Kearney raises Circular Fashion Index

Kearney said on Tuesday that its 2026 Circular Fashion Index showed fashion brands improving on circularity metrics, even as deep adoption remained limited. The consulting firm said the average score rose to 3.7 out of 10 from 3.4 in 2025. The report assessed 241 brands across 21 countries and five product categories. Kearney said the top-20% cutoff rose to 6.0 from 5.8, while the bottom 80% averaged 3.1. ### How much did the index move this year? The 2026 index rose by 0.3 points year over year, according to Kearney’s Sept. 2 release. Kearney also said the industry average was around 2.0 in 2020, giving the latest report a longer-run baseline for comparison. (prnewswire.com) The 2025 report had put the average score at 3.4 and the median at 3.2, after covering 246 brands across 18 countries and five categories. Kearney said year-on-year progress in 2025 was still positive but had begun to level off. (prnewswire.com) ### What does Kearney measure in this index? Kearney said CFX 2026 benchmarks how fashion brands put circularity into practice across the product life cycle. The 2026 edition evaluates nine dimensions, spanning materials and design through care, repair, secondhand, rental and post-use recovery. (kearney.com) The 2025 methodology described a framework covering a product’s full life cycle, including circular design, care instructions, repair services, secondhand offerings, rental models and take-back or recycling programs. Kearney said the 2025 edition also adjusted its recycling dimension to include efforts to reduce and repurpose pre-consumption scraps and unsold products. (prnewswire.com) ### Where is progress showing up — and where is it not? Kearney said 73% to 84% of brands now show moderate activation across key dimensions in 2026, but only 3% to 7% reach extensive activation. The firm said that across core primary-market dimensions, roughly three-quarters of brands sit at moderate activation levels. (kearney.com) The top tier remains separated from the rest of the market, Kearney said, with nine of the top 10 brands also appearing in last year’s leading group. The firm said outdoor brands led overall, while sports and premium or affordable luxury also showed relatively stronger maturity. (prnewswire.com) ### Why is Kearney framing this as a compliance story? Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, a Kearney partner, global fashion and luxury lead, and co-author of the report, said regulation is increasingly requiring brands to build capabilities such as product data, sourcing evidence and post-use systems. “Compliance is now the price of entry,” she said in the release, adding that advantage “still has to be earned.” (prnewswire.com) Kearney said the management question is shifting from whether to build circular capabilities to how brands create value from them. The firm said repair, resale and rental remain selective because they depend more directly on consumer demand, viable economics and the ability to operate them at scale. (prnewswire.com) ### What changed from last year’s report? The 2026 report covered 241 brands, compared with 246 in the 2025 edition, while expanding the country count to 21 from 18. Kearney said both editions covered five core product categories. (prnewswire.com) The Sept. 2 release is Kearney’s sixth annual Circular Fashion Index. Kearney published the fifth edition on July 11, 2025, and said the 2026 report is available through its release and report materials. (prnewswire.com)