RECYCLING BOSS: Fashion giant Hugo Boss is making further steps toward meeting its sustainability pledge by unveiling on Wednesday the creation of an independent company for the recycling and reuse of deadstock materials.
Aimed at managing the company’s surplus materials, Eightyards GmbH is a new entity fully owned by Hugo Boss AG and based in Metzingen, Germany. It will kick off operations next January.
“The mission of the company over the coming years is to establish itself as one of the key facilitators for the recycling and reuse of surplus materials into various industries beyond fashion,” the Hugo Boss company said in a statement.
Eightyards is to be led by Marketa Miltenberger and Placido Klitzke in the roles of director and co-director, respectively, of the recycling venture. They were both recruited from within the Hugo Boss ranks as Miltenberger was previously vice president of product excellence outerwear, coats and leather garments at Boss and Klitzke was team leader global brand (product) management at Hugo Menswear. For the time being, Eightyards will focus on the recycling and reuse of the group’s surplus materials.
The creation of the company represents one among many steps toward climate neutrality by 2030, as part of Boss’ sustainability pledge, which also includes achieving climate neutrality throughout its entire value chain by 2045.
Boss, spring 2025
Giovanni Giannoni for WWD
For example, in 2023 Hugo Boss backed a 100 million-euro venture capital fund with Zurich-based Collateral Good to invest in start-ups and technology targeted toward accelerating sustainability in the fashion industry. Earlier that year it debuted a capsule collection dubbed “The Change” composed of outerwear pieces crafted from HeiQ’s trademarked HeiQ AeoniQ fabric.
