Mothercare and Hubbub expand baby clothing redistribution scheme nationwide

A pilot between environmental charity Hubbub and Mothercare to redistribute baby clothing is being expanded nationwide, after more than 20,000 items of clothing were allocated to around 2,000 families last year.


Hubbub and Mothercare are attempting to increase circular economy solutions for baby clothing, by redistributing 65,000 items to 6,500 UK families as part of a nationwide expansion of the Gift a Bundle campaign.

Gift a Bundle, which was piloted in March last year, encourages households to create bundles of outgrown baby clothing to redistribute at select Mothercare stores. A total of 20,000 items were successfully passed on through the original pilot.

“Hubbub believes that Gift a Bundle is a scalable model that could become an integral part of how Mothers’ Day is celebrated in the UK,” Hubbub’s founder Trewin Restorick said.

“We will measure the impact of the campaign in 2018 and explore whether there are other organisations who want to take it over to deliver in future years. This will give Hubbub freedom to create fresh, new campaigns for the future.”

Clothing care

The campaign will encourage parents to donate surplus clothes to one of 42 participating Mothercare stores. Bundles will be redistributed to local families on Mothers’ Day.

Research from Hubbub found that 183 million items of outgrown baby clothes are stored in UK homes. If all the items were reallocated, each baby born in the UK every year would gain 250 items.

The original trial ran in 2016 in South East London, before Mothercare launched its initiative at 13 stores in 2017. In the run up to last Mother’s Day on 26 March, parents were urged to gift bundles of six to 10 items of good quality, outgrown baby clothing for ages between premature to three years, in selected Mothercare stores across the UK.

Hubbub has also launched a freely-available ‘How to Guide’, enabling any corporate, charity or community to set up its own initiative.

The charity has an overarching goal in place to reduce the £150m worth of clothes wasted every year in the UK. Last year, Hubbub launched a series of low-cost upcycling events that allow people to ‘re-fashion’ their wardrobes. The environmental charity has previously teamed up with Ocado and a prison in Northumberland to prevent the online retailer’s corporate uniforms being unnecessarily sent to landfill.

Matt Mace

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