responsible management
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ASKET Promoting Responsible Fashion
Case Study This case was written by Dr. Suchitra Mohanty and reviewed by K. Bhagyalakshmi, Amity Research Centers Headquarter, Bangalore. It is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources. © 2022, Amity Research Centers Headquarter, Bangalore. Website: www.amity.edu/casestudies/ No part of this publication may be copied, stored, transmitted, reproduced or distributed in any form or medium whatsoever without the permission of the copyright owner.
Distributed by The Case Centre North America Rest of the world www.thecasecentre.org t +1 781 239 5884 t +44 (0)1234 750903 All rights reserved e [email protected] e [email protected] centre
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Author: Dr. Suchitra Mohanty
ASKET: Promoting Responsible Fashion
Abstract: In 2015, ASKET was founded as a menswear brand by August Bard Bringeus and Jakob Dworsky in Stockholm, Sweden with a key mission to restore the value of the apparel industry by reducing overconsumption. In 2021, it expanded its portfolio by launching womenswear and swimsuit. Emphasising on transparency, longevity and responsibility, the brand was following a simple approach for keeping people away from the seasonal collections, which accelerated the fast fashion consumption. It encouraged people to consume less by offering quality garments, which were designed for a lifetime. By improving the existing design, adding new product category to the permanent collection and abandoning sales, ASKET was developing a de-growth business model. Due to its innovative business idea, the brand bagged the ‘World Changing Ideas Awards’ consecutively during 2020 and 2021. However, the brand was struggling with logistics issues as well as faced challenges from uncooperative suppliers. Besides, critics argued that ASKET’s de-growth business model would reduce employment for workers in the garment sector. Though, ASKET was setting an example to brands across the world to become responsible as well as forward thinking through its timeless collections, would it be possible for the start-up to change the sensibilities of the biggest brands and consumers in the world?
Case Study “Our mission is to end overconsumption and restore value to the clothing industry. The approach is simple; do away with seasonal collections that only fuel a cycle of fast-consumption habits, then replace it with a single permanent collection of mindfully produced, quality and timeless garments designed to last a lifetime, not just five washes.”1
– Jacob Dworsky, Co-founder, ASKET
he idea of ASKET was originated when August Bard Bringeus (Bringeus) and Jakob Dworsky (Dworsky), students, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm failed to get a simple good
quality as well as well-fit white T-shirt or a simple Oxford shirt in Stockholm, Sweden. They found that almost all brands were busy in promoting new styles to change the wardrobes of the people mainly to generate more profit. As students of economics, the idea of introducing new design as well as stylish cloth for every season seemed like an unsustainable way of doing business by Bringeus and Dworsky.2 In 2015, ASKET was founded as a menswear brand by Bringeus and Dworsky with a key principle ‘to create the perfect essential wardrobe’ for the consumers.3 The business model of the apparel brand was accepted by the people and ASKET grew at an average of 150%
1 Davis Jessica, “Unstitched: Asket”, https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/what-to- wear/a37678186/asket-sustainable-fashion/, November 25th 2021 2 Kendall Matt, “Asket: Ending the era of Fast Fashion”, https://www.favoursthebrave.com/article/asket-ending- the-era-of-fast-fashion 3 “ASKET–The Pursuit of Less”, https://www.asket.com/us/about-the-pursuit-of-less
“© 2022, Amity Research Centers HQ, Bangalore. All rights reserved.”
