Luxury and Sustainability Coexist in Fashion Mystery Box

Established in late 2019, London-based Heat is an e-commerce platform that offers surplus luxury fashion items in a curated collection delivered as a mystery box, or A Box of Heat, as the company refers to it.

The company is focused on sustainable fashion. Says Heat, “Due to the unpredictable nature of the fashion industry, there is often a surplus of products from past, current, and exclusive collections which are either sent to landfill, incinerated, or heavily discounted. Our service provides brands with a sustainable channel to avoid these outcomes whilst preserving brand values.”

Recently, to strengthen its commitment to responsible practices and to mitigating the fashion industry’s impact on climate change, the company worked with Delta Global to create packaging worthy of the luxury goods inside that was also eco-friendly. Lately, notes Delta Global, a focus on eco-friendly packaging has entailed the elimination of plastic lamination and the introduction of compostable materials, but it says its design for the #HEATBOX “takes sustainable luxury packaging one step further.”

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The brief from Heat was to develop a fully recyclable luxury box that utilizes Delta Global’s magnetic removal system and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited materials.

As Robert Lockyer, CEO of Delta Global, explains, “Despite being made from recyclable materials, many luxury packaging boxes have magnetic closure systems which restrict recyclability when they come to the end of their lives. We have developed a design with a removal technique that uses perforation points built into the box. Once a customer removes the magnets, the box can be flattened and becomes fully recyclable.”

The box design is simplistic, sturdy, and encourages a second life through reuse and repurposing.Managing Director of Heat Joe Wilkinson shares that the partnership was part of a wider rebrand, aiming to elevate Heat’s luxury proposition. “The boxes themselves play a significant role in our luxury offering, meaning they need to be of a very high quality. Delta’s innovative and flexible approach was a perfect fit for our brief and their experience in the sector only strengthened our trust in them. 

“We are delighted with the final design. It is simplistic, sturdy, and encourages a second life through reuse and repurposing, which only helps increase our sustainability efforts.” 

Adds Lockyer, “We really enjoyed working on this project with Heat, even with the quick four-week turnaround that was required. Having honed an in-house rapid sampling process, we were able to get the initial concepts for the boxes completed within just 48 hours. That, paired with our streamlined 7 PCS construction method, means the boxes are 50% faster to make up, which in turn provides an efficiency benefit to Heat.  

“As an e-commerce service, the boxes are one of the only tangible elements of the brand, so all efforts and benefits work to connect with customers by reflecting the company’s luxury and innovative ethos and adding an element of theater to the box-opening experience.”