Houdini

• HEADQUARTERS LOCATION: Stockholm, Sweden
• STORAGE LOCATION: Veddesta, Sweden

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HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY

This is Houdini, an odd band of friends from Sweden on a quest to redesign the future of circular sportswear. They realized a long time ago that textiles is a dirty business and have spent the last 25 years creating sustainable alternatives. Join the extraordinary journey to reimagine everything.

This story begins in the late 80s and early 90s when a young Lotta Giornofelice was working as a climbing and off piste skiing instructor and guide. She shared her time between Åre, Chamonix, La Grave, Kebnekaise and other places around the world in pursuit for the best skiing spots and climbing routes. During a climb on Pyramide du Tacul in Chamonix, Lotta and her crew found themselves in an exposed and dangerous situation. Somebody called out “Save me Houdini” to summon the powers of the famous escape artist. If it was the spirit of Houdini that helped them off the mountain that time remains unknown but the saying became an instant classic and a given name for Lotta’s new clothing brand.

In a world of mass consumption where quantity and frequency are often prioritized over quality and good design, our design philosophy becomes something radically different. Our product philosophy is centered around long lived products, versatile performance and minimalist constructions. Versatile product performance enables a smaller and smarter wardrobe for the end user and one that creates possibilities rather than limitations, resulting in happier end users and greater resource efficiency on a systemic level. Our designs are minimalistic, stripped from unnecessary details and simple by construction. The result is beautiful aesthetics, a longer product lifetime and easy repairs.

Ever since the start in 1993 Houdini has challenged the norms of the outdoor industry, as a company led by women, as innovators of sustainable design and as pioneers of circular business models. Ultimately Houdini wants to enable and inspire people to reconnect to nature.

PRODUCTS

Functional and sustainable outdoor clothing for men, women, kids and junior. Clothes for training, hiking, skiing and biking. Maximum performance, unparallelled comfort and minimal environmental impact. This is the magic formula that you can expect from any Houdini garment.

MANUFACTURING

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. For us there is no contradiction between sustainability and good business. It's essential in the long run. We constantly work to transform our business, our industry and society. We have gotten far, but we are far from done.

Fabric and technologies sourcing at Houdini is based on a highly selective partnership strategy, with long-term relations with world leading fabrics and technologies supplier partners and manufacturers.

Manufacturing at Houdini mainly takes place at selected and specialized European manufacturing partners in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. This manufacturing network close to our global distribution center in Sweden (which could be considered “local” in a textile supply chain perspective) enables us to have a lean set-up with tight collaboration and an efficient way of working, meeting and shipping. In addition EU social and environmental standards apply, legal requirements and government control functions are in place, meaning our sustainability efforts are at a high level even at baseline.

EMISSIONS

We did it! 100% of all the fabrics we use this season are recycled, recyclable, renewable, biodegradable or Bluesign certified.

Countless development hours, long meetings and hard decisions later, we can say that it really is possible to change the way clothes are produced. This makes us immensely proud. But does that mean we’re done? Far from it. We are going to change the textile industry from the ground up. Clothes are produced, consumed and discarded at an ever-increasing pace. This has to stop. Our main goal is to create real alternatives to linear consumption. A circular system, where long-lasting products can be used, repaired and reused and then finally become new resources.

Clothes are produced, consumed and discarded at an ever increasing pace. This has to stop. Our main goal is to create real alternatives to linear consumption.

77% of our Fall & Winter collection 2021 is completely circular and this number is growing quickly. And the goal is to be 100% circular in 2022. We offer services within rental, repair and second hand sales that are quickly growing in popularity. We are changing this industry and it’s happening quickly. We promise to never slow down until we reach our goal of a completely sustainable textile industry.

ENERGY & WASTE

We started phasing out PFAS in 2012 and have been 100% PFAS-free since 2018.

Another very important subject and an area for improvement for the industry as a whole is chemical use. Maybe most pressing is the use of PFAS, a group of chemicals that have dirt and water-repellent properties. These chemicals do not break down naturally, are cancerous and have shown negative effects on both reproductive and immune systems for humans and animals (Source: US EPA). We started phasing out PFAS in 2012 and since 2018, we don’t use them in any new production. We also work with Bluesign® to monitor our chemical use.

GIVING BACK

We aim to know the ‘butterfly effect’ of everything we do, both positive and negative.

Our mission is to not just limit our negative impact on the planet, but to have a long term positive influence. The Planetary Boundaries Assessment is a key foundation for that ambition.

The report has assessed the impact of our fibre use – from understanding how sheep farming and grazing affect the impact that wool garments have on biological diversity in local ecosystems, to its impact on climate change on the global scale for example. We plan to repeat and expand the project every three years, not only to benchmark progress but also to continue to go into more granular detail as we gains further access and insight from our suppliers and customers across the globe.

TRANSPARENCY

We believe it is a great benefit for us as a company to be transparent, as it enables us to continuously build trust. The way we see it, it is also our obligation as a company to be transparent. We owe it to ourselves, our end-users, customers, our colleagues in the business as well as to the general public since at the end we are all interdependent in the local as well as global and planetary perspective.

Check here Houdini shipping & returns info.

Materials

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  Recycled Poly
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  Wood
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  Wool
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  PFC Free
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  Water Ink
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  Yarn
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  Craft paper
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  Recycled PET

Labels & Certifications

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