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during 2015-2020. Subsequently, ASKET launched womenswear and swimsuit. Experts also highlighted that the brand decided to put a cap on its growth in line to fulfil its objective to build ‘a world free of fast consumption’, which was in contrast to the mindset of a typical young business.4 However, un-cooperative suppliers and logistics issues were some of the key challenges that created obstacles for the brand.5 Besides, investors were less attracted to business, which was promoting slower consumption. According to Olivia Pinnock, writer, Forbes, “At first glance, degrowth sounds counterintuitive to good business but in reality, it’s about better business with lower volumes. It requires creative thinking around the ways fashion operates; an exciting challenge for those who want to embrace the task. Of course, consumers will have a role to play too by reducing demand for new apparel, but those who can supply them with their fashion fix in ways that don’t over extract natural resources will be at the frontier of a brave new fashion industry.”6
ASKET: Promoting Less is More Business Model Fashion was one of the most important industries in the world. It played a significant role in driving the economy across the globe. It was also known as the prime value creating industry in the world.7 According to the ‘Fast Fashion Global Market Report 2021’ by Researchandmarkets.com, the size of the global fashion market was valued approximately at $25.09 billion in 2020 and $30.58 billion in 2021.8 Further, the apparel market in the world was anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.8% during 2021-22. According to Research and Markets, the size of the global apparel market was estimated at around $551.36 billion in 2021 and 605.4 billion in 2022. Research and Markets also expected that the market size would grow at a CAGR 8.6% in 2026 to reach almost $843.13 billion during the same period.9
Impact of the Global Fashion Industry on Environment In spite of growth, the global fashion industry was blamed for releasing around 10% of the total human caused greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of waste water in the world. The sector also consumed more energy than the total energy consumption of both shipping and aviation sectors in the world. In addition to this, around 93 billion metric tons of clean water was consumed by the fashion industry all over the globe. Cotton, the key raw material in the garment sector was popularly known as the thirsty crop and one kilogram of cotton used in the production of a pair of Jeans consumed around 7,500 to 8,000 litres of water, which a normal person could drink in 10 years. Besides, the dying process used toxic chemicals and accounted for around 17%-20% industrial water pollution all over the world. Experts also added that to meet the rising demand of the fashion industry, almost 70 million tons of trees were cut every year and the number was anticipated to touch 140 million tons by 2034.10
4 Pinnock Olivia, “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviapinnock/2021/09/24/degrowth-is-trending-in-sustainable-fashion-what- does-that-mean-for-brands/?sh=545b163e4a6f, September 24th 2021 5 “Asket makes significant progress tracing supply chain”, https://www.just-style.com/news/asket-makes- significant-progress-tracing-supply-chain/, October 10th 2018 6 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit. 7 “Global fashion industry statistics”, https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics 8 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit. 9 “$605.4 Billion Worldwide Apparel Industry Report to 2031 - Identify Growth Segments for Investment”, https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/04/22/2427162/28124/en/605-4-Billion-Worldwide- Apparel-Industry-Report-to-2031-Identify-Growth-Segments-for-Investment.html, April 22nd 2022 10 Cho Renee, “Why Fashion Needs to Be More Sustainable”, https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/06/10/why-fashion-needs-to-be-more-sustainable/, June 10th 2021
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Further, the fast fashion industry was having numerous adverse impacts on the environment. The American Chemical Society expected that the production of fast fashion goods would increase by three folds in 2050 than 2000s. The fast fashion retailers encouraged people to buy more due to its cheaper price. Cheaper price further enabled the people to discard the product easily after two or three wears. According to a survey result, around 20% of clothing was never worn by the people in America and the figure increased to around 50% in the UK. And, less than one percent old clothing were recycled for manufacturing new clothes.11 (Exhibit I).
