Mud Jeans opens physical lease shop

Mud Jeans, a pioneer in the leasing of jeans, has opened its first physical store in the Netherlands. Customers can try on all of the jeans, but they can’t buy them: if you want a pair of jeans, you’ll get it sent to your home afterwards.

Own fittings and showroom

Mud Jeans has opened its very first physical store, or rather fitting room, in Laren (near Amsterdam). The store is located in De Groene Afslag, a meeting place that wants to bring together all kinds of sustainable initiatives. It already features a theatre and a restaurant, and now it is also home to Mud Jeans’ first store and offices.

However, the store is not really a store: there are no jeans for sale. Customers can find and try on jeans in all styles, sizes and colours, and then decide whether or not to lease it. “Some customers said they would like to be able to try on the trousers and be able to feel the material before they leased a pair”, sales manager Petra Wentholt told FashionUnited. In the store you can also find vintage jeans and a screen explains how the brand recycles jeans.

A pioneer in circular fashion

Since 2013, Mud Jeans has been innovating with a lease model for jeans: customers pay a monthly fee and can lease a pair. At the end of the lease period, which is set at one year, customers can either keep the jeans or trade them in for a new pair. The ‘old’ jeans will then start a second life as vintage clothing, again through a lease model, or they are recycled.

Using this circular model, Mud Jeans aims to reduce water consumption and CO2 emissions as much as possible in this traditionally high-polluting textile industry. The label fits in with the Dutch government’s plans, as they also want to achieve a full circular economy by 2050.