Neumühle set to launch crowdfunding for Mono Shirts

(CONNECT) Neumühle will shortly be launching a crowdfunding campaign on wemakeit. With this, the Zurich-based fashion label will, according to a preview, seek to raise 75,000 Swiss francs in 30 days. The fresh capital is to be put towards expanding the company’s Mono Shirts collection, as the “development and manufacturing of these innovative products is costly, from procuring materials to fair production in Europe”, as Neumühle explains.

The company launched the first and so far only Mono Shirt in summer 2023, featuring a circular design and a recycling system for recovering its organic cotton fibers. Through its upcoming crowdfunding project, Neumühle will seek to supplement the existing relaxed fit unisex cut with the addition of a regular fit shirt for women, a regular fit men’s shirt, both in four colors, and a long-sleeved white unisex shirt.

To ensure that the Mono Shirts can be easily recycled and therefore returned to the production cycle, they are made from a single material, including the collar, labels and Cradle to Cradle Certified sewing thread. Thanks to a “sophisticated cutting technique”, as Neumühle describes it, no elastane or polyester threads are found in the cotton.

The company closes the cycle by ensuring that wearers can return their Mono Shirts that have reached the end of their useful life to Neumühle. The shirts are collected and sent to the Turkish production facility of its Swiss recycling partner Säntis Textiles, which is based in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Once the shirts reach this plant, they are mechanically recycled into new yarn without the use of chemicals or water.

Customers are rewarded for returning their old shirts with a discount of 20 percent on their next purchase. According to the company’s calculations, Switzerland has the potential to avoid more than 100 tons of textile waste each year through shirts that are designed for circularity. ce/mm