Exhibit I Glimpse of Trash Garments in Minnesota
Source: Cho Renee, “Why Fashion Needs to Be More Sustainable”,
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/06/10/why-fashion-needs-to-be-more-sustainable/, June 10th 2021
To address the climate crisis caused by the fashion industry, it was essential to slow down production and consumption in the fashion sector. Regarding this, Kate Fletcher (Fletcher), professor, University of the Arts London (UAL), highlighted, “The only way we can address the climate crisis is by producing and consuming less.” Many players, such as, ASKET, Chloé, The Trampery, Toast, etc., were taking initiatives as well as introducing innovative business model to address the climate issues, created due to the fashion industry. Among these players, ASKET, the Scandinavian brand was popular for its ‘Pursuit of Less’ principle. The brand introduced permanent collection irrespective of seasons.12 To combat fast consumption, the brand was emphasising on less is more approach and trying to make correct sized garments.13
Due to the innovative business idea, ASKET bagged the ‘World Changing Ideas Awards’ consecutively during 202014 and 2021.15 Responding to this, Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief,
11 “Why Fashion Needs to Be More Sustainable”, op.cit. 12 Webb Bella, “Degrowth: The future that fashion has been looking for?”, https://www.voguebusiness.com/sustainability/degrowth-the-future-that-fashion-has-been-looking-for, January 27th 2022 13 “Unstitched: Asket”, op.cit. 14 “ASKET’s Full Traceability Label picked for World Changing Ideas Award”, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AABNUH4V-i1cm85s- lkLCEV3a/ABOUT%20ASKET/AWARDS/Fast%20Company%202020%20Life%20Changing%20Ideas%20Award?dl=0 &preview=ASKET+Honorouble+Mention+in+Fast+Companies+World+Changing+Ideas+Awards.pdf&subfolder_na v_tracking=1, April 28th 2020 15 “The ASKET Impact Receipt selected as FINALIST inWorld Changing Ideas Award”, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AADzjlXmp4evRov70FkG20Zra/ABOUT%20ASKET/AWARDS/Fa st%20Company%202021%20Life%20Changing%20Ideas%20Award?dl=0&preview=Press+Release_ASKET_Fast+Co mpany+Award_2021.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1, May 4th 2021
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Fast Company, opined, “There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources, and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems… Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”16
Origin of the idea ASKET According to experts, Bringeus and Dworsky, students, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, were unable to find a right fitting simple good quality white T-shirt or a simple Oxford shirt in Stockholm, Sweden. Both, Bringeus and Dworsky, found that manufacturers as well as companies were adopting a ‘model of constant renewal’ for their products and encouraging consumers to change their wardrobe in every season. To earn profits, it was a common trend among the brands to change the style and fit of apparels in every season. Instead of getting a proper fit, good quality T-shirts, Bringeus and Dworsky, found garments with tasteless colors, excess payment for quality or very little payment for poor quality garments. However, as students of economics, the idea of introducing new design and stylish cloth for every season seemed like an unsustainable way of doing business by Bringeus and Dworsky. Thus, they came up with the idea of ASKET. Bringeus and Dworsky planned to introduce permanent collection of ‘quality and timeless’ garments and challenge the conventional business model in the fashion industry.17
Growth of ASKET ASKET was founded in 2015 by Bringeus and Dworsky as an online only D2C18 menswear brand.19 It was named as ASKET, a Swedish word translated as ‘ascetic’ in English. Dworsky explained the meaning of the brand name and said, “It describes a person who refrains from excess and lives without material possessions. For the two of us, it was more metaphorical. It was a description of how we make our products by eliminating everything that doesn’t add value.”20 In 2016, ASKET launched its sweatshirt after clearing the quality control norms of the regulators in Portugal. However, the brand had received feedback from the customers regarding disproportionately short sleeves, wide bottom hems, too long bodies, etc. Soon, Bringeus and Dworsky had informed every customer and recalled the faulty items. They had tried to fix the issues by sending the garments again to Portugal. Finally, both Bringeus and Dworsky, cancelled the entire stock of the sweatshirts.21 The founders again started their business from scratch. About 150 pieces of sweatshirts were manufactured as ‘pre-release’ items. Within 45 minutes ASKET had sold all items, Due to high demand, the site was almost crashed during the ‘pre-release’ stage. Subsequently, Bringeus and Dworsky ramped up the production of sweatshirts in full-fledged manner and formally launched the product in the market. In 2017, sweatshirt 2.0, a light-weight T-shirt was introduced by ASKET.22 Subsequently, Denim T-shirt joined the portfolio of ASKET.23
16 “ASKET’s Full Traceability Label picked for World Changing Ideas Award”, op.cit. 17 “Asket: Ending the era of Fast Fashion”, op.cit. 18 Preuss Simone, “Asket to open first physical store in Stockholm”, https://fashionunited.uk/news/retail/asket- to-open-first-physical-store-in-stockholm/2021052055580, May 20th 2021 19 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit. 20 Shah Farhan, “The founders of fashion brand Asket want you to buy less clothes”, https://www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg/fashion-watches/the-founders-of-fashion-brand-asket-want-you-to-buy- less-clothes/, January 27th 2021 21 “The Sweatshirt That Nearly Ruined ASKET”, https://mailchi.mp/asket.com/the-sweatshirt-that-nearly-killed-us 22 “The Sweatshirt That Nearly Ruined ASKET”, op.cit. 23 “The Mill That Fooled Us”, https://mailchi.mp/asket.com/the-mill-that-fooled-us
