True Religion is being proactive in building out a circular product strategy, determined to ensure that deadstock denim does not exist in the marketplace and is only put back in once it is repurposed into something special. the brand launched the True Religion Vault as part of its circularity push, starting with 1,000 individual pairs of jeans made and worn in the early 2000s. Knowing that many of its products are being sold on the secondhand market, the brand wanted to bring more vintage jeans back under its umbrella with a modern twist.
Zihaad Wells, True Religion creative director, said, “You will be able to find the original Joey jeans with a patch that you had not seen before. You can find something that you have been looking for that you can now only really buy from us.
For True Religion, as one of these brands that have become heavily thrifted for Gen Z, it was important that we showed up in that space.”
Wells said Vault would operate as a marketplace for customized products and leverage creator collaborations to sell unique, “new” jeans that are repurposed from old denim. Under Wells’ tenure as creative director, which began in December 2019, True Religion has developed more collections in line with this mindset, with the brand teaming with fashion designers like London-based Jaffa Saba, Atlanta-based Elijah Popo and Blu Boy and New York’s Madeline Kraemer.
Many of the collections are made from an existing product that was reimagined in some cases from factory defects and overstock from prior seasons.
