Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked with both small brands and large fashion organizations. I keep seeing the same pattern: brilliant department leads and sustainability teams launch pilots full of promise — recycled collections, take-back programs, upcycled capsules — and yet, somehow, they never reach scale. Lots of excitement, followed by lots of disappointments.

Why? Because even when people want change, the system fights back.

Leadership and incentives are often misaligned. I get brought in by department leads or sustainability teams who are ready to take bold action. But almost immediately, I often hit the wall: marketing loves the story but can’t influence operations, finance fears the cost, production struggles to deliver, and leadership treats sustainability like a nice-to-have. Pilots remain pilots. Momentum dies. Department leads and Sustainability teams go back to their “normal” work and next time an impactful idea or opportunity arises, they are less likely to get excited by it.

A 2023 McKinsey & Company study found less than 25% of fashion executives feel confident their sustainability programs are integrated into strategy — and that feels about right from what I see on the ground. Real progress demands commitment and patience from leaders, not short-term thinking. A pilot by its own definition is a short term project that is not created for long-term vision or planning.

Silos kill adoption. Design, production, marketing, supply chain, sales — all working in isolation. A new circular material or process might exist, but no one knows how to use it efficiently or tell the story effectively or even how to sell it. In large organizations, this is structural: risk-averse cultures, rigid processes, and competing priorities. In smaller brands, agility exists, but resources are limited.

The result? The ones with capacity often don’t prioritise sustainability or circularity, and the ones with vision can’t fully implement it due to lack of resources. Frustrating, but this is often what we experience.

Commercial pressures make it worse. Investors and funders measure success the old way: quick profitability. If a pilot doesn’t make money fast enough, funding dries up — and the initiative is shelved, often written off as “another failed investment.” WE’ve all seen take-back and/or rental programmes shelved after just a few months, up-cycled capsule collections abandoned because margins didn’t meet expectations, and grants pulled when ROI timelines weren’t met. Even good intentions aren’t enough when the metrics and incentives are misaligned. When we judge the success of a project purely on old-style KPI’s, nothing will ever change.

The truth? Circularity only works when it’s embedded into the business model and ecosystem.

It requires:

• Cross-functional accountability and communications.
• Leadership who is aligned and committed to the long-term journey – because Circularity is not a final destination. It is an ongoing journey with many re-iterations.
• Patience to let pilots mature. Compare this with throwing your kids out when they are toddlers because they are not yet fully-grown.
• Ecosystem collaboration to fill capability gaps. Circularity can only work within a collaborative approach. There can be no single winner. We win together.

Without these, pilots stay pilots, and circularity stays aspirational instead of scalable.

To be honest, I am getting tired of this “disconnectedness”. (Connection is an essential part of my 5C framework for building a circular brand. Download the book preview here: https://fashionsnewblueprint.com)

That’s why I now mainly connect with brands and manufacturers ready to move beyond pilots and make circularity a real, scalable part of their business AND I continue to dedicate a lot of time working with SME’s and micro-brands within the CF360 network, because their passion and drive to make a positive impact is what feeds my soul with optimism and hope.

Ps. Johan Graffner , Founder of Dedicated Brand , is someone who I believe has shown consistently strong leadership in building his brand: “We are dedicated to changing the industry norm. We want to show the customers that responsible fashion is aspirational, and the industry that it’s profitable.” ( Good On You )

We recently interviewed Johan on this topic. Listen to it here: https://youtu.be/Db3sdegkwBI?si=tr-eSbOPO2HHkp-j

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I’m always looking to connect with brands and manufacturers ready to action for implementing true circularity within their organisation. If that’s you, let’s explore what’s possible together. Get in touch via hello(at)wedisruptagency.com.