On Black Friday 2023, Oway will close its online and retail POS worldwide to focus on environmental issues, amplifying the message: "It’s time to waste less and consume better. The professional haircare and skincare agricosmetic brand renews its commitment to fighting out-of-control consumerism and compulsive shopping with an awareness campaign built on entrepreneurial synergies and concrete actions."
For years, the Black Friday shopping event has led to a trend of consumer frenzy, discounts, and the hurried accumulation of unnecessary goods. Oway stakes its identity on an alternative decision by closing its direct purchasing channels - online and physical stores - for the day.
In each step of its production chain, Oway shares its own, unconventional understanding of manufacturing, by emphasizing natural resources, sustainable production and raw materials recovery as well as their ameliorative reuse. The brand hopes to highlight responsible behaviors, laying the foundation for a model that will inspire others.
On November 24, the Italian company will commit to pausing sales on a global scale and will focus all its energy on communicating its values. To maximize this initiative, Oway has garnered over 700 salon and spa partners to participate globally as ambassadors to promote and share Oway’s message in their spaces, presenting various levels of the awareness campaign.
Oway Salons will play a fundamental role to propel the initiative and promote Oway's message in their dedicated spaces, presenting various levels of the awareness campaign - “CLOSING STORES TO OPEN UP” discussions, learnings and analyses of better solutions to a problem that afflicts the entire planet. Their contribution will be key for amplifying the message and letting it grow throughout the world, by combining their efforts with the credible voice of a consistent, eco-activist brand.
The period preceding the closures will be marked by a social media campaign focused on delivering inspirational and practical tips for daily life, which will be relevant across several commodities sectors, beyond Oway's core ethos. The like-minded Italian companies Oway has partnered with for the social initiative and digital storytelling aspect to coincide, include Eta Beta, a non-profit social cooperative in the form of an association of artists engaged in the research and experimentation of materials, Blue of a Kind, a fashion studio focused on upcycling and making clothes exclusively from pre-existing garments and repurposed fabrics, as well as 3Bee, a climate tech company focused on the revolutionary integration between beekeeping and technology, now dedicated to protecting and strengthening biodiversity at 360 degrees.
On Friday, November 24, the OWAY.COM brand website will be entirely replaced by a landing page dedicated to this initiative. In addition to the storytelling behind the brand's decision to close on this day, the website will also include a Call to Action to engage in personal conversations about consumer’s impact on the environment. The immersive online experience, which usually focuses on product consultations, will instead serve as a place for dialogue for various key topics relating to the environment and low-impact alternatives, in order to help visitors modify their own behavior and become (un)conscious activists.
About Oway: OWAY, founded in 1948 in Bologna, is the first and only Agricosmetic brand in the professional industry to use glass and aluminum as primary materials in its packaging, with the goal of creating and supporting the first global network of entirely plastic-free Salons, Spas and Hotels. Starting from zero-km biodynamic, organic and fair trade crops, Oway creates Agricosmetic treatments and rituals boasting professional performance and formulas with a high concentration of botanical ingredients. Oway’s ®Agricosmetica is the result of a virtuous circle where the choices and actions involved in each product’s lifecycle aim to enhance the well-being of Earth and its inhabitants – an attitude, a lifestyle, a conscious choice. Oway is a coherent and circular project made possible thanks to the cooperation of farmers, hydrolate and essential oil distillers, small producers, artisans and artists able to drive and generate change, offering people meaningful experiences and inspiring everyday choices. Oway's ingredients are farmed following the methods of biodynamic agriculture, which is based on the constant search for harmony and balance between all living organisms, the surrounding territory and the vital resources of the brand's farm, Ortofficina. Oway has chosen to adopt renewable energy in its factories, using the cleanest, most natural and inexhaustible source available on our planet: the sun. To guarantee maximum purity for our formulas, we only use ozonated water, which is very pure in microbiological terms and is obtained naturally without the use of ionizing radiation or chemical disinfectants. Oway is now present in salons, spas and hotels in more than 70 countries, online, single-brand boutiques and selected concept stores around the world.
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Originally posted on Salon Today
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