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In 2020, three key principles of Transparency, Lifecycle and Operations were formulated by the brand.24 (Exhibit II). Experts also highlighted that in the initial phase, the founders handled every stage of business personally starting from working with suppliers, manufacturers to the marketing, packing, customer service etc. By 2021, ASKET was having around 14 full time workers.25
Exhibit II Glimpse of Key Principles of ASKET
Particulars Key Message Key Areas the Brand was Working
Transparency Honesty and openness in everything the brand practiced
Transparency in Cost, Origin, Traceability and Impact
Lifecycle
To guide the brand in our decision making process and our actions along the way, we take a holistic approach to our role, touchpoints, and influence across the entire value chain.
Design, Material selection, Sampling, Production, Marketing, Distribution, Use & maintenance, end-of-life.
Operations To create a culture of consideration and better practices in everything ASKET do
Onboarding & Education, Travel, Vacations, Activities, Office & Catering
Source: Compiled by the Author from – “The contents”, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AACYcTuDshd2ZWqA0MylXW4Za/The%20ASKET%2 0PRINCIPLES?dl=0&preview=The+ASKET+Principles.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1&utm_source=Wes
bite&utm_medium=PrinciplesUpdated22&utm_campaign=PrinciplesUpdated22, April 2022
Also, in 2021, ASKET expanded its product portfolio by adding womenswear based on the same ideologies of menswear, avoiding seasonal collections. The womenswear portfolio consisted of six items including T-shirts and shirts manufactured from 100% organic cotton.26
Promoting Less is More By emphasising on producing ‘perfect fit’ garments for the consumers ASKET was practicing less is more approach in its business model. It offered almost 50 sizes for every product in its permanent collection. Bringeus explained the importance of ASKET’s initiative to come up with different sizes said, “This is a systemic problem within the industry as a whole; as mass-market brands increasingly focus on pace and profits, the industry has squeezed people into a prescribed sizing set. If the industry were to slow down it could spend more time focussing on making better fitting garments, and address different sizing requirements, too.” The less is more approach helped the brand to focus more on producing ‘perfect fit’ garments and address the sizing issues, one of the key factors for driving fast consumption among the people.27 In addition to this, the company was slowing down and scaling back as a de-growth strategy, which encouraged the brand to separate production of low-priced garment from profitability and emphasising on fewer qualitative production.28
24 “The ASKET Principles 2021”, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AACYcTuDshd2ZWqA0MylXW4Za/The%20ASKET%20PRINCIPLE S?dl=0&preview=The+ASKET+Principles.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1&utm_source=Wesbite&utm_medium=Pri nciplesUpdated22&utm_campaign=PrinciplesUpdated22 25 “Asket: Ending the era of Fast Fashion”, op.cit. 26 Sommer Sabine, “Asket launches womenswear and opens first store”, https://www.the-spin- off.com/news/stories/The-Brands-Asket-launches-womenswear-and-opens-first-store-15947, June 7th 2021 27 Unstitched: Asket”, op.cit. 28 Rees Laurens, “Slow down and scale back: Degrowth in the fashion industry”, https://www.fashionrevolution.org/degrowth-in-the-fashion-industry/
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Will ASKET Grow Through ‘De-growth’? The size of the global fashion market was anticipated to increase from $25.09 billion to almost $39.84 billion by 2025. However, this level of growth of the fashion industry was against the sustainability goals of the sector. According to Fletcher, “Within the work in fashion and sustainability is a lack of criticality, and a lack of people being prepared to call out the things that are really the problem and deal with them head on.” In this scenario, various approaches like de-growth business model were identified by the brands like ASKET to manage the issue at their individual business level. 29
De-growth Business Model Experts further highlighted that ASKET adopted a de-growth business model and launched permanent timeless collection. Instead of launching new collection every year, ASKET believed on improvement of the existing design or adding a new product category. Bringeus explained this in detail and said, “The way we grow now is by getting more people to buy fewer garments, rather than constantly upselling to our existing customer base by telling them that what you bought yesterday is no longer on trend.” ASKET was trying to reduce the need for new products for the consumers and aspired to move towards a route to de-growth.30
Strategies Further, with the help of transparency approach, considered as one of the key principles of ASKET’s business model, the Scandinavian brand was trying to give a clear picture about each garment in its permanent collection to the customers. Under the transparency reporting, ASKET claimed that around 93% of its permanent collections were traceable during 2021, which was almost 7% higher than the previous year (86% in 2020). Switching to organic cotton was the key reason behind the significant traceability figure of the brand.31 (Exhibit III).
