Brace yourself, it’s almost time for Black Friday. The delirious day of discounts where almost everyone plans to stock up on gifts and goodies before Xmas.
Black Friday sales have soared year over year. The event brought billions in revenue last time round. And it surely won’t be any different in 2024.
It’s not just about the economy though. In the UK alone, Black Friday sales have released 386,243 tonnes of carbon according to Money.co.uk. That’s equivalent to the CO2 produced by 215 flights between London and Sydney. It’s also said that 80% of products we buy end up in landfills or incinerated after a very short life. Which can’t be helped by the retail bonanza that’s round the corner.
On the other hand, perhaps the more generous Black Friday deals give folk a better chance to buy what they need. But overall, Black Friday is a little suspect – if you ask us. Here are some scary stats:
So, to avoid all the messy Black Friday mayhem, of the environmental and interpersonal kind, let’s take a look at some brands that are doing things differently and more sustainably this year, in 2024.
1) Montane
- Product: Sportswear and outdoor gear
- Campaign: Fix the Fells
- Region: Worldwide
Since 2019, the brand has seen Black Friday as a chance to give back. For the last few years, they’ve chosen to support Fix the Fells: an organization dedicated to protecting the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in England. That’s fitting as Montane is an outdoor brand. They support Fix the Fells in a few ways all year round, though Black Friday gets some extra love and attention. Not in the form of sales and discounts, but instead, Montane will match all your donations made to Fix the Fells in the checkout for November.
2) FREITAG
- Product: bags
- Campaign: DON’T SHOP, JUST S.W.A.P.
- Region: Switzerland
FREITAG screams a big “No” to mass consumption on Black Friday this year. For the 6th year in a row, the Zurich-based bag brand will be closing its online stores. But they’ll also be closing the checkout counters at their physical stores. Instead, they’ll use this day to promote alternatives to conventional consumption.
For years, FREITAG has been offering their buyers the digital S.W.A.P. (Shopping Without Any Payment) exchange platform, to help bags that are no longer in use find a new owner.
On Friday, November 29th, 2024 from 5:00 PM, anyone with a FREITAG bag can swap it for another at numerous physical stores throughout Europe and Asia. There will also be drinks and music. Tempting.
3) The Swapshop x BlueCity
- Product: Secondhand clothing x Circular economy platform
- Campaign: F*ck Black Friday
- Region: The Netherlands
The Swapshop is anti-overconsumption by nature, as their business is based on exchanging (or, swapping) clothes. For a few years in a row, they partnered with BlueCity, a circular economy platform in Rotterdam, to host a big clothing swap.
In 2024 on Saturday, November 30th, they’re doing the same, but they’re making a whole day out of it:
- big clothing swap
- sustainable Christmas market
- geometric wall art workshop
- textile repair cafe
- BlueCity expedition
- textile dyeing with natural dyes workshop
And, admission is free.
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4) Dille and Kamille
- Product: Home, garden, & kitchen store
- Campaign: Green Friday
- Region: The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
For Dille and Kamille – a one-stop shop for sustainable home, garden, and kitchen appliances – Black Green Friday is not about discounts but about doing something good for nature. Since 2018 they’ve taken Green Friday initiatives, and this year 2024 is the third year they’re going the extra mile and closing all their physical and online stores. What’s more, Dille and Kamille employees will head to the streets to clean up litter around their stores. Meanwhile, bereft customers are encouraged to also do something ‘green’ on Friday, November 29th, such as cleaning up their own neighborhood, helping the birds in the garden, making candlesticks with greenery, or doing something else that’s ‘green’.
5) KEELA
- Product: Sportswear and outdoor gear
- Campaign: Bright Friday
- Region: Worldwide
What is it about outdoor brands and their desire to do a bit of good? A stronger connection to nature, perhaps… KEELA is the second one on our list that’s decided Black Friday is the perfect time to teach folk about mindful consumption. If you’re going to make a purchase, might as well do it with some purpose.
This year makes it the sixth consecutive year that the brand will skip heavy discounting. Instead, they’ll be donating the equivalent value usually set aside for Black Friday discounts to Cash For Kids’ Mission Christmas Appeal. From November 22nd to December 2nd 2024, 15% of KEELA’s online sales will be donated to help the children’s charity in their mission to make sure underprivileged children don’t go without during the yuletide season. Isn’t that sweet?
6) Colorful Standard
- Product: Sustainable clothing
- Campaign: We Love Colors
- Region: Worldwide
We’d expect nothing less from Colorful Standard, a slow fashion brand making simple – yet colorful – clothing almost entirely from organic cotton and recycled materials. They never do Black Friday and each year they spread a different message. This Black Friday, through social media, their website, and their newsletter, they say, “We love colors, not Black Friday.” Colorful Standard wants us to choose them because it’s the right fit for us, not because of a rushed sale.
7) ECOALF
- Product: Sustainable clothing
- Campaign: From Reality to Action
- Region: EU, Japan, Mexico
ECOALF has never participated in Black Friday, so you’ll find 0 discounts on their website. Instead, founder and president Javier Goyeneche and filmmaker Stella Banderas traveled to the Atacama Desert in Chile to witness fast fashion’s impact on the environment and to raise awareness on Black Friday. Once known for its pristine beauty, over 39,000 tons of secondhand clothing are illegally dumped in that desert every year, making it one of the world’s largest fast fashion landfills. This Black Friday, ECOALF asks us, “Do you know what a “good” deal means?”
ECOALF wants to spread the message that each of us has the power to say “no” to overconsumption and choose quality pieces that will last many seasons in our wardrobe.
8) Haglöfs
- Product: Sportswear and outdoor gear
- Campaign: Cold shoulder
- Region: Worldwide
And here it is, the 3rd outdoor brand on our list! This Swedish brand has taken as stance against Black Friday for 9 years. This year is no different. Their stores will be open, but with no additional discounts. It’s business as usual. The act doesn’t mean they’re completely against promotions of any kind, but they’ve done their best to explain to shoppers how Black Friday differs from regular sales periods. The former: systemic large-scale discounting, and, according to Haglöfs, an opportunity for many brands to produce cheap. The latter: a means to reduce stock levels because there are unnecessary items left. It’s not perfect, and so much more can still be done. But anyone who brings awareness to the problem is still doing something right in our book.
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9) DECIEM
- Product: Skincare and beauty
- Campaign: Slowvember
- Region: Worldwide
DECIEM is a family of beauty brands that include NIOD, Hylamide, and The Ordinary. DECIEM is doing something different for Black Friday, which they’ve done for the past six years as a stance against “throwaway culture and shrinkflation”, according to CEO and co-founder Nicola. Black Friday deals typically last about 4 days – this year it begins on the 29th and will likely extend until the early days of December for most brands.
Instead, DECIEM is offering a 23% discount all month long and beyond – it began on November 1st and will go until December 6th. Their message to their buyers is to take their time to consider their purchase and not rush and race into the frenzy of it all, where the pressure to buy on Black Friday is at an all-time high.
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10) ASKET
- Product: Sustainable clothing
- Campaign: Closed For Business – Open For Repairs
- Region: Worldwide
You will not find any flashy, tempting sales at ASKET this year. Same as last year. ASKET makes clothing more responsibly, and by not lowering their prices for Black Friday, we’re all being urged by them to buy more responsibly too. Or, well, not buy at all. No new garments can be purchased on Friday, November 29th on their website and for the entire weekend in their Stockholm stores.
Instead, ASKET will be open for repairs on any of their garments. You can order spare parts online, or swing by their stores for free repairs. Now that’s a good Green Friday!
11) ChattyFeet
- Product: Socks
- Campaign: Warm Feet, Cool Earth
- Region: Worldwide
Funky sock brand ChattyFeet is the perfect place for a funny gift. Good news: they’ll also be taking a stance against Black Friday and doing something different. Instead of promoting overconsumption and potentially unnecessary sales through big discounts, they’ll donate £2.5 per purchase on their website to Cool Earth, an international NGO funding Indigenous communities to protect endangered rainforests and fight climate change. This applies to every pair of socks sold between Friday, November 29th at 8:00 AM GMT and Sunday, December 1st at 11:59 PM GMT.
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12) Palava
- Product: Sustainable clothing
- Campaign: Black Doesn’t Suit Us
- Region: UK/Worldwide
Black Friday doesn’t suit Palava. Aside from the sustainability concerns we wrote about earlier – there’s the color contrast. Palava makes hand-crafted clothing in bright, joyous prints – at the opposite end of the spectrum to Black Friday’s ominous mono-palette.
Then, Black Friday is about mass consumerism. Palava makes unique clothing in small batches, for folk who want to wear something a little different. There’s almost zero chance you’d stroll onto the street and find someone else in the same splendid Palava creation you’re rocking.
Palava won’t be taking part and will instead be promoting their new pre-loved program where customers can buy second-hand Palava pieces on the website. They can also trade in Palava pieces they no longer wear and receive credit in return.
As if that weren’t enough, Palava will also plant more trees for Black Friday weekend – 1 for every order! 🌱 Check out the Palava forest so far on Ecologi.
13) Xandres
- Product: Clothing
- Campaign: Green Friday 2024
- Region: Western Europe
Kudos to Xandres, who’s setting a great example of an impressive Green Friday this year. They’re doing a couple of things: closing all their stores and the webshop, repairing all the clothes you bring in that need mending, partnering with Go Forest to plant a tree for every repair, and – besides all of that – all Xandres employees will gather at the workshop, where they will help with the repairs and can take part in various workshops held for the team. Here’s a list of the workshops:
Xandres wants to lobby for sustainable, circular fashion and bring generations of people together to share knowledge on a day normally associated with overconsumption and waste. And Xandres is sending a warm message to others to do the same.
14) Kotn
- Product: Clothing
- Campaign: Black Friday 2024
- Region: Worldwide
100% of sales. Up to $100,000. That’s how much natural clothing brand Kotn is giving to help build 2 primary schools in rural Egypt, where the cotton from their collections is grown. It’s a full-circle moment! Since 2017, they’ve done the same thing: skipped Black Friday sales and donated 100% of earnings to fund schools in villages where students would otherwise not know how to read and write. Even outside of Black Friday, a portion of each Kotn order is donated to fund a now-total of 21 schools.
So from Friday, November 29th to Tuesday, December 3rd, rest assured any purchase you make from Kotn will be put towards this goal. To thank you for your support, Kotn will reach out to you with a $25 off code for your next purchase (that is, starting the 4th of December).
15) Lucy & Yak
- Product: Clothing
- Campaign: Sending girls to school
- Region: Worldwide
Lucy & Yak’s famous fun dungarees were first made close to Pushkar, a beautiful town in Rajasthan, Northwest India. In this region also lies the Fior di Loto Foundation, which Lucy & Yak has been supporting on Black Friday since 2018. In the last 6 years, the colorful and expressive brand has funded 1,021 years of education for girls living in villages around Pushkar. This year, they’re donating half of all their profits from Monday, November 25th to Monday, December 2nd to the foundation. Every Black Friday, we’ve seen more and more girls going to school – swipe through Lucy & Yak’s carousel post below to see the numbers:
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So what to do this Black Friday?
With all this blah blah about Black Friday and sustainability, it is easy to forget that the best way to reduce your impact is to buy better and to buy less. But if you just can’t help yourself and need to check out this year’s Black Friday deals, then why not have a peek at some of smaller, local, and sustainable brands, or at least invest in some big ticket items that you will use for years to come.
And don’t forget: if you fancy a massive 126% Black Friday discount on our digital marketing services, plus a free Akepa branded hoodie, then of course get in touch and we’ll sort that out for you with our unmissable Black Friday deal that’s valid for the entire month of November.
Not really.
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