By Morgana Matus, Source: Ecouterre

Have your eye on a pair of expensive designer jeans? Why pay a pretty penny when you can lease them inexpensively, instead? Dutch entrepreneur Bert van Son, who owns the Mud Jeans line of organic and recycled denim, recently launched a service that allows customers to do just that. “Lease a Jeans,” as the initiative is dubbed, may not exactly make bank, but van Son says the concept is in line with a growing notion that the use of an item outstrips any claims of ownership. Bonus: It might even increase customer loyalty.

RENT-A-JEAN

“We thought it must be possible to get our jeans back somehow, and reuse them in the recycle process,” he told Fast Co.Exist earlier this week. “So, we thought, ‘Why not stay the owner of the jeans and let people use the jeans, rather than owning them?’”

Customers pay 20 euros (about $27), plus 5 euros a month for the duration of the contract.

Customers pay €20 (about $27) up front to cover shipping and administration fees, plus an additional €5 a month for the duration of the contract, which typically lasts a year. And should you rip a hole in your pants, the cost also includes free repairs.

When the contract is up, you can either send the jeans back, obtain a new pair by paying a reship cost and the lease fee, or assume permanent custodianship of the jeans by forking up €44 in installments. Returned jeans are either washed, repaired, and released back into the wild, or they’re shredded and sent back to the factory to be turned into new dungarees.

Mud Jeans uses a blend of virgin and recycled or off-cut fibers not only because it’s better for the planet, but also because the move makes financial sense. The company sources high-end Turkish organic cotton that is “quite expensive,” according to van Son. Recycled material currently makes up about 40 percent of Mud Jeans’ product, but van Son is confident he can increase it to about 50 percent.

“Cotton is a very big polluter in our world. Even organic cotton uses a lot of water. So, if there is a way of helping, it’s good,” he added.