Exhibit III
ASKET: Progress of Traceability Report (2021)
Source: ASKET, “The Progress Report 2021”,
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AACWFNx73PebJ9cqf7lQ9g4Fa/The%20ASKET%20PRINCIPL ES/Progress%20Reports?dl=0&preview=The_ASKET_ProgressReport_2021.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1&ut
m_source=Dropbox&utm_medium=ProgressReport21&utm_campaign=ProgressReport21, April 2022
29 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit. 30 ibid. 31 ASKET, “The Progress Report 2021”, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AACWFNx73PebJ9cqf7lQ9g4Fa/The%20ASKET%20PRINCIPLES/ Progress%20Reports?dl=0&preview=The_ASKET_ProgressReport_2021.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1&utm_sou rce=Dropbox&utm_medium=ProgressReport21&utm_campaign=ProgressReport21, April 2022
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ASKET also introduced impact receipt for its products. According to experts, the purchase of every garment entitled the buyer to see the environmental impact such as amount of CO2 emitted, amount of water required as well as amount of energy consumed by that particular garment. The company worked for almost two years to introduce impact receipt. During these two years, ASKET’s garments were examined by the Swedish Research Institute (RISE) to identify the environmental of each garment. Bringéus further explained about impact receipt initiative and said, “The Impact Receipt is the final piece of our total balance sheet: Price, Origin, Impact. A real understanding of what goes into making our clothing, is fundamental in being able to appreciate the impact of our choices, buying less and keeping our clothing longer. Without a reducing consumption, no amount of sustainable initiatives will make a dent.” (Exhibit IV). 32
Exhibit IV The Impact Receipt by ASKET
Source: Wightman-Stone Danielle, “Asket to highlight environmental costs of their garments”,
https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/asket-to-highlight-environmental-costs-of-their- garments/2020092851097, September 20th 2020
The ‘Lifecycle principle’, another key aspect of ASKET’s business model focused on every step in the value chain that the company could influence such as materials, prototyping, production, marketing, distribution, use and end-of-life. In 2021, the brand was emphasising on mono- materials use and also, planning to improve on its packaging and distribution approach. It also introduced ‘Revival Program’ under the lifecycle initiative. With the help of the ‘Revival Program’, ASKET was intending to take ‘end of life responsibility’ of its products. Under the ‘Revival Program’, ASKET rescued around 793 garments as of 2021. It was planning to resell the garments either after reworking, repairing or recycling. Further, ASKET was also experimenting for a viable alternative for organic cotton.33 (Exhibit V).
32 Wightman-Stone Danielle, “Asket to highlight environmental costs of their garments”, https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/asket-to-highlight-environmental-costs-of-their- garments/2020092851097, September 20th 2020 33 “The Progress Report 2021”, op.cit.
