4 million tons of waste is generated globally from the automotive sector - in particular from items that are difficult to recycle such as seatbelts, airbags, and leather finishes. Fashion is often recognized for its significant carbon footprint and is considered the world’s second most polluting industry, after oil; sustainability is a major concern in both industries.

As a global automotive company that manufactures 4.6 million cars annually, Hyundai’s mission is not only to produce premium-quality vehicles but to move the hearts of car buyers whose motive to select and purchase a product is driven by ethical and political issues, increasingly.

For both the automotive and fashion industries, Hyundai attempts to demonstrate a creative way of recycling abandoned materials. Through this, Hyundai delivers a meaningful message about the shared challenge of reducing industrial waste and raises awareness about a sustainable future.

Hyundai created a new lifestyle platform, Re:Style, a capsule collection that reuses leftover leather from the automotive seat manufacturer Hyundai Transys, an affiliate of Hyundai, to make new products. Hyundai collaborated with innovative fashion designers in the U.S. and China to showcase during New York and Beijing Fashion Week, focusing on the concept of ‘upcycling,’ an emerging trend that encourages the creative transformation of excess materials.

By collaborating with the fashion industry to target a new consumer market, we created a fashion collection equipped with environmentally-friendly and stylish components and effectively spread the message by showcasing our message during Fashion Week.

Sustainable socials are active creators who want to be part of the change. We know that sustainability is a priority for consumers as well as brands. We aim to encourage our core audience to be part of the change. 87% of millennials believe that companies should address urgent social and environmental issues, while 75% of millennials are willing to pay extra for sustainable products.

Hyundai attempts to create conversational capital by fueling an ongoing conversation about sustainability between the brand and millennials, the sustainable socials. We approached them through lifestyle platforms in fashion and lifestyle, which effectively engage many millennials.

In reality, the fashion and automotive industries share the same sustainability challenges. In the automotive industry, 80% of a car is recycled but 20% goes to landfills. In fashion, despite almost 100% of garments being recyclable, a huge majority goes unrecycled. Therefore, the collaboration between these two industries is inevitable.

Hyundai collaborated with innovative fashion designers to come up with a very unique collection with the concept of ‘upcycling’ in the U.S. and China, each presented to media and celebrity influencers at live events during New York and Beijing Fashion Week.

New York-based fashion brand Zero + Maria Cornejo is an eco-friendly designer brand that is best known for using natural materials that require minimum energy. With Zero + Maria Cornejo, we produced a 15-piece capsule collection, which includes extended cuffs, belts, and a zip-front corset. In China, Zhang Na, an independent Shanghai-based designer behind the brand Reclothing Bank and an advocate of sustainable fashion, transformed discarded car seats into backpack pendants and detachable waistcoats. Under the theme ‘Saving the Planet in Style’, Hyundai also presented recycled airbag materials and a special t-shirt made of recycled plastic bottle materials through a capsule collection.

Re:Style was established as a lifestyle marketing platform for Hyundai, brand perception was increased, and relevance and engagement amongst new and existing audiences were generated. Through Re:Style, Hyundai established that we are driven towards being an industry leader in environmental awareness and sustainability, no longer only interested in business objectives and profit.

There was a total of 440,000,000 and more media views, more than 611 articles (media impression), over 62,276 social media views including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram (382,305 likes on Instagram). Forbes wrote, “Korean motor company, Hyundai, debuts a capsule collection during New York Fashion Week.” Reuters wrote, “Revolutionizing the fashion industry leads to only positives - Sustainability, more than a trend collaboration.” Nylon wrote, “Maria Cornejo and Hyundai teamed up to combat their industries’ waste.”