About
Vision
My vision is a clothing industry in which no coat hanger ends up in the trash after a single use—but instead naturally finds its place in a functioning circular economy.
Mission
With this blog, I want to shed light on an underappreciated topic: I’ll show how coat hanger loops work in practice, where their strengths and limitations lie, and where there’s room for improvement. My goal is to spark a conversation—with everyone who wants to help shape, co-design, or rebuild these cycles.
Hermann Bode
It all began in 1995—back then, reusing clothes hangers was still the exception rather than the rule. Since then, I have been working as a managing partner at a European company specializing in clothes hangers, and I have witnessed how isolated experiments have evolved into mature, reliable circular systems. My background as an industrial clerk and a graduate engineer in textile engineering helps me understand both the economic and technical aspects.
What continues to drive me to this day is the realization of just how much potential lies within this unassuming everyday object. A clothes hanger may seem insignificant—and yet it determines whether millions of items are produced over and over again or wisely reused. I started this blog to share my experiences from nearly three decades and to bring this topic out of the shadows and into the spotlight.
Green Hanger
For a clothes hanger to be reused multiple times, a well-thought-out recycling process is needed. Put simply, it begins where the garment is sold: The hanger is left behind in the store, collected, inspected, and sorted—and then returned to where it’s needed again, such as back to the supplier who is preparing the next shipment of merchandise. In this way, a single-use item becomes part of a reusable system that spans national borders.
The impact of this is greater than one might expect. Every reused hanger means less new production, less use of materials and energy, less waste, and lower CO₂ emissions—all while operations continue as usual, without retailers or suppliers having to make any compromises. That’s exactly where this blog comes in: I want to highlight where such circular systems are already working exceptionally well today, and to reflect together on where there’s still room for improvement.
Conversation leads to more
Much of what I write about in this blog began as real conversations—with people who are facing challenges similar to the ones you may be facing right now. If the topic of coat hangers is on your mind—whether from a technical, economic, or strategic perspective—I’d love to hear from you. Just send me a quick message!