It all started with a meeting. In Bilthoven, Mireille Geijsen struck up a conversation with a Kurdish woman who had everything well organized in her home country, but was no longer seen in the Netherlands. She wanted to work and participate, but she wasn't given the opportunity. This deeply affected Mireille. She decided to use her entrepreneurial spirit to address this social problem. In 2009, she started a sewing workshop where people who were long-term unemployed—or had never even worked—made sustainable clothing. This is how i-did was born: a social enterprise with a mission to give people a new perspective. A place where motivation, not background, education, or language, makes the difference. What began as a personal motivation, grew into an organization with a clear purpose: contributing to an inclusive and circular society.

From upcycling to recycling textiles

At the end of 2012, Michiel Dekkers joined us, and i-did began focusing on upcycling overstock from fashion labels. In 2014, the Participation Act was introduced, resulting in our first collaboration with the municipality of Utrecht, helping people who had been out of work for a long time, or never, find their way back into the regular job market. In 2016, we began producing felt with external partners for the first time. Years of growth and substantial profits followed, particularly in 2019, with major clients including the Postcode Lottery, KLM, and IKEA. However, we remained heavily dependent on large volumes and had little room for innovation within the felting process.

In 2018, an ambitious idea emerged: why not manage the entire process from industrial textiles to sustainable felt ourselves? Our own factory, where we controlled every step – from raw material to finished product.

How do you make sustainable felt from discarded textiles?

The first step toward our own felt factory began small—with an idea, and above all, a lot of questions. How do you make felt from discarded textiles? What machinery do you need? And where do you actually buy it? Together with Anton Luiken, Michiel embarked on a quest that, like so many these days, began on Alibaba. They gathered initial cost estimates, compared specifications, and, based on Anton's advice, compiled a list of required machinery.

IKEA Social Entrepreneurship saw potential and approved funding in January 2019. Suddenly, things got serious: it was time to professionally approach the search for machinery, issuing a Request for Proposal to ten suppliers in China. It was crucial that the suppliers not only had experience with European customers but could also provide after-sales service.