Published 13 November 2019 • Inter IKEA newsroom
IKEA announces new co-worker clothing
For the first time, the in-house design teams at IKEA of Sweden, in collaboration with experts from the fashion industry, have designed and developed the new IKEA co-worker clothing collection called “Me and IKEA”. The collection will roll out across all IKEA customer meeting points from March 2020 to 2022.
IKEA in-house designers have created the collection with Democratic Design as the guiding philosophy: form, function, quality, sustainability and low price. This is the same way we design and develop the IKEA home furnishing range. The collection lets co-workers in all the IKEA customer meeting points, mix and match to create outfits for their roles and personalities, while reflecting a modern and forward-looking IKEA.
By co-workers, for co-workers!
During the two-year design process, different IKEA co-workers were interviewed around the world about their wishes and about how our co-worker clothing can support their daily work and comfort. We also conducted a “wear trial” together with five IKEA stores around the world. A diverse group of almost 400 co-workers gave valuable feedback that helped improve the collection.
Sustainability in sight
The new IKEA co-worker clothing uses recycled polyester, cotton from more sustainable sources and Tencel, a fiber made of wood pulp from trees grown and replaced on specialized farms. Efficiently using resources should lead to production with minimal waste of materials, water, energy and chemicals. Plus, the clothing should be recyclable when reaching the end of its lifespan.
On top of this, the ambition is to recycle the old co-worker clothing into suitable fibres that can then be turned into new IKEA products. It's a learning opportunity for IKEA to investigate how textiles can be recycled on a bigger scale. This initiative is closely linked to the goals set by the IKEA Sustainability Strategy, People & Planet Positive, which includes turning waste into resources, sending zero waste to landfill.
Part of a bigger update in our visual identity
The new co-worker clothing collection is part of a bigger update of the IKEA visual identity that also includes a new font called Noto IKEA that replaces Verdana, a refreshed IKEA logo and a new range of disposables (such as coffee cups), a new concept for food packaging, updated IKEA Food shopping tools (such a trays), new trade dress for use in all IKEA Food meeting points and new food merchandising equipment, among others.
The complete set of updates will be implemented in different phases but the aim is for completion by 2022-23.