NEW YORK CITY — January 30, 2020 — With the relaunch of its legacy denim brand, DEVIL-DOG Dungarees, GENERAL SPORTWEAR impressed their retail partners with the ability to leverage 93 years of private label apparel production knowledge and service into a new viable branded business. As if launching a brand in an extremely challenging retail climate was not tough enough, the team at DEVIL-DOG is looking to push the limits once again.
At the Feb 2020 PROJECT Show in Las Vegas, DEVIL-DOG will unveil a new sustainable project they call “SET.” SET is an acronym for the three elements DEVIL-DOG is building into a new group of Fall 2020 styles: Sustainable Materials, Eco-Friendly Production Methods and Transparent Sourcing.
“DEVIL-DOG used sustainable materials, such as Repreve® in the pocketing and in select fabrics, from the very start,” said Sean Connelly, vice president of merchandising and sales. “The new SET development allows us to take it one step further, deconstructing a garment, and allowing us to look at every element and replace it with a more sustainable option — generic cotton is replaced with a combination of recycled, US Trust, or BCI; polyester is replaced with Repreve, regular paper is replaced with jacron or recycled paper, and overly processed hardware, patches or labels are removed or replaced with versions that require less steps.”
At the production level, the new SET product will require less water due to fabrics using newly developed ECO-indigo technology in addition to new process reducing wash techniques proprietary to General’s laundry. “We have always been mindful about efficient operations, and replacing outdated techniques, machinery, and fixtures. Recently many of those efforts are eco-friendly in nature, including solar power, recycling, and more efficient water treatment processing. The new indigo dyes used on the SET product will help take us to the next level in water and energy conservation,” said Jeff Rosenstock, president and owner, General Sportswear.
Transparent sourcing has always been at the forefront of General’s business ethos. “All of our DEVIL-DOG denim production runs solely through our two WRAP Platinum Certified wholly owned production facilities in Central America,” said David Rosenstock, executive vice president and Owner at General. “We know where every garment is at all times in the process, and can trace and certify all raw materials back to our highly vetted suppliers.” A list of all DEVIL-DOG’s suppliers will be visible on their website starting Fall 2020.
“We have all seen the retail landscape change drastically over the past few years. Much of that change occurred as a reaction to the change in consumers buying habits,” Connelly said. “Just think what can happen if every brand and manufacturer changes their production habits. It’s not that complicated. We all must do what we can, and endeavor to find realistic solutions, and engage them now. The winning methods will set the standards that we can all follow. DEVIL-DOG is extremely excited be a part of this evolution with our new SET denim development.”
Posted January 30, 2020
Source: DEVIL-DOG Dungarees
