Denim Head: Gimmi Jeans Cofounder Matteo Sandri Appreciates the Technical Side of Denim
Denim Head is Rivet’s discussion series with voices in the industry to get their take on the innovations, brands and designers shaping the future of denim.
Cofounded by Matteo Sandri and Francesco Vantin during the height of the pandemic in 2020, Gimmi Jeans applies an Italian (and sustainable) spin on heritage-inspired men’s and women’s denim. Hemp and organic cotton are key ingredients in the brand’s production, which takes place at a small workshop in Valdagno, Italy. There, jeans are sewn by machine or hand and checked by Sandri or Vantin to make sure each pair meets their quality standards.
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Here, Sandri discusses the value of natural components and how consumer education is essential for scaling sustainability. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Rivet: What has been the biggest contribution to sustainable denim?
Matteo Sandri: Natural fibers grown with the lowest possible use of water and pesticides combined with the new indigo dyeing and washing technologies that are currently available on the market.
Rivet: What is the most inspiring technology or collection that you’ve seen recently?
MS: There are many collections from which it is possible to take inspiration, but I think that to make a difference nowadays it is necessary to look at the technical side of the process. What gives us more confidence in the future is the scientific attention [the supply chain] is giving to make sure that the process of dyeing and weaving denim is as sustainable as possible.
Rivet: What lessons has the pandemic taught the industry?
MS: The lesson that the pandemic has taught everyone is that without humanity active in the world, nature begins to breathe and thrive again. This has made many people understand that we need to abandon the belief that we are at the center of everything and start creating products and services with a life cycle parallel to that of nature and no longer to the human one.
Rivet: In terms of design, which brand or designer in the market do you think is making the biggest impact?
MS: Patagonia for sure. Thanks to its revolutionary gesture, Patagonia has made other major brands understand what true sustainability means. The average customer now has a company that they can compare others to. Hopefully people will start being more critical in choosing their purchases, perhaps knowing better how to distinguish greenwashing from true green.
Rivet: What is your personal philosophy on shopping and caring for your denim?
MS: My personal philosophy is to buy less but better so the jeans that I have are from the best denim producers and I will never want to throw them away. If they rip, I will make an embroidery and they will become more beautiful.
Rivet: Which part of denim manufacturing needs more innovation, and why?
MS: The communication part because consumers are unable to distinguish a sustainable jean from one that is not. All the efforts that are made in the early stages of the denim making process could very easily become obsolete if the brand fails to communicate them to the end customer and educate them accordingly.
Rivet: What was your last denim purchase?
MS: My last purchase was three years ago, and it was a pair of old vintage Diesel jeans I found in a flea market in Rome.
Rivet: Describe the jean of the future.
MS: For Gimmi Jeans, the jeans of the future are trousers made with hemp, which thanks to the infinite sustainable properties of its cultivation we store CO2 and enrich the soil where it was grown, creating value for the farmer who works on it. It will be a dye-free trouser, so it will have a natural color of the fiber and the materials for accessories will be replaced with natural materials.
Or we find a very interesting way of reusing what is already here because what is waste today will become tomorrow’s gold. The process will then narrow down to disassembling old garments and reassembling them into something new and unique.
