Product Design

HANNAmal
Lovey

Portland, Oregon

How might we create a product that provides comfort to foster kids and also repurposes deadstock fabric waste?

While at Hanna Andersson, I collaborated with design, product development, quality assurance, sustainability, merchandising and technical design teams and with Hanna Andersson's partner factories in India to develop the 'HANNAmal Lovey' blanket design. The purpose was to design a product for foster kids at their partner non-profit Foster Love, made almost entirely from scrap fabric waste at Hanna Andersson's partner factories: Mira, Seatoman and Richa.

Deadstock refers to leftover or unused fabric that was originally manufactured for a purpose but never sold or used in production. This could be due to overproduction, canceled orders, or slight imperfections that prevent it from meeting a brand's standard (source). Since many large companies outsource their soft goods manufacturing to Asia, often in countries with lower environmental and labor regulations to minimize costs, these countries bear the brunt of the environmental impacts of textile waste (source). This project aims to use product design as an intervention in this cycle, creating something of value from material that would otherwise be discarded.