Offcut Caps

Finalist: Circular Business Innovation Award presented by Trade Me.

Offcut was founded on the idea of circularity. In 2015, the idea of Offcut caps was developed at a curtain warehouse in Christchurch where there was an array of remnant fabric. On finding out that a room full of scraps, samples, and offcut fabrics were destined for landfill, an idea was sparked to turn those scraps into caps. Since then, Offcut has continued to develop and refine this idea.

Positive Benefits

Offcut now uses a range of offcuts (deadstock fabric, damaged fabric, small offcut fabric, second-hand garments/linen) and turns this into limited edition 5 and 6-panel caps. It works with companies in New Zealand and around the world who have textile remnants destined for landfill. Offcut also scour second-hand stores for duvet covers, curtains, and clothing to give them an opportunity to be redesigned to create new value and extend the life of the textile. More recently it has been designing “mash-up” caps where we take the very small offcuts of our offcuts and turn them into one-off patchwork designs.

Offcut makes sure its hats are loved by its wearers and are of the highest quality so customers have them for life. By basing its entire business (and namesake) on offcuts, it tells a story through its products and aims to encourage people to rethink what we needlessly call “waste” and make the most of existing resources to keep them in the system for longer.

Offcut shares its process of making its caps here

Positive Impact

It is moving towards a model where it doesn't need to use anything new so that making a new product does not only cost the planet but actually has a positive impact. In the last year, Offcut has saved approximately 30kgs of fabric waste from other businesses from going to landfill.

By using "waste" as its core materials and repurposing them by designing a product that can be made from very small pieces of fabric, it has very little of its own waste left over in the end.

Offcut is turning waste into a valuable and useful product that its customers love, not only because the caps look good and are functional, but because they tell a story.