BLUE CAST Ep 602 - Tony Tonnaer

BLUE CAST Ep 602 - Tony Tonnaer

This BLUE CAST Episode, Tuncay Kilickan talks with Tony Tonnaer - advisor, board member and sparring partner in the denim & lifestyle industry.

About Tony Tonnaer
Tony Tonnaer (57) is a Conscious Consult with extensive experience in building sustainable denim brands (20 years+). Tony is an advisor, boardmember and sparring partner in the denim & lifestyle industry, guiding brands and their team towards an efficient transition from a conventional to a circular business model.

Tonnaer has always had a love for denim, he started his first job in the denim industry in 1997 at Pepe Jeans as product manager. Over the course of six years, he grew into the position as Director of Sourcing, working together with a number of the current denim experts like James Veenhoff (House of Denim), Jason Denham (Denham), Karl-Heinz Müller (founder Bread&Butter) and Fred Gehring & Ludo Onnink (Tommy Hilfiger). 

After Pepe jeans followed an adventure developing a premium denim brand based in LA with Ulrich Simpson (UBI) before returning home to help revive the Dutch denim brand Kuyichi. He did this for a period of seven years as a dedicated Managing Director, building up the brand from 500k in sales to 10 mln. He put Kuyichi on the map as the first sustainable denim brand in the European market. 
In 2010 Tonnaer felt it was to make his own mark on the industry. He launched his brand ‘Kings of Indigo’ that became one of the key pioneering denim brands at the forefront of sustainable innovations. The brand contributed to a shift in the denim industry towards producing with minimal impact without compromising on quality and price. King Of Indigo became a brand selling its collection to over 250 carefully selected retailers in 12 countries but as a result of the effects of Covid and economic developments, in 2022 Tony Tonnaer had to let Kings Of Indigo go and the brand went into the hands of a new owner.

Tonnaer now focusses on sharing his expertise as a sustainability & circularity consultant. Putting his passion to good use accelerating change in the denim & lifestyle industry. 

Tuncay Kilickan - Highly respected Industry figure, having cut his teeth at Turkish giant ISKO spanning 20 years. Most recently Tuncay was part of R&D team of ISKO. Tuncay has a number of patents under his name. No doubt most of us have worn fabrics developed by him and his team. Tuncay takes on the Head of Global Business Development - Denim at LENZING.

BLUE CAST by TENCEL™ / CARVED IN BLUE®   
A podcast series created Lenzing’s TENCEL™ Denim team. Each month, they will host an in-depth talk with a special guest working in the industry or on the fringes of the denim community. Listen for discussions on sustainability, career trajectories, personal denim memories and more.

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And get in touch: denim@lenzing.com