The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2020
H&M put a machine in store that remade old clothes into new ones.
H&M and AKQA built Looop, a store machine that shredded an old garment and knitted it into a new one without water or chemicals.
H&M · AKQA · Universal Design Studio
the move
The fast-fashion insight was blunt: 84% of clothing goes to landfill or the incinerator. H&M's challenge was to change how people saw old clothes, treating worn-out garments as a resource rather than waste.
Looop, developed with AKQA and Universal Design Studio, is a garment-to-garment machine in a glass box at H&M Drottninggatan in central Stockholm. Visitors choose one of eight designs in an app, then watch the machine recycle their old garment into a new piece, using no water or chemicals.
Red yarn installation and animated screens above the machine pulled shoppers up from the ground floor and narrated each stage, while an ASMR soundtrack heightened the experience. The whole thing made the complex process of textile recycling a thing a customer could see and cause.
why it works
- Seeing the machine work is more convincing than being told about recycling
- The customer's own old clothes become the raw material, so the loop is personal
- Running the transformation through an app made choosing a design part of the fun
- A glass-box installation turned the store floor into a public demonstration
what transfers
To make a sustainability claim credible, move the proof out of the ad and onto the shop floor where the customer can operate it.
what came after
Despite launching during Covid-19 restrictions, remaking slots booked out months in advance. The story spread across over 500 articles in 55 markets with more than 15 million social impressions. Looop won a Cannes Lions Design Grand Prix, a Fast Company World Changing Ideas award, two D&AD awards and three One Show awards.
references
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