Sustainability

lives at our core

Fashioning a Better VINOKILO

We are all about being accessible and authentic. That’s why we are keen to be open about the things we do well and the aspects we must improve upon moving forward.

For us, sustainability is a holistic way of life, consciousness and awareness that transcends beyond the clothes we sell. It’s the sweet spot of how we treat our team, our customers, our supply chain, and our environment every single day.

Robin Balser

We commit to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

OUR GOALS

IMPACT TRACKING

Become more data-driven to track our positive and negative impact along our supply and value chains

LIFE-CYCLE

Push Vinokilo Circle, a life-cycle service, and similar innovations to further develop the circularity of our business model

REPORT

Issue a comprehensive and engaging social and environmental impact report

OUR CUSTOMERS

ARE OUR COMMUNITY

Without our customers, we would never be where we are today. What began with a small event in someone’s living room is now a company present in 14 countries with our numerous events and e-com platform. In 2020 alone, we served a total of 153,607 happy customers, who purchased 141,676kgs of clothing.

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To us, customers are not merely customers. They are our community. We want to form a bond with our community and collectively care about our environment! We want to forge societal changes together and play an active role in everyone’s path to lead a more sustainable and conscious lifestyle.

Without our customers, the ones who believe in us, support us, and enjoy this crazy ride with us, we would never be where we are today.

Robin Balser

*based on customer survey conducted 2020

Without our customers, the ones who believe in us, support us, and enjoy this crazy ride with us, we would never be where we are today.

Robin Balser

95%

of our customers would recommend our events to their friends

43%

of our customers come to events because of our clothes

26%

of our customers come to events because of the vibe/atmosphere

*based on a survey conducted with 533 customers in November 2020.

One team

One dream

Our team is our pride and joy! We are diverse, unique, and inclusive. Our employees come from 41 different nationalities from all over the globe. And we celebrate every single one.

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Over the last 18 months, we had lots to celebrate as we expanded from 83 to 221 employees – a job growth rate of 100% in one year. 65 of the 221 people are full-time and the rest are part-time employees.

We take care of everyone equally. All our employees are eligible for health care benefits, have access to on-job, cross-job, and life skill training, as well as counselling sessions with a professional upon request.

We offer legal counsel whenever needed for residency or visa purposes, and seek to accommodate personal circumstances whenever possible.

75% of our employees report being ‘very satisfied’ at Vinokilo based on a survey conducted in April 2021. Teamwork makes the dream work!

At Vinokilo, we build on diversity, people, and passion. Family is everything to us and Vinokilo should feel more like a home than just a place to work. It’s a diverse and safe space for everyone.

Robin Balser

At Vinokilo, we build on diversity, people, and passion. Family is everything to us and Vinokilo should feel more like a home than just a place to work. It’s a diverse and safe space for everyone.

Robin Balser

47%

of employees identify as women

37%

of employees are under the age of 24

100%

of employees are paid a living wage

*based on an internal survey conducted by our HR Team in April 2021.

A SUPPLY CHAIN

THAT HIDES NOTHING

The question we get asked the most is, “where do your clothes come from?” Our supply chain is different from that of a production-based company, and many parts and pieces are much more difficult to trace. After all, our clothes can date back as far as the 1950s. How do they come to us?

Our supply chain starts with clothes that are thrown away. In Europe, that’s an average of 11kg of textiles per person per annum. These clothes are then brought to recycling warehouses. We currently have 25 recycling warehouses in our supply chain, located everywhere from Canada to Norway, but over 90% of our warehouses are in Europe. Vinokilo also sources most of its clothing from Europe, with 90% of our clothing coming from European countries. The remaining ten per cent are sourced from a variety of places: 4% comes from the United States, 2% from Japan, 2% comes from miscellaneous countries, and the last 2% of our clothing is dead stock offered from brands in Europe. Most garments in these recycling warehouses are meant to travel to overseas destinations such as Africa and Southeast Asia. What finally ends up in our own warehouse in Mainz-Bodenheim is picked out from our leading supplier in the Netherlands before clothes are shipped to a developing country.

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Following the credo of ‘another (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure’, our Dutch supplier has trained people to select clothes according to long-refined quality standards, picking approximately 1% of the clothing waste. He then washes, repairs, and hand-folds the selected items before they are sent from Amsterdam to our warehouse in Mainz-Bodenheim. That is where all vinokilo clothes go before heading to our events or your home. But not only does our supplier strive to provide a consistently high quality of clothing for you, he also heavily emphasises the importance of acting in an ethical and conscious manner to create a positive social impact. He now employs 20 people from very diverse backgrounds in Amsterdam, paying them well above the living wage.

On average, we receive between 25 and 40 tons of clothes every month and at any given moment, we host between 400,000 and 700,000 items in our warehouse. From past data, we know that 97% of the stock that arrives in our warehouse is sold, while 3% of all items are broken and enter an upcycling process. This is something we cherish and are very proud of. We minimize waste where we can!

Read this article to know more about the ‘dumping’ of secondhand garments in other countries and why it makes sense to re-circulate them in Europe.

100%

of suppliers receive our supplier code of conduct

100%

of suppliers are eligible for support to improve their social and environmental impact

95%

of our event suppliers and collab partners are local

*based on an internal assessment conducted in July 2021.

OUR SUCCESS

FOR OUR PLANET

Over the course of our existence, from 2016 to 2021, we reduced the negative impact on the environment by re-circulating and up-cycling quality clothing. They would otherwise end up in landfills, be burned, or pollute our oceans in the form of microplastic. That’s something we are proud of.

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Globally, around 92 million tons of textile waste are created each year. It is expected that by 2030, we will be throwing away more than 132 million tons of textiles annually. Around 70 million barrels of oil are used to make the polyester fibers in our clothes each year, and 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere from textile production alone. Producing one kilogram of cotton for a pair of jeans requires about 7,500–10,000 liters of water. That’s about ten years’ worth of drinking water for one person. Read more here.

The more circular and long-living people’s wardrobes become, the fewer resources we will need globally to produce new ones. That’s our purpose.

Create and support a more sustainable life for our planet. As a customer, the best you can do is buy less, choose well, make it last. Quality over quantity.

Robin Balser

To produce 1 cotton T-shirt, the environmental costs are:

Extending the life of clothes by an additional 9 months reduces carbon, water, and water footprints by 20-30% per item.

Create and support a more sustainable life for our planet. As a customer, the best you can do is buy less, choose well, make it last. Quality over quantity.

Robin Balser

11.2m

cubic metres
of water equivalents saved

109.9m

megajoules of energy saved

6.1m

kilograms of CO2 equivalents saved

*based on an estimated 409,488.7kg of clothes sold between March 2016 - May 2021.

clothing journey

OUR INITIATIVES

A pledge to our customers

Vinokilo believes that customer service and satisfaction are critical to the success of our company and our mission. We are committed to continuously improving our service. 

It’s because of our customers that we exist, and we, therefore, commit ourselves to the following: 

You, our customers, can return 100% of our products within 30 days. We want you to enjoy your purchase. 

We put our customers first- you deserve the highest quality of customer service. We’ll find prompt and accurate answers or solutions to any product problem you might face. We know it can be confusing if you are new to vintage clothing. Whether it’s about sizing, materials, or something else, our team is happy to advise you. You never have to wait more than 4 hours for an answer from us. We also promise that you’re doing your bit to save the planet with your purchase: all Vinokilo products are 100% secondhand or sustainably produced. Guaranteed. 

Vintage is for everyone. We want to cater to all body types, backgrounds, and ages. We believe that diversity is better for all of us. And we can all be a part of that. Let us fight in your corner and make sure your voice is heard.

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