Starting August 21, all Uniqlo stores in mainland China began accepting RE.UNIQLO clothing recycling. This service, previously piloted at only four flagship stores—Shanghai Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai Nanjing West Road, Changsha Hepingtang, and Guangzhou Victoria Plaza—has officially expanded from stores to online after a trial run since its launch on World Environment Day. Uniqlo has simultaneously opened a dedicated recycling entry within the mini-program of the clothing recycling platform Feimayi, with the related online service running as a six-month pilot in selected provinces and municipalities.

According to Uniqlo, the online entry is currently open to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Anhui, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Chongqing. Customers can choose to deliver items to a nearby store or schedule a pickup through the mini-program. Accepted categories include clothing from Fast Retailing Group brands such as Uniqlo, GU, and Theory; footwear, intimate underwear, and socks are not accepted.

After collection, the clothing is handled by Feimayi and transported to its sorting center, where it is classified by material—cotton, polyester, nylon, blends, and others—as a preliminary step for recycling. Uniqlo says that at this stage most recycled clothing is converted, in collaboration with Feimayi, into recycled uses such as soundproof cotton, agricultural insulation quilts, and cleaning cloths; the longer-term "fiber-to-fiber" direction, in which old clothes become raw material for new clothes, is still in the exploration stage.

Also on August 21, Uniqlo opened its fifth RE.UNIQLO STUDIO garment rebirth workshop, and the first in North China, at its Beijing Sanlitun global flagship store. The previous four are located at Shanghai Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai Nanjing West Road, Changsha Hepingtang, and Guangzhou Victoria Plaza. As one of Uniqlo's core flagship stores in China, the Sanlitun store serves to showcase new services and new experiences.

The new workshop offers two types of services: first, REPAIR, which fixes damaged parts of clothing to extend its lifespan; second, REMAKE, where customers can choose from hundreds of embroidery patterns to personalize old clothes. The patterns deliberately include Beijing elements such as Peking Opera masks, red lanterns, and kites, aimed at local customers and tourists visiting Beijing.

The RE.UNIQLO project began in 2020, with the core aim of extending the lifespan of LifeWear clothing. It currently manifests in two parallel focal points—using STUDIO to make clothes last longer, and using recycling services to arrange a destination for clothes no longer worn. For those in the secondhand clothing trade and recycling industry, the key observation from this adjustment is that the brand is weaving stores, online traffic, and existing recycling platforms into a more stable recycling supply chain. The faster the front-end commitment expands, the higher the demands become for sorting, recycling capacity, and connections to end-market absorption channels.

Source: Uniqlo RE.UNIQLO Clothing Recycling Service Expands Nationwide, Simultaneously Launching North China's First Garment Rebirth Workshop · Originally published on 2026-08-28