Our Story

Scrappy Clothing Company: Our Story 

When we started Project Repat, our mission was clear: turn your old t-shirts into cozy, meaningful quilts. But along the way, we encountered a not-so-wonderful issue—t-shirt scraps. Thousands of pounds of them.

The never-ending accumulation of t-shirt scraps has been a thorn in our side since day one. Sure, we could have taken the easy route and dumped them, adding to the 5% of waste on Earth that is used textiles. But that didn’t sit right with us.

Since 2012, we’ve made over a million t-shirt quilts at a worker-owned factory in North Carolina, and we’re proud to say that none of our t-shirt scraps have ended up in landfills. We spent years pleading with recyclers to handle our waste responsibly and eventually turned this challenge into an opportunity to innovate.

We asked ourselves: what if we could repurpose those scraps into something more valuable? We knew there had to be a better solution. Enter Scrappy Clothing Company.

We’re flipping the script on what it means to step up for the planet, and it all starts with getting Scrappy. It’s an unfiltered, no-nonsense approach to sustainability—centered on circularity. Scrappy is the missing piece in a bigger system, turning scrap textiles from a t-shirt quilt company into socks and closing the loop in a textile industry that’s too often wasteful and careless.

True to our scrappy roots, we found a way to upcycle leftover scraps into socks just a few miles from our t-shirt quilt factory, Opportunity Threads, in Morganton, North Carolina.

We teamed up with innovative textile recycling company Material Return, just down the road, to tackle our scrap issue. They’ve developed a process to turn our scraps into new products within a tight-knit local network. Material Return collects regional textile waste, blends it with our t-shirt scraps, breaks it down into fiber, and spins it into yarn for our socks. Now that’s what we call scrappy.

Introducing the Scrappy Sock: made from 100% recycled materials and manufactured right here in the United States. Sure, they might look like ordinary gray socks, but that's sort of the point. We take pride in making a sock that is classic, versatile, and mindful of the planet.

The truth is: while many brands boast about their sustainability efforts, they often use materials with less than 50% recycled content or involve excessive global shipping. Our Scrappy Socks are designed to minimize waste and maximize local impact.

We understand—sustainable products can be pricey. That’s why we’re committed to offering affordable socks that are classic, simple, and no-frills, without ever compromising on sustainability. Because what we wear on our feet shouldn’t leave a mark on where we step.

How did we make a truly sustainable sock at a great price? Simple – we got scrappy.