Berlin is knorke: MOOT – Made Out of Trash
Berlin, 29th July 2024 – What actually happens to discarded clothing, discarded cushion and sofa covers or old woollen blankets? The Berlin-based company MOOT–MadeOutofTrashhas found a sustainable answer to this: The founders Nils Neubauer and Michael Pfeifer and their team produce 100% sustainable garments from recovered textiles.
They now sell the MOOT unique garments both online and in their concept store in Berlin’s Ostbahnhof and in their flagship store in Prenzlauer Berg, which opened in May 2023. To implement their exciting vision, they work closely with the Berlin City Mission, commission small Berlin businesses and the social institution USE to produce clothing, accessories and bags for adults and children, and thus actively support the Berlin economy.
But how does someone come up with the idea of making long sleeves and T-shirts from bed linen, coats from blankets and jumpers from woollen blankets? For founder Nils Neubauer, recycling textiles is his personal contribution to greater environmental and climate awareness in the clothing industry. After gaining various insights into the fashion industry, his vision of reducing textile waste and producing new clothing from textile donations was reinforced.
He told his friend and current business partner and co-founder Michael Pfeifer about it, who enthusiastically jumped on board. At this point, more precisely in April 2020, the MOOT success story begins.
After the first product, a T-shirt made of bed linen, was launched in the online shop in May 2020, MOOT now offers its customers a wide range of clothing, accessories, leather bags and children’s clothing. Since May 2023, anyone can also donate textiles both online and in their own containers in the MOOT stores. The company uses these under fair working and production conditions and thus wants to create a serious alternative to so-called fast fashion. The fabrics, which are processed into sustainable clothing exclusively in Germany and especially in Berlin by local sewing shops and studios, are supplied by the BerlinCity Mission,theGermanClothing Foundation, TEXTRADEGmbHBremerhaven and one of the largest used clothing sorting plants in Quakenbrück.
There is an important message behind MOOT’s fashionable and wearable designs: Fashion can be permanent. The founders are convinced: Clothing is not a disposable, throw-away product, but rather an elaborately produced consumer good that should be valued. With their fairly and environmentally friendly produced products, they therefore also want to raise awareness of ethical consumption and promote a social rethink. What’s more, Nils Neubauer and Michael Pfeifer, together with their team, want to be pioneers of a movement that promotes awareness of the value of clothing.
A mission that is not only seen but also honoured – namely with the GreenBuddyAward2024, which MOOT received this year in the retail category. The Green Buddy Award is the sustainability award of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district and is presented by the TempelhofSchöneberg district office together with other partners, including Berlin Partner. The jury’s reasoning speaks for itself: The responsible use of resources in conjunction with regional cycles is exemplary. Leading by example – this is also one of the principles of MOOT. So far they have succeeded in doing this very well.
