Mass production, inhuman working conditions and millions of tons of waste every year – the textile industry is falling into disrepute. Now numerous companies are springing up that want to turn the tables. Even before this hype, Martin Höfeler founded the sustainable fashion label Armed Angels and proves that sustainability and entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive. In 2021, €60 million was turned over.
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“€3.99” is on the price tag in the women’s department at H&M. Mountains of white T-shirts are piled up all around, which young girls are frantically rummaging through. It’s Saturday afternoon and therefore prime time on Vienna’s Mariahilfer Strasse – if you haven’t found anything in this shop, you’ll find 15 other retailers within a radius of 500 meters who sell clothing at similar prices.
According to the Apparel Industry Overproduction Report 2018, 150 billion pieces of clothing are produced annually – that’s 20 pieces a year for every person in the world. According to the report, 30% of them never see a consumer because they are not sold at all. This makes the fashion industry one of the most wasteful in the business world. The textile industry is responsible for 10% of annual CO2 emissions (more than international flights and shipping combined) and creates 92 million tons of waste annually. According to Fridays for Future, the fashion industry thus takes second place after the oil industry among the most climate-damaging industries.
The critical development of this branch of the economy already became apparent 15 years ago, albeit not to this extent – this was also recognized by Martin Höfeler, CEO and founder of Armed Angels. Even before awareness of the topic of sustainability reached the mainstream, he founded the sustainable fashion company Armed Angels together with Anton Jurina in 2007. Today the company is one of the largest players in the field of sustainable clothing in German-speaking countries. Armed Angels mainly sells its clothing on its own website, but can also be found at retailers such as Peek & Cloppenburg, Breuninger or Kastner & Öhler – as well as online department stores such as Zalando and About You. In the midst of the corona pandemic, Armed Angels increased its sales by 50% from 2020 to 2021 and was able to generate €60 million last year. The business model is easy to explain: sustainable fashion that looks good and is also affordable (T-shirts cost between €29.90 and €49.90).
The business administration students at the time, Höfeler and Jurina, really wanted to found a company with “impact”. Even at the age of 14, Höfeler knew that he wanted to become an entrepreneur. “I actually only went to college to reassure my parents that I wasn’t going completely off the rails,” says the CEO. Proving that entrepreneurship can also create something positive for society has always been his motivation, he says. “I never wanted to be dependent on the philanthropy of others.” That’s why he didn’t go into an NGO, but founded a sustainable company himself.
Sustainability – a word that has now become more of a marketing tool than a way of counteracting climate change. Large corporations such as H&M advertise with a Conscious line and describe themselves as sustainable, start-ups take up the term as a corporate philosophy. But what does sustainability mean in the textile industry?
Armed Angels consistently uses sustainable, environmentally friendly and circular materials such as organic cotton or recycled material. Since 2018, the company has also been helping farmers switch to organic farming without having to suffer financially. So far, 500 farmers have been successfully helped to switch from conventional to organic farming. Most of the clothing is then produced in Portugal and Turkey, while the denims are made in Tunisia. All partners are regularly checked and are certified. The sustainability strategy also includes the timeless designs that are designed to be worn for a long time. Nevertheless, it is important to meet the zeitgeist: “You don’t have to look like you’re walking around in a jute sack when you shop sustainably. Even Tesla did not invent the electric car, but the first beautifully designed one. You can have style without riding every short-term trend,” says Höfeler.
A fundamental point in producing and selling sustainable clothing is the right certificates. Armed Angels has been awarded the “Global Organic Textile Standard” (GOTS) certificate, one of the best in the textile industry, confirms Jenny Teufel from the Öko-Institut Freiberg. The cotton cultivation, the working conditions, the environmental impact during the processing of the products and the supply chain are controlled throughout the entire process.
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Teufel has been working in the Products & Material Flows department for over ten years and specializes in the sustainability labeling of products. “GOTS is very demanding for natural textiles. The increase would then still be IVN Best. The Blue Angel, EU Ecolabel and Bluesign are also very ambitious labels,” says Teufel. According to her, in order to be able to call oneself sustainable, two factors must be taken into account in the fashion industry: It must be ensured that no chemicals that are particularly harmful to the environment or health are used or discharged into the sewage system, and in the case of natural textiles, cotton should be made from controlled organic cotton Cultivation and wool from controlled organic animal husbandry are used. According to a study conducted in 2015, organic cotton uses up to 91% less water and up to 62% less energy and causes up to 46% less CO2 in cultivation. Caution is advised with recycled materials: while these are of course very desirable, the products are only sustainable if they are actually made from waste and contain no pollutants that could get into the material, Teufel says. “If a company advertises that it uses waste from pineapple cultivation, it is not sustainable if chemicals that are harmful to the environment and health are used in the finishing processes and thus end up in the waste water and thus in the environment,” says the expert.
Greenwashing is the name given to the principle of adorning oneself with the term sustainability without complying with the required standards. The fact that large companies are increasingly calling themselves “green” has to do with a social upheaval: at least since Greta Thunberg took to the streets together with millions of schoolchildren, climate change has become an integral part of every industry. This is noticeable: According to a study by the management consultancy McKinsey, the range of sustainable fashion is increasing fivefold every year. While sales of fair trade textiles in Germany amounted to €71 million in 2015, in 2019 it was already €194 million. Brands like Patagonia, Everlane and Pact are gaining international attention, and while there’s still a long way to go, big brands like Levi’s (whose new denim collection is now made with 94% less water) are starting to become more sustainable – whether just for that own marketing or 100% out of conviction, remains open.
“Sustainability is a question of definition,” says Höfeler when asked when something is sustainable for him. “For me, it means including the future in every aspect of work at least as much as the present,” says the father of two. The thought of how the world will look like when his daughters are grown drives him. Armed Angels would like to continue concentrating on convincing more people of the relevance of the topic and strengthening their position internationally. CO2 is a global issue, so the right production processes have to be integrated worldwide, says the 40-year-old.
In addition to optimizing the production of textiles, consumption must also be significantly reduced – Jenny Teufel and Martin Höfeler agree on that. The fastest way to stop the climate damage in the industry is to reduce production. But how do you teach consumers not to buy 60 pieces of clothing a year when they only have to spend €5 each? For the CEO, the psychological component is also important: “You only make a conscious purchase decision when the product has a certain price. If you’ve ‘afforded’ a piece of clothing, you take care of it accordingly,” says Höfeler. A T-shirt for €5 can therefore neither be produced nor psychologically sustainable. “Today you can buy a latte macchiato for €5 somewhere, which can’t have been as time-consuming to produce,” says Höfeler, who has both concerns about the practices of his industry and a passion for them written all over his forehead.
“Why actually the name Armed Angels?” we ask him at the end. “We’ve always seen ourselves as a bit like the Robin Hood of the industry, ‘take money from those who have it and give it to those who need it’. And then the name just stayed. Maybe we all just wanted to be a bit of a superhero,” he says with a smile.
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Text: Sophie Ströbitzer
Foto: Armed Angels
This article appeared in our Issue 1-22 on the subject of resources.
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Sophie Ströbitzer,
editor
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