranded by using Stuff4Life’s unique ‘visible repair’ approach means the manufacturing impacts of making another garment are avoided.
There is also a significant social impact value from avoiding more garments from being manufactured in this way. This is because polymers (‘plastic’) have a very high impact on people and planet and are currently hard to recycle due to a lack of infrastructure. As a result, plastic attracts a very high social impact score with each kilogram valued at £158.02 by the Social Value Portal’s TOMS framework.
“It’s been fantastic to work with British Cycling on this project we’re really grateful for their enthusiasm, enabling us to demonstrate how debranding and rebranding garments can be done in a cost-effective way to deliver significant savings in carbon and material impacts from a relatively small amount of material.
“We’re relatively new but we’ve already created the means and the supply chain necessary to deliver our rebranding services on a large scale alongside other activities including laundry, reuse, repair and recycling.”
Steve King, Stuff4Life Second Time founder
For more information, please contact us
To view the British Cycling Second Time collection visit https://www.stuff4.life/bc-shop and use the code to access the products.