Strategies for Sustainability and Circularity: a New Value Chain for the Fashion Industry

The paper aims to analyse the evolution of the fashion system, particularly with regard to the sportswear (activewear) supply chain, linked to environmental sustainability, outlining some improvements, corporate strategies and alternative production models with consequences on the value chains, products and communication messages. Sustainability is a complex issue that over the years has been enriched with new contents and key factors: from the environmental policy to the new configurations of manufacturing processes, until responsible purchasing and consumption behaviours. The new social and cultural models, the rising of awareness and consciousness towards these issues, require companies to make coherent, effective and sustainable choices, mostly in the textile-clothing industry, one of the sectors with the greatest environmental impact. From the selection of low-impact resources, the analysis and development of product life cycle (life cycle assessment) and even the communication contents, the practices of environmental sustainability involve the whole value chain. The paper, in the second part, focuses on these themes on the supply chain trend of the sport and outdoor clothing, one of the most involved in the change process, also considering the “natural” consumers interest in environmental problems, increasingly aware to supply system strategy that encourages a way of responsible consumer behaviors, from product design to marketing. The work is enriched by the case study of an Italian company, a leader in the global footwear and mountain clothing field.