Rebellion against ‘Black Friday’ in Belgium

Rather than seducing their customers with massive sales, Belgian fashion brand Xandres decided to take part in a ‘Green Friday’, a sustainable alternative to its insatiable counterpart. As part of this campaign, the brand closed all its thirteen shops in Belgium on Friday and instead took the day to repair worn-out clothes its customers had returned to them – free of charge.

Inside their headquarters near Ghent, Belgium, over 100 employees of Xandres, including CEO Patrick Desrumaux, gathered to dust off and stitch up the almost 600 bits of clothing they had been given.

“Black Friday is really a festival of sales, buy as much clothing as possible at as much discount as possible and that doesn’t fit in the sustainable philosophy that we stand for and instead of ‘Black Friday’ we are participating in ‘Green Friday’.” The CEO told Reuters.

“All the shops are closed, the webshop is closed and instead of buying we are going to grant a longer life to clothes by repairing all the clothes that were brought in.”

Other shops also took part in this durable counterweight to ‘Black Friday’. Chain store ‘Dille & Kamille’ also closed for the day in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Their employees got together to do voluntary work in nature reserves and parks in their respective countries.

Tycho Hauwaert, a policy expert on circular economy and industry at the Bond Beter Leefmilieu, said ‘Black Friday’ “fans the flames of throwaway consumption” and mentioned the importance of reflecting on our consumption behaviour.

Opinions on the sale bonanza of ‘Black Friday’ were split in the streets of Ghent, with former florist Bart Vanderelsken calling it ‘a rip off’ and claiming he has noticed lower prices hidden underneath ‘Black Friday’ labels in the past.

On the other hand, 19-year-old student Roef Stevens said he took advantage of lowered prices to buy some items he had been planning on buying for a while already.

Not everyone was aware of the promotion of Xandres, with Herrebaut Erna’s ambitions to buy a dress today cut short by unexpectedly closed doors. Nonetheless, she supported the initiative and would return another day.

Reuters