Eco clothing for the outdoor lover.

Most of us head into the outdoors to enjoy the wilderness of it all. The fresher air, the smells of new blooms and sounds that no audio system can reproduce exactly. We call ourselves nature lovers and for the most part, we are a crowd that is aware of the problems facing the natural environment including pollution and development that is increasingly narrowing down the green spaces that once was there.

Eco consciousness is a term used to describe this feeling and big business knows it. This is why the “Outdoors” market is booming in triple digits even as conventional markets continue to shrink from the depression of 2010.

Consumers however, are starting to wise up and question eco claims and in many instances, have had major brands changing their green tunes like this case of Porsche and its eco claims. The same backlash is happening to the Outdoors industry and the industry has responded with the creation of a group to set standards for its members. Aptly named the Sustainability Working Group( as in working towards sustainability ) the group covers every possible concern that could come out of any eco claims and provides guidance for its members who are cashing in on the Outdoors person and their love for nature.

The Eco Index is an impressive guide for their members and challenges all Outdoors brands and manufacturers to work towards the standards set here so that their products can truly be called eco friendly.

Looking a few of their key points :
-Select raw materials that require less energy and have a low carbon footprint throughout their lifetime.
-Select materials that minimize the amount of fresh water used and wastewater created through their lifetime.
-Select raw materials that contribute to significant positive changes in manufacturing and processing efficiencies.

The most common fibre used in Outdoor type apparel and gear today is polyester. The virgin stuff that’s made from oil and contributes hugely to pollution of air,land and water. To make it even more toxic, performance finishes are often added,whether to yarn or finished fabrics and anything that can repel rain water or food stains and block out wind, cannot be good for the environment. I’ve wondered about this for the longest time and have not been able to confirm what happens, when all this lamination and chemicals is boiled down and recycled into a new yarn that’s commonly known as rePET. Did the chemicals leave the sludge when it was boiled down? And how was the sludge disposed of? You’ll see guidelines in the Eco Index asking manufacturers to dispose of sludge responsibly. How is that done? If you bury it deep enough, it will disappear? Out of sight out of mind sort of thing?

Anyway, onto the next phase, now that the item has been produced and sold, the new considerations become care of the garