Note: This article was originally published as a guest contribution in Green Works on October 12, 2026.
The circular economy isn’t failing on technology. It’s failing on desirability. Brands will decide whether circular business becomes culture.
Brands don’t just have enormous pulling power. In the 21st century, they also have communities all over the world. According to recent studies such as the Edelman Trust Barometer, people in Germany trust companies considerably more than they trust the government or political institutions. So who is better placed to turn desirable futures into reality?
The circular economy is a case in point. Almost all the technical solutions are on the table; now it comes down to implementation. But developing circular products and services isn’t enough. They also have to be made desirable. This is where brands and their appeal make a decisive contribution to shifting the economy from linear to circular. A circular economy has to do more than make sense. It has to feel right and get people excited.
Touchpoints across the entire life cycle
Most debates about the circular economy revolve around material flows and regulation. As important as these questions are, they don’t explain why someone would choose a repaired product over a new one, or a circular business model such as a subscription over buying new. Decisions like these are rarely purely rational. Brands, on the other hand, have been shaping behaviour and building loyalty for decades. Worn on a football shirt or tattooed onto skin, the most popular among them are an expression of identity. That is exactly the kind of appeal the circular economy has lacked so far.
In the linear model, the relationship with a brand ends at the point of sale. Circular business models break up this familiar one-way street. Taking a product back, repairing it or selling it a second time creates touchpoints across its entire life cycle. A one-off transaction becomes an ongoing relationship, and the brand becomes a companion that makes circularity possible in the first place.
The spectre of cannibalisation
With its take-back and second-hand programme in Germany, Decathlon found that returning customers buy more often and spend more. The cannibalisation of new product sales that many fear, more spectre than evidence-based phenomenon, didn’t happen, and the company’s revenue grew. This raises the bar. If a brand has to convince not only up to the point of purchase, the conversion, but also afterwards, branding moves closer to operations and gains relevance. The value proposition has to hold up and be delivered through a positive user experience, for example in repair services. Otherwise circularity degenerates into greenwashing.
The real lever lies in a new narrative. For a long time, sustainability put sacrifice at the centre: consume less, produce less. Circularity opens up possibilities instead: more space at home, more money for other things, more of a life in line with your own values, without having to give up the things you love. It moves away from the lone eco-warrior towards community. Circular brands know how to use the trend towards offline communities to create social connection and a sense of belonging. Levi’s brought craftsmanship back into retail with repair and tailoring workshops and turned them into a community format. Gen Z in particular, a generation that treats second-hand as a matter of course like few before it, is looking for brands that share this attitude.
Alongside changing consumer behaviour, regulatory pressure is growing too. With the Right to Repair, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the eagerly awaited Circular Economy Act, circularity in the EU is shifting from optional extra to obligation. Brands that pioneer now are putting themselves in pole position. They are turning the circular economy into what it needs to be in order to work: a cultural movement.