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Exhibit V Garment Life Cycle
Source: ASKET, “The Progress Report 2021”, https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e2beb07dki1w8ld/AACWFNx73PebJ9cqf7lQ9g4Fa/The%20ASKET%20PRI NCIPLES/Progress%20Reports?dl=0&preview=The_ASKET_ProgressReport_2021.pdf&subfolder_nav_tra
cking=1&utm_source=Dropbox&utm_medium=ProgressReport21&utm_campaign=ProgressReport21, April 2022
To promote ‘buy lesser clothes’ ideology, both Bringeus and Dworsky decided to close their online store on ‘Black Friday’. On ‘Black Friday’ retailers as well as companies offered huge discount to lure more customers for buying products. Instead of emphasising on buy more principle, ASKET, encouraged the potential buyers to focus on the company’s care guides, which would help to extend the lifespan of the garment. Bringeus explained the key idea of introducing the brand and said, “We wanted people to use our product as a vehicle that would help them live with less and appreciate their possessions more.” The founders believed that if a brand emphasised on quality, it would attain financial success even with less purchase by the consumers. Both, Bringeus and Dworsky, justified the higher price of ASKET product than the normal fashion goods due to its longevity aspect even after number of washes and wear. Bringeus further justified this and said, “Historically, prosperity in a capitalistic world is tied to growth. But we live in a world with finite resources, so infinite growth is impossible. Growth should not be the only metric of success. Frankly, it’s dangerous.” Both the founders were also ‘honest and transparent’ about their objective with the investors.34 In another laudable move, ASKET recycled the post-consumer wool and jeans to prepare the knitwear for the brand. Dan Vo (Vo), head, product, ASKET, along with her team spent almost 24 months for the development of the womenswear. The product team under the guidance of Vo tested more than 27 different fabrics and came up with 10 rounds of prototypes for over 30 different fits. ASKET planned to launch around 300 pieces of three garments as the beta version. The company decided to roll out the final product after customers’ feedback in the beginning of 2022. It offered the T-shirt at around €40 per piece and jeans for €125 Bringeus stated, “Since our inception in 2015, we have taken a course that continually expands our understanding and notion of responsibility as a clothing brand, and is supported by a completely different business model. Our sole purpose is to help better value our clothing so that we can not only get by with it, but be happier with less. It's been a journey that has taken six years, and we hope to bring all
34 “The founders of fashion brand Asket want you to buy less clothes”, op.cit.
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of our learnings together as we launch Womenswear, with uncompromised garments in every way, full transparency and lifecycle responsibility from the start.”35 (Exhibit VI).
Exhibit VI
Glimpse of ASKET’s Womenswear
Source: Sommer Sabine, “Asket launches womenswear and opens first store”,
https://www.the-spin-off.com/news/stories/The-Brands-Asket-launches-womenswear-and-opens- first-store-15947, June 7th 2021
On May 22nd 2021, ASKET also unveiled its first physical store in central Stockholm. According to experts, connection with people through physical stores was considered as an important route to communicate the inherent brand value of the company. Regarding the opening of the physical store, Bringeus, highlighted, “To slow down consumption, we need people to start understanding and appreciating what they buy. So we see the store as an opportunity to offer an immersive and transparent experience, beyond what we’ve been able to offer online.”36 The brand was also planning to include womenswear into the product portfolio of the first ASKET store in Stockholm. The store, which was spread over 116 sqm space in Norrmalmstorg 1, Central Stockholm featured the permanent collection of garments of the brand. Similar to the purpose built brand, the shelves of the store were also made from locally produced ash wood. To create a feeling of intimacy, ASKET used stainless steel panels in the lounge and fitting room area of the store. The cosy lounge area was built signifying the idea of ‘slow approach’, which would act as a driving factor for the customer to make a conscious buying decision. Further, the store was organised to focus on revealing the manufacturing process of the garments, its material quality, fiber quality, etc. In addition to this, the outlet also showcased the various components in garment making such as greasy wools, raw corozo nuts, recycled pet insulation, etc, and, the outlet was devoid of sales registers. Also, to keep the outlet transparent and simple, ASKET worked in close collaboration with Specific Generic, one of the popular architects in Stockholm. Regarding the collaboration with ASKET, Andreas Bozarth Fornell, founder and creative director, Specific Generic, said, “Our team wanted the store to be a physical embodiment of the brand and let the garments speak for themselves, so relentless perfectionism, respectfulness towards resources and understated aesthetics where the starting point of the project.”37 (Exhibit VII).
35 “Asket launches womenswear and opens first store”, op.cit. 36 “Asket to open first physical store in Stockholm”, op.cit. 37 “Asket launches womenswear and opens first store”, op.cit.
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Exhibit VII ASKET’s Physical Store in Central Stockholm
Source: Sommer Sabine, “Asket launches womenswear and opens first store”,
https://www.the-spin-off.com/news/stories/The-Brands-Asket-launches-womenswear-and-opens- first-store-15947, June 7th 2021
Challenges According to fashion experts, the business model of ASKET was against the business philosophy of the usual fashion industry, which constantly inspired the consumers to purchase the latest trends for their wardrobe. Besides, the price tag of a simple cotton T-shirt by ASKET was around €35 (S$56), which was comparatively higher than the fast fashion goods.38Industry analysts opined that developing a business model by emphasising on slower consumption might be a difficult task for the ASKET team. The brand was against the idea of selling its products through wholesale mode. It strictly followed the principle of slower consumption in its business model. As a result, the brand received support from few investors. Bringeus explained this and said, “Predominantly, financing is based on that short term horizon, which is a huge challenge… What really needs to happen to change the finance market, and the stock market, is regulation that just makes it harder to continue to extract resources and exploit people and planet at the rate that we are now.”39 Further, the brand was struggling with logistics issues as well as troubles related to the tracing of raw material sourcing like cotton and wool. It also faced challenges from uncooperative suppliers.40 ASKET was also facing challenges while prototyping its circular business model. Very few customers were participating during the prototyping phase.41
What Lies Ahead? ASKET was implementing the de-growth business model with the help of its seasonless design. The company was emphasising on making improvements of the existing design as well as adding an entire new product to its permanent collection.42 It also rolled out its resale model in Sweden
38 “The founders of fashion brand Asket want you to buy less clothes”, op.cit. 39 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit. 40 “Asket makes significant progress tracing supply chain”, op.cit. 41 Classen Maya, “Take-Back: A Logical Next Step In Asket’s Pursuit Of Less”, https://www.thecirculartoolbox.com/case/asket 42 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit.
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and Germany.43 The company also claimed to generate around $10 million in sales in 2020 from its radical business model.44 Experts added that de-growth business model was a deliberate reduction in producing new apparel.45 It would help in developing a balance economy by emphasising on environmental sustainability. However, critics argued that de-growth business model would reduce jobs for workers in the garment sector.46 Again, many brands and retailers were cutting down their offline presence. In this respect, experts highlighted that fast fashion was gradually becoming a thing of the past for the environmentally conscious consumers. In contrast, ASKET opened its first offline outlet in Scotland. Responding to this, Bringeus, pointed out, “There’s still a great opportunity in brick-and-mortar if done right. We want to remind customers that they should be more intentional about their purchasing decisions.”47 He also added, “The way we grow now is by getting more people to buy fewer garments, rather than constantly upselling to our existing customer base by telling them that what you bought yesterday is no longer on trend.”48 Would it possible for the startup to change the sensibilities of the biggest brands and consumers in the world?
43 “Take-Back: A Logical Next Step In Asket’s Pursuit Of Less”, op.cit. 44 Segran Elizabeth, “Two years in the making, these jeans are the antidote to fast fashion”, https://www.fastcompanyme.com/co-design/two-years-in-the-making-these-jeans-are-the-antidote-to-fast- fashion/, August 16th 2022 45 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit. 46 “Slow Down and Scale Back: Degrowth in the Fashion Industry”, https://thevoiceoffashion.com/sustainability/responsible-fashion/Slow-Down-and-Scale-Back-Degrowth-in-the- Fashion-Industry-5088, July 1st 2022 47 “Asket to open first physical store in Stockholm”, op.cit. 48 “Sustainable Fashion Wants Brands To Redefine Business Growth”, op.cit.
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