Plymouth Argyle kits transformed in circular sportswear workshop for World Circular Textiles Day 2025

<p>Initiated by Senior Lecturer and Subject Leader <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/emma-gribble">Emma Gribble</a>, whose ongoing work with Plymouth Argyle around surplus sportswear provided the inspiration, the workshop was developed with Associate Professor <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/stephanie-owens">Stephanie Owens</a>, Dean of Arts, Design and Media who linked the activity with <strong>World Circular Textiles Day 2025</strong>. The event reflects the circular production methods and regenerative design taught across BA (Hons) Textile Design and Arts University Plymouth’s new MA Design courses, and draws on development of creative research at the university that draws on a systems thinking, bio-regional approach to reducing the environmental impact of the creative industries.</p> <p>Held in Arts University Plymouth’s city-centre textile studios, the repair clinic invited students and staff to transform outgrown football shirts, shorts and socks into one-off, low-impact garments that stay in circulation for longer instead of going to landfill.</p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPjmicjiPU5/">Watch the upcycling process in this Instagram reel from BA (Hons) Textile Design.</a></p>

<p>Every time a football team changes sponsor or kit design, large volumes of branded sportswear become surplus overnight. The ‘Repair the Green: From Pitch to Stitch’ workshop asked participants to rethink that waste by treating old kits as a valuable resource.</p> <p>Students from BA (Hons) Textile Design and <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undefined/ma-design-textiles">MA Design (Textiles)</a> led hands-on sessions in visible mending, darning, patching, embroidery, vinyl application and screen-printed surface pattern, helping participants to rework shirts into distinctive streetwear and extend the life of existing garments.</p> <p>The workshop will act as the starting point for a programme of repair and customisation activity aimed at secondary schools, introducing young audiences to circular textiles, practical repair skills and creative ways to rethink sportswear.</p> <p>Emma Gribble, Senior Lecturer &amp; Subject Leader for BA (Hons) Textile Design, said: “BA (Hons) Textile Design is built around regenerative and circular design, so working with surplus Plymouth Argyle kits was a perfect live brief, bringing together hands-on making, non-toxic processes, experimental surface design and a commitment to keeping materials in use for longer. Football shirts are some of the most emotionally charged garments people own, which makes them a powerful vehicle for change; once students start darning, patching, printing and embellishing a shirt that might otherwise have gone to landfill, the conversation shifts from waste to possibility and they can see how textile designers can work directly with communities and clubs to shape a more circular future for fashion and sportswear.”</p>

<p>World Circular Textiles Day (WCTD) takes place in October each year, celebrating the efforts of companies, organisations and individuals actively working towards a fully circular textiles system by 2050. The initiative acts as a “time capsule” for circularity, recording projects from around the world through a digital Knowledge Hub and annual events, and mapping a shared roadmap to systemic change.</p> <p>The inspiration to connect the ‘Repair the Green’ workshop to WCTD grew from the shared emphasis on circular production and regenerative design across BA (Hons) Textile Design and the new MA Design courses at Arts University Plymouth, together with the university’s support of the aims of the World Circular Textiles Day 2050, co-founded by Professor Becky Earley, UAL Chair of Circular Design Futures, who was at the university recently as a Visiting Lecturer and lead for a faculty workshop on regenerative design principles. </p> <p>Participation in WCTD 2025 links the repair workshop, and the textile design curriculum that underpins it, with the global network of practitioners experimenting with new materials, models and mindsets for circular textiles.</p>

<p>Plymouth Argyle Football Club, based at Home Park in the city’s Central Park, is known for its distinctive green and white colours and strong sense of local identity. For many participants in the workshop, working directly with surplus Argyle shirts, shorts and socks created an immediate emotional connection between football fandom and circular design.</p> <p>By diverting surplus kit into the studio, the event encouraged participants to see familiar team colours as a site for experimentation. Football kits normally destined for the back of a wardrobe or the waste stream became canvases for repair, embellishment and reimagining, inviting conversations about how supporters, designers and clubs might keep sportswear in use for longer.</p> <p>Stephanie Owens, Associate Professor and Dean of Arts, Design and Media, said: “Our 'Repair The Green' clinic gathered young athletes, football fans, textile design students together to discover a playful way to bring visibility to a sports waste problem that goes unnoticed. Emma Gribble and I felt that World Circular Textiles Day was an ideal opportunity to highlight the ways our textile students could work locally with Plymouth Argyle, who were very supportive. We often think of fashion's problem with waste, but rarely are we aware of the enormous amount of sports kit discarded every time a team changes sponsors or colours. The event modelled how students could tackle problems locally and make a real difference by introducing creativity and connection into the process.”</p>

<p>Although developed independently by Textile Design staff, the ethos of ‘Repair the Green’ reflects Plymouth’s broader ambition to build a locally productive, circular economy. Plymouth is the UK’s first Fab City, part of an international network of places working towards producing everything they consume by 2054 through regenerative, circular approaches to materials, energy and food.</p> <p>Arts University Plymouth’s Fab Lab South West, the largest Fab Lab in the region, supports businesses, artists and social enterprises to prototype low-carbon products and circular systems across sectors including brewing, agriculture, healthcare and heritage renovation. Both the Fab Lab and the Textile Design studios are part of the same city-wide conversation about how design, making and material innovation can support circular economy goals.</p> <p>Positioning a student-led sportswear repair clinic alongside this wider context underlines how specialist textile education in Plymouth contributes to the city’s reputation as a place where circular ideas are tested in practice, from digital fabrication projects to hands-on mending and upcycling.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-textile-design">BA (Hons) Textile Design</a> at Arts University Plymouth is built around innovation, sustainability and material experimentation. The degree blends traditional skills in print, knit, dye, stitch and tufting with digital tools such as AVA, Adobe Creative Cloud, AI-assisted design and 3D modelling, enabling students to balance craftsmanship with technical precision.</p> <p>Students explore regenerative and circular design through non-toxic processes, natural dye experimentation, biomaterials and locally sourced materials, drawing on Britain’s Ocean City, the coastlines of Devon and Cornwall, Dartmoor and the university’s own natural dye garden for inspiration. The course is project-led and outward-facing, with live briefs, industry collaborations and international trade show visits preparing graduates for careers across fashion, interiors, material research and sustainable design consultancy.</p> <p>The new <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate">MA Design</a> courses extend this focus at postgraduate level, giving designers and makers a framework to interrogate circularity, regenerative systems and future-facing material practice through research-led projects.</p> <p>‘Repair the Green’ brings these ideas together in a highly visible, accessible format. By asking students to apply regenerative and circular design principles to real football kits and local fan culture, the workshop showcases BA (Hons) Textile Design as a degree for people who want to tackle real-world challenges in textiles, from sportswear waste to new models of repair, reuse and resale.</p>