Our children's products industry needs a bigger voice in the circularity conversation
There is a difference between an industry that talks about circularity and one that runs it. The Real Circularity Summit, at Treo House in London on Thursday 17th September, is built around the second. After four virtual editions it is live for the first time this year, and it is deliberately not a conference: no exhibition stands, no keynote theatre, just workshops and roundtables led by people already running circular models who can tell you what it actually cost them. It runs from 10am to 6pm, lunch and drinks included, and Chatham House rules apply inside the sessions so the conversation can be genuinely candid. I have booked my ticket and I will be there all day.
The roundtables are where the value is, and the line-up is properly operational. Charlotte Morley is leading one on resale and takeback schemes. Jamie Beck is running Blueprints for Action on digital product passports and the EU's Ecodesign regulation, with Fonny Bunjamin covering how smaller businesses find the value in passports without a corporate budget. Rachel Sheila Kan takes new economics and business structures, Britta Cabanos runs a conscious design challenge, and Sophie O'Brien leads a session on social sustainability and the future workforce. Nobody's Child, Fabacus, Vestis Labs, Sanja Stories, Lloop, Inside Fashion Design and Pollen Careers are all in the room.
Charlotte's session is the one I am really looking forward to. Resale and takeback is exactly where our category should be strongest, and she is a genuine advocate for circularity in the children's sector rather than a visitor to it. Which brings me to why I am telling you about any of this. Circularity in children's products has advantages the rest of retail would pay for, and we do not talk about them nearly loudly enough. Think about what makes it difficult everywhere else: blended fabrics that cannot be separated, garments worn until they are finished, no obvious second owner. Now think about what we make. Children outgrow clothes long before they wear them out, so the second owner is effectively guaranteed. Much of what we produce is single fibre, and single fibre is what recycling can genuinely handle at commercial scale today. And ours is already the most tightly regulated consumer category there is on chemistry. None of that is a moral argument. It is a structural one.
So we are not absent from this conversation, but a handful of voices is not the same as a category showing up, wouldn't it be amazing to be leading this rather than attending it. If you would like to come, entry is £100, which includes lunch and drinks, and that rate expires on 31st August. Tickets are on the Real Circularity Summit site, and the peer code PEER888. If you have been meaning to get into this properly, this is a good week to decide. And if you do come, please find me and say hello. I would genuinely like to know what our industry makes of it, and I will be writing up what I learn for you afterwards.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the Real Circularity Summit?
It is a one-day, in-person working summit on circularity in fashion, textiles and product, held at Treo House in Oval, London, on Thursday 17th September 2026, from 10am to 6pm. The format is workshops and roundtables led by practitioners rather than stands and keynotes. Chatham House rules apply inside the sessions, so what is discussed can be reported in general terms but not attributed to specific companies.
Why is circularity easier in children's products than in adult fashion?
Three structural reasons. Children outgrow garments long before they wear them out, so there is a guaranteed second owner rather than a hopeful one. A large share of what the category makes is single fibre, and single-fibre garments are what textile recycling can actually process at commercial scale today. And the category already operates under the strictest chemical regulation in consumer goods, so the data discipline circularity requires is partly built already.
What is a Digital Product Passport and does it affect my brand?
A Digital Product Passport is a product-level record of what an item is made of, where it came from and what can be done with it at end of life, readable by anyone in the chain. Textiles are a priority group under the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, and it will apply to anyone selling into the EU regardless of where they are based. Nothing is finalised yet, but the direction is settled, so the useful move now is to start building clean product data rather than waiting for the final specification.
If you are working out where circularity fits your brand commercially rather than just ethically, or you would like a steer on getting your product data in order before the passport lands, come and talk to us at The Nest.
The Nest News lands every Tuesday: three insights shaping maternity, baby and children's products, and the actions you can take. Sign up at https://www.thenest.uk.com/the-nest-news-signup
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