100% MAIER SPORTS CYCLES TO AGAIN 100% MAIER SPORTS

Circle for future

We are currently working hard to develop a 100% sustainable clothing concept called design2recycle–recycle2design (D2R–R2D). The idea behind it is to enable our products to be recycled at  the end of their lives and upcycled into high-value items. We will be adopting a fully circular model for our pants, jackets and t-shirts that will see old Maier Sports products reincarnated as new ones. Our goal is to drastically reduce our consumption of fossil fuels while massively increasing the amount of recycled raw materials we use. The most sustainable way to do this is to recycle our clothing and use the recovered fibres in our own supply chain.

Our video shows the life cycle of a sustainable product from beginning to end: from manufacture and use to being returned to the factory for recycling, thread recovery, fabric production and finally, being transformed into a new Maier Sports product. At the same time, Near Field Communication technology (NFC) will allow us to capture information about materials on tags, making our separation, sorting and recycling processes much more effective. Discover our sustainable  products in our  LATIT pants line.

                       

This is how you can recycle your product:

1.) Pack the product cleanly incl. the sewn-in NFC chip in a shipping box*.
2.) Deliver the package directly to the following address (no separate return bill is required):

Maier Sports GmbH
Recycling Department
Nürtinger Straße 27
73257 Köngen

Thank you for your environmental contribution.

*We can currently only use Maier Sports products equipped with the NFC chip for recycling.

Our FAQs on the subject of NFC

NFC is short for ‘Near Field Communication’, which means the chip can communicate with industrial scanners or smartphones in close proximity.

We use NFC technology to ensure efficient recycling into high-quality base components.

NFC technology is widely used in shops, petrol stations etc. to allow paying via debit or credit cards or via your smartphone. Moreover, NFC chips can be found in objects as diverse as ski lift tickets or books as part of a public library system.

Products with NFC tags can be identified via a label woven into the fabric. You can get information on which technology is used and where the tag is located from the label.

Simply scan in the tag with your smartphone to read the stored information

The tag can be scanned at a distance of up to 5 cm.

It’s possible to deactivate the tag either by removing it or wiping it electronically. Unfortunately, this also makes recycling your clothes more difficult, as the recycling company can no longer automatically scan your clothes to determine what they’re made of.

No, the NFC chip does not trigger an alarm at security checks.

No. The only information stored are the date and time at which the information on the chip has been read by a scanner or smartphone. We can also store the location of the chip at the time the information has been read, but this requires the user’s explicit consent.

As we do not link NFC chips to personal data, the GDPR does not apply in this case.

As used by Maier Sports, the NFC chip can be used to determine whether a product is a Maier Sports original or a copy.

Recyclable products with NFC tag

Recyling - Properly packaed and saving rescources

Recycled polyester

We are using more recycled material to produce our pants and jackets. This way, used polyester material that was, for instance, previously found in PET drinking bottles is given a new high-quality purpose. Reusing polyester meaningfully in new clothing protects Earth's natural resources and won't lead to a decrease in the quality of our clothing. Our long-term goal is the subsequent recycling of our garments so that the production process can come full circle.

Packaging concept

With the Spring/Summer 2021 line, we are changing our packaging concept to be based on environmentally friendly, recycled materials. This is the first step. Our long-term goal is to largely avoid using packing materials at all.

In the near future, our recyclable polybags will also be produced from recycled materials. Since we produce seven-figure-numbers of them every year, this will mean noticeable saving of fossil resources such as mineral oil.

The coat hangers we use also mark a step forward regarding sustainability. Going forward, we will utilise coat hangers made from 100% recycled materials. At the same time, our hangtags reach paper quality levels certified with FSC-Mix. This label guarantees that the raw material originates from sustainably farmed forests. An additional step has already been initiated: Starting with the Autumn/Winter 2021/22 collection, we will be delivering our complete outdoor collection flat-packed, resource-conserving and properly packaged.

Recycled coffee grounds

Recycling also plays a part in our T-shirts made from S.Café™ Ice Café®. This func-tional fabric that quickly wicks moisture and has a noticeable cooling effect on the skin comes from recycled coffee grounds. A basic substance found in abundance. Coffee is con-sidered particularly environmentally friendly as it is a renewable vegetable raw material.