Read what Outi Luukko (founding member of Touchpoint) wrote in our guestbook.

Sustainability: The Keyword for Success or a Prerequisite for a Healthy Textile Industry

The world is changing – no sh*t, Sherlock!   But this couldn't be truer for the textile industry! The sector has undergone an almost revolutionary phase of questioning – and for good reason. The old, familiar operating models are at least on their way to the scrap heap, as the new keyword "sustainability" sets new standards and goals for tackling globally recognized problems. This isn't an easy task for everyone; the deeper you try to dig your way out of the swamp, the harder it is to genuinely integrate "sustainability" into your business. And first, it would be good to understand what this widely used magic word "sustainability" actually entails and how to bring it down to earth – in other words, how to adapt goals and operations to meet new demands.

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Touchpoint was founded in 2008 to produce more ecological work clothes for businesses. The principle of sustainability guided the fledgling company's operations from the get-go, and at that time, the idealistic idea was to make textile production "responsible". It was a word that had to be explained and justified to recipients at that time. Boy, if we had known back then how uphill that development journey would be... From an ecological point of view, the market seemed as flat as Homer's Earth

There wasn't much to build on other than enthusiasm and passion to reach for something that would have an impact and respond to a perceived need among customers. The discussion about responsibility that had sprung up in companies (including ethics, ecology, and recycling – and a little later, also recyclability) turned from a tingle into a burn. The underlying itch had turned into a rash or shingles, which in a few years had gained more weight as sustainability jargon framed change goals among company decision-makers. But there was – and still is – no other cure for the itch than determined action and taking responsibility for the choices made.

Touchpoint's principles have always been the comfort, functionality, and maintainability of work clothes, the quality of products, and a long life cycle, which ends with recyclability to ensure that high-quality materials remain in circulation. Uncompromising choices and the desire to develop our own (and the entire industry's) operations, advocacy, and challenging stakeholders to take the same path have made the company what it represents today: Touchpoint is a pioneer company that brings its customers a financially viable workwear solution where responsibility is considered in all areas.

As a pioneer, Touchpoint has challenged its own norms and models that are common throughout the industry, and has thus been able to raise its operations to a level that many other companies are only now envisioning. Background work has been done by delving into the facts of what constitutes the elements of responsible workwear and continuing this into transparent reporting. Concrete results include collections derived from customer needs, where life cycle thinking extends from design and the supply chain to the realization of the circular economy. At the heart of the material strategy and anticipating market change has been the addition of recycled materials to collections from the beginning, i.e., fabrics and materials that use recycled raw material. In the workwear sector, the supply was limited – practically only based on recycled bottle (PET) material – and manufacturers were slow to react, so Touchpoint took on the role of a leader instead of a market follower. A big step was taken by participating in the establishment of Rester, Northern Europe's largest textile circular economy plant. And that's not all; the story continued with the development of Retouch, a fabric in which the recycled raw material is recycled through a closed-loop system. This "eco-feat" also took several years from development to the final product, but now we can sincerely say that the use of recycled material in demanding work clothes has been proven to work. Counter-arguments can be read as the mantras of a lazy player.

These cornerstones represented by Touchpoint can also be said to correspond to the content of the ongoing EU textile strategy reform, the impact of which many industry players are considering with mixed feelings of concern. For Touchpoint, responding to these future challenges does not only mean taking into account regulations and decrees, but also proactive action and influencing. So not just talk, but strong actions and risk-taking to bring about change through our own example.

Strategies often need to be integrated into a more sophisticated form to achieve that magic word "sustainability". However, it's not a matter of pulling a rabbit out of a hat to get through unscathed, but simply a matter of a healthy operating model and the use of common sense to ensure the optimization of the entire sector in terms of quantity and quality (you can't make prime from poor materials), avoiding waste production and the continuity of materials in circulation, and, above all, ensuring product safety for textile users.

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As I write this, news has just come that the EU Commission has on 19.2.2025 passed a decision to amend the directive on extended producer responsibility for textiles. The entry into force of the directive still requires a few official steps, but the goal that required long work and lobbying is in sight. The decisions will have long-term consequences, which will hopefully steer the textile industry as a whole onto new, hopefully healthier tracks.

"17 years behind, life ahead", as a high school student would say when preparing for their matriculation exams. Hopefully, with Touchpoint's living example, we can prove that this vision of change will come true and that the textile industry will see a new boom and the opportunity for healthy and profitable business – on the terms of sustainability. Even AI, when it was in its infancy, didn't get much wind under its wings, but look how it turned out... Today, the most globally known and used pair of letters is probably AI. "AI-AI-AI!" Let that be a joyful cheer for the implementation of change in the textile industry!

OL, 21.2.2025

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