While more brands like Parade and Guess hop on the recycling bandwagon, undergarment maker Harper Wilde is three years—and 50,000 bras—deep into its initiative to divert them from landfills while decluttering women’s intimate drawers.

The program, called “Recycle, Bra,” debuted in 2019, but creating it was “no easy feat,” co-founder Jenna Kerner told Retail Brew, namely because underwire bras are made with 30+ pieces. “But it was something we were really committed to, especially given how complex the garments are and the impact that they could create if they end up in landfills.”

• In the US, 85% of used clothing goes to landfills, and per Kearney’s 2022 Circular Fashion Index, which measures brands’ efforts to extend their products’ life cycles, underwear and lingerie companies were the lowest-scoring category.

Off the hook: The solution wasn’t so organic—she and co-founder Jane Fisher worked with sustainability experts to build out the program, and it had to find partners to develop a proprietary process to disassemble bras and make them into something new, like insulation or couch stuffing.

• The two co-CEOs said they found making the process scalable was key so it could grow as it built traction.
• Harper Wilde expanded the program to include underwear last year, recycling 10,000 pairs thus far, and aims to recycle 75,000 bras this year.

Going green: From shipping to paying its recycling partners (Harper Wilde pays on a per-unit basis), Fisher said programs like these aren’t cheap, particularly because it doesn’t pass along those costs to consumers.

But not all of the company’s sustainability efforts are pricey: “Micro-decisions,” Kerner noted, like mailing customers’ products in one master polybag, rather than individual ones, can actually be cheaper. It’s all about balance between healthy margins and moves that appeal to customers, Fisher added—and Kerner said they’ve found these initiatives have helped build customer trust and loyalty.

• “Consumers are really smart and discerning, and they’re doing the work to make sure that the brands that they’re buying from aren’t just talking about the things that they’re doing, but they’re actually walking the walk as well.”—EC

In our Coworking feature on Wednesday, Michele Vakiener, an account executive for sustainable green print production at Orora Visual, said that one retail trend she was excited about was “phygital”—aka physical stores adopting digital technologies that are more associated with online shopping.

Maybe it’s just that we’re word nerds, but nothing gets us all aquiver like a well-formed portmanteau. Like “maskne,” which—let’s put it this way—broke out in early 2020, and was understood instantly as a clever fusion of “mask” and “acne.”

There are plenty that are retail-related, so now seemed as good a time as any to do a listicle (list + article) of them.

Athleisure (athletic + leisure): Clothing suitable for exercising and…everything else. Boomed (duh!) during the pandemic.

E-commerce (electronic + commerce): Need we say more?

E-tailing (electronic + retailing): The middle child of the online-shopping glossary. It goes way back to the AltaVista dial-up days when computers were deeper than they were wide.

Freemium (free + premium): A retail and sales strategy where a basic service is given away for free, but more services or content come with a charge. Like those free articles before you hit the paywall. Or YouTube being free (as long as you’re OK to sit through all the ads).

Jeggings (jeans + leggings): They look like skin-tight jeans, but without posing health risks because they’re denim-free.

Masstige (mass + prestige): Used to describe several retail phenomena, including such companies as Trader Joe’s, that many perceive as being simultaneously affordable and gourmet, and upscale brands that are usually in a prestige channel distributing in a mass channel, like Sephora mini-stores opening within Kohl’s.

Metail (me + retail): A recent coinage by retail consultant Joel Bines to describe how much power and agency consumers have in today’s retail environment.

Mocktail (mock + cocktail): Mixed and blended drinks, but without any booze, a growing segment in this sober-curious era.

Nutraceutical (nutrition + pharmaceutical): A food that, along with its nutritional value, has—or claims to have—health benefits, including so-called superfoods like açai berries or green tea. Also applies to common food components, like omega-3 fish oil, that are used in supplements or to fortify food products.

Tofurky (tofu + turkey): A brand name for vegan products that date back to the 1990s and, even though it never gobbled, its Tofurky Roast aims to taste like the Thanksgiving staple.—AAN

Today’s top retail reads.

Almond joyless: The supply-chain crisis is hitting almond farmers hard. (The New York Times)

Cosmetic changes: Women are wearing less makeup since the pandemic. “Before, you wouldn’t have caught me picking up a pint of milk without my face on,” one woman said. (BBC)

McFrenemies: PETA, long an antagonist to McDonald’s, has been a surprising boon to some franchise owners, buying thousands of McPlant sandwiches and giving them away. (Bloomberg)

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Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• How one organization is working to place more women in the boardrooms of consumer companies
• Instant-delivery companies have their sights set on beauty
• Cannabis dispensaries on how they’re adapting to New York’s legalization landscape

Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. Following the success of its NYC store, Sour Patch Kids is now expanding into 10 new markets.
2. Axe has released its “Dogecan: The Stick” deodorant, which can only be purchased with Dogecoin.
3. Nicholas Cage recalls the time he ate a square tube of pasta at a San Francisco restaurant in the 90s.
4. Kraft mac-n-cheese’s collab with Supreme dropped this week.

Keep reading for the answer.