“We want to bring the consumer and the manufacturing process back together, showing the beauty of craftsmanship ” Slager (owner)

 

New Optimist is a store with an in-store atelier based in Amsterdam. New Optimist sells sweaters, T-shirts, and trousers with unique details, always created according to circular design principles. The store shows the in-house production process, instead of producing far from home and working with long and complex supply chains. The New Optimist team does almost everything themselves - and within the country's borders. Designing, cutting, sewing, ironing, washing, you name it. Only the fabrics (circular cotton made from recycled fibers) are produced elsewhere. Customers can walk into the atelier to see how and by whom their clothes are made. In this case, New Optimist brings the manufacturing process back to the consumer. Since recent decades, those two sides have been completely torn apart.  Additionally, New Optimist is also a social enterprise, providing both regular jobs and subsidized workplaces for people with a distance to the labor market.