"Breddy's" CEO:

“Nobody earns anything from a pair of 7-euro Temu jeans”

Claus Bretschneider, CEO of the "Breddy's" brand and expert in the sustainable circular economy

(Bild: breddys.com, Krone KREATIV)

In 2016, Claus Bretschneider set out to make the clothing industry cleaner with his fair and sustainably produced castor-oil-based Breddy's pants. Last summer, he went bankrupt rather surprisingly for many, and now, barely six months later, he has made a fresh start. A conversation about failure, the courage to carry on, fast fashion from Temu and the question of how sustainable consumption works.

Krone+: Mr. Bretschneider, you founded "Breddy's" in 2016 with your wife Manuela. How did this come about?
Claus Bretschneider: The idea came to us during a hike in Greece. I was wearing functional trousers with lots of zippers, side pockets, a plastic waistband and they didn't fit well, but they were made of functional material, and my wife was wearing blue jeans. "You don't want to go up the mountain in those jeans. Don't you have any functional pants?" I asked her and she said: "Well, I don't want to look like you." We then thought to ourselves that there must be companies that combine functional materials with everyday styles that you can wear on the subway, at the next meeting or on an airplane, in other words, in active life. And lo and behold, the research has shown: There's little to nothing.