Mud Jeans has run out of lifelines. On Wednesday, co-owner and CEO Dion Vijgeboom announced on LinkedIn that the pioneering sustainable denim brand has declared bankruptcy.
“This is not the ending we fought for. Over the past months, our team worked tirelessly to build a sustainable future for this company. We believed there was a way forward. But despite all our efforts, the financial burden of historic debt ultimately proved too great to overcome,” Vijgeboom wrote.
Just last month, the Dutch brand launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise 300,000 euros (about $343,000) to strengthen working capital and inventory management and to fuel commercial growth in the Netherlands, Belgium, and the DACH region. The brand said it was investing in its denim foundation by improving fits, launching an international website and developing stronger brand identity.
At the time of the fundraiser, Vijgeboom said, “We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. So now we’re doing less, but better. And you can see it: in the jeans, in the organization, and in the numbers.”
Mud Jeans launched in 2012 with the goal to extend the lifespan of jeans through repair, reuse and recycling. The brand generated buzz for its pioneering “Lease a Jeans” subscription program and made headway in scaling the production of jeans made with post-consumer recycled cotton.
In 2022, B Lab named the business “Best for the World” for its environmental performance and received the award for Sustainable Entrepreneurship by the King Willem I Foundation.
Mud Jeans became an industry-wide example of what a responsible apparel brand can look like, but the business model was complex, costly and suffered from too many initiatives at once. Its emphasis on rapid growth, coupled with a singular sustainability message, ultimately failed to resonate with a broader consumer audience.
However, it’s this ambitious spirit that Vijgeboom said he hopes will be the brand’s legacy.
“Despite today, we are incredibly proud of what we created together,” he wrote. “Mud Jeans became far more than a denim brand. We proved that circular fashion could be modern and desirable. We never believed people should have to choose between looking good and doing good. That’s why we refused to compromise on quality, fit or sustainability. Every pair of jeans we made reflected that belief.”
Vijgeboom, who became CEO earlier this year, added that Mud Jeans’ story doesn’t need to end.
He wrote, “Mud Jeans is more than a company. It is an idea, a community and a blueprint for what the future of fashion can look like. We sincerely hope this bankruptcy is not the final chapter, but the beginning of a new one. We believe this brand, its products, its community and everything it stands for deserve a future.”
