The good old Preloved pair of Jeans

When you see them, you just know. The feeling is electrifying. You can’t take your eyes off of them. You want to touch them, feel them, never let them go. Because they are the one!


This is exactly how we feel about meeting THE preloved jeans that we were looking for for so long! It’s a love story with a happy ending. You can trust the perfect fit, because they are preloved. They won’t change shape or colour after a few times of wearing. Sure they stretch a bit, but that’s always a part of wearing and enjoying your jeans.


The durability of denim is what gave birth to jeans, when back in the day the US labourers were looking for a good pair of trousers to work in. And denim really holds the promise, a good pair of jeans can survive many many years. To create such a strong piece of clothing there is, as always in life, a high price to pay. Maybe not necessarily in financial terms, but in environmental ones.


The greenlivingmag lists a quick and simple step by step process to show the amount of resources (fuel, water, dyes, pesticides, human labor, etc.) that go into the production of jeans:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it takes approximately 11 000 litres of water to produce one pair of traditional cotton jeans.

  1. Cotton is grown
  2. Fabric is milled
  3. Fabric is dyed
  4. Pattern is cut
  5. Jeans are re-dyed
  6. Jeans are washed several times to make them softer, reduce shrinkage, prevent bleeding dyes, and to provide a “worn” look
  7. Oftentimes jeans are artificially distressed, which traditionally requires copious amounts of toxic chemicals, such as acids

Let’s come back to the 11 000 litres of water:

  • The average annual rainfall in the UK is 594 litres of rain falling per square metre of ground, so 11,000 litres represents 18,5 years’ worth of rain falling on one square metre. And in the UK it rains a lot, doesn’t it?
  • Running a modern washing machine uses around 70 litres of water, so for 11,000 litres you could run your washing machine 157 times.
  • The average American drinks 263 litres of water per year, so 11,000 litres represent 42 years worth of drinking water.

We can go on like this forever, but it becomes clear pretty soon that 11 000 liters of water for just one pair of jeans is HUGE!


We are therefore certain that buying jeans second-hand hugely helps to reduce this impact on the environment. Denim is extremely durable, it doesn’t need much washing, and with the right care it will stay with you forever. Check out here, how to care for your preloved denim.

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