Cover photo copyright 2026 MUD Jeans.

Cheap, poor quality clothing is one of the hallmarks of the 21st Century, and we've got landfill sites full of cheap apparel to prove it. In fact, fast fashion has become such a runaway success, it now accounts for a greater share of global carbon emissions than the whole European Union (source: earth.org).

It's no secret that fast fashion clothing is terrible quality, and we've all experienced a shirt that shrank the first time we washed it or a pair of trousers that tore after only a couple of weeks. But, for many people, price is king, and many consumers will happily discard five €10 t-shirts per year rather than buying one €50 t-shirt that lasts longer.

Fabric dyes alone are a significant source of pollution. Photo by Victor Volkov on Unsplash.

Millennials and jeans

I'm a Millennial, and that means I live in jeans. I always have (even if they're less skinny now than they were 15 years ago) and I likely always will. But I'm also aware that jeans use a lot of resources, including up to 3,800 litres of water across the life cycle of a single pair (and that's according to the makers of Levi jeans, who aren't exactly going to be giving the worst-case scenario).

That's why, among other things, I found it so frustrating when I'd buy a new pair and find them falling apart after barely a year of regular use.

I wanted better, and I was lucky enough to have sufficient disposable income to pay more upfront for a quality product.

My experience with MUD

After some online research, I found what seemed to be the ideal solution. MUD Jeans was a Dutch company, they made their products in named factories in Tunisia, they were a certified B-Corp, and they had a strong focus on sustainability, with recycling offered at the end of the product life cycle.

It sounded perfect, so I ordered 2 pairs for around €140 each, and put them to the test. This was 2 years and 10 months ago, and I've been pretty impressed. The jeans looked good, fit well, and they felt sturdy and comfortable.

I've worn them for long haul travel, I've biked in the rain in them, I've spilt drinks on them, and I've worn them most days for nearly 3 years (excluding shorts season in the summer).

Photo by Claire Abdo on Unsplash.

The results

As me and my jeans approach our third anniversary, our time together is probably coming to a close. Over the time I've had them, I've had both pairs repaired locally multiple times, to fix tears in pockets, wear on the knees, and other routine damage.

Overall, I've been impressed. They held up a lot better than any fast fashion jeans I've ever had, and they lasted longer than the Levi jeans I had before them. Even after repairs and intensive use, they still look pretty good, and I'm a little bit nostalgic about saying goodbye to them (sadly, the wear to the fabric is now too widespread to be patched up).

I haven't decided what the future holds for my first two pairs of MUD jeans (I bought a third pair in the meantime), but I'll probably either add patches of other fabrics and use them as DIY/gardening clothes, or give MUD's recycling program a try.

An uncertain future

As I've been saying a long goodbye to my jeans over the past few months, the world around me has moved on: MUD Jeans was declared bankrupt by a judge in Amsterdam last month (August 2026, source: nu.nl).

All might not be lost, though, as the company has already been bought and restarted under the ownership of another Dutch entrepreneur, with the company's founder taking on a new role in the restarted company (source: Change Inc).

So far, the new owners have retained the company's focus on transparency, quality and sustainability, so I feel confident enough to buy a new pair or two from them. But this saga makes clear how tricky it can be to be a sustainable, European clothing brand in the age of SHEIN and TikTok shop. Brands like MUD are outliers in an increasingly competitive market, and we'll either use them or we'll lose them, as we very nearly did with MUD.