ARKET

Nov 17, 2020

ARKET is a clothing brand from Stockholm, Sweden that creates accessible, well-made, and durable fashion products for women, men, and children.

The clothing label designs beautiful, lasting, and responsibly-made fashion, as well as home and travel accessories. It sells a wide range of shoes, bags, accessories, homeware, and ready-to-wear.

The retail giant Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) owns ARKET, along with Monki, Weekday, COS, & Other Stories. The clothing-retail company is known for its fast-fashion clothing for women, men, and children.

ARKET specializes in chic and classic clothes, accessories, and footwear designed to be used and loved for a long time. It naturally incorporates sustainability in all processes.

The brand aspires to become more sustainable. It carefully chooses its suppliers and materials and informs customers about how to care for their products to prolong their lifespan.

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Sustainability Rating: 5/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Clothing, bags, shoes, accessories

For: Women, men, children

Type: Basics, denim, dresses, knitwear, loungewear, sportswear, outerwear, swimwear, underwear

Style: Casual, chic, classic

Quality: Medium

Price: $$

Sizes: XS-XL, 4-18 (US), 6-20 (UK), 34-48 (EU), 6-20 (AU)

Fabrics: Cotton, linen, hemp, jute, lyocell, modal, viscose, acetate, cupro, polyester, nylon, spandex, acrylic, rubber, leather, silk, wool, down

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: No

Recycling: Yes

Producing country: Turkey, India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia

Certifications: FSC, BCI, GOTS, OCS, RCS, GRS, RWS

Sustainability Practices

ARKET creates new pieces with a focus on sustainable fabrics and material innovation. All stores offer garment and textile recycling. It aims to become climate positive throughout the entire value chain.

ARKET uses a medium amount of sustainable materials such as organic or recycled fabrics, including organic cotton, linen, hemp, jute, recycled polyester, and regenerated nylon.

It also creates some of its garments with semi-synthetic fibers or regenerated cellulosic fabrics such as lyocell, modal, acetate, cupro, and viscose.

But not all materials used by ARKET are environmentally friendly and sustainable. The brand considers a garment sustainable when it contains at least 50% sustainable fibers.

ARKET still makes a lot of clothes with highly polluting fabrics and synthetic petroleum-based fibers such as conventional polyester, nylon, spandex, and acrylic.

As part of the H&M Group, ARKET uses the same supply chain as its parent company. H&M publishes a list of its manufacturing and processing facilities and makes it available publicly on its corporate website.

The 2020 Fashion Transparency Index gave H&M a score of 73% based on how much the group discloses about its social and environmental policies, practices, and impacts.

ARKET manufactures its clothes in Turkey and many other East Asian countries where human rights and labor law violations still happen every day.

The brand doesn't show any labor certification standard that would ensure socially responsible working conditions, decent living wages, health, safety, and other crucial rights for workers in its supply chain.

ARKET doesn't use any exotic animal skin, or hair, fur, angora but uses leather, wool, silk, and down feathers. The brand sells many animal-derived products.

These animal-based materials are cruel and unethical. They also harm the environment by producing greenhouse gases and wastes. More sustainable alternatives exist.

Sustainability Goals

ARKET is working on innovative ways to bring a higher and higher proportion of recycled fibers into its compositions.

ARKET aims to source 100% sustainable cotton by 2020. Its central goal is to reach 100% recycled or more sustainably sourced materials by 2030, if not sooner.

The clothing retailer is committed to making two tiers of its supply chain climate neutral by 2030. By 2040, ARKET strives to have a 100% climate positive value chain by increasing energy efficiency and using renewable energy in its facilities.

The H&M Group is aware that it's responsible for all of its 177,000 employees as well as the 1.6 million textile workers employed by its suppliers. It has a clear strategy to improve living wages and working conditions in the future.