Mads Nørgaard

Mads Nør­gaard values the working con­di­ti­ons in which their clo­thes are made. That’s why they have been mem­bers of the Fair Wear Foun­da­ti­on sin­ce 2021. This is an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­sa­ti­on that moni­tors and helps impro­ve con­di­ti­ons at fashion com­pa­nies and manu­fac­tu­r­ers. Due to Mads Nør­gaar­d’s recent mem­ber­ship, no audit has yet been car­ri­ed out, but it does show that the com­pa­ny wants to make impro­ve­ments in this area. Here at COSH!, we are alre­a­dy loo­king for­ward to the result of their first audit!

Ever sin­ce 2017, Mads Nør­gaard has been incre­asing­ly com­mit­ted to using sus­tainable mate­ri­als in its coll­ec­tion. The brand uses linen, orga­nic cot­ton and recy­cled wool, among others. Other mate­ri­als, such as recy­cled poly­es­ter and poly­ami­de, are also used in the collection.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, less sus­tainable mate­ri­als, such as poly­es­ter, are some­ti­mes used. Howe­ver, for cer­tain clo­thes, such as swim­wear, the­re are still very few sus­tainable alter­na­ti­ve mate­ri­als to poly­es­ter. Mads Nør­gaard is com­mit­ted to incre­asing­ly repla­cing this with recy­cled poly­es­ter. Click here to learn more about recy­cled polyester.

Garm­ents made enti­re­ly of natu­ral mate­ri­als such as cot­ton or linen are biode­gra­da­ble. This is good for the bran­d’s circularity. 

Using recy­cled mate­ri­als also pro­mo­tes cir­cu­la­ri­ty. For exam­p­le, recy­cled wool redu­ces was­te. It also saves a signi­fi­cant amount of water, redu­ces gra­zing land needs and redu­ces the use of che­mi­cals for dye­ing. This saves as much as 500 lit­res of water and 11 kg of CO2 per kilo of recy­cled wool pro­du­ced com­pared to vir­gin wool.

Unfort­u­na­te­ly, Mads Nør­gaard does not have a short chain. Accor­ding to infor­ma­ti­on from the Fair Wear Foun­da­ti­on, the brand works with sup­pli­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers from 12 dif­fe­rent count­ries. Head­quar­te­red in Den­mark, their manu­fac­tu­r­ers are loca­ted in Chi­na, Den­mark, Por­tu­gal, Tur­key and Greece, among others.

Qua­li­ty is very important for Mads Nør­gaard. They want to make beau­tiful and well-made clo­thes that can be worn for a long time. For this, they look at both the qua­li­ty of the mate­ri­als and the tim­e­l­ess­ness of their designs. 

In addi­ti­on to coll­ec­tions that evol­ve with the sea­sons, they also crea­te clas­sic designs which are simp­ler in style and easy to com­bi­ne across dif­fe­rent outfits.

Mads Nør­gaard is well on its way to beco­ming more trans­pa­rent. By joi­ning the Fair Wear Foun­da­ti­on, they are sha­ring more infor­ma­ti­on about their sup­pli­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers. For exam­p­le, you can find a full list of all the com­pa­nies they work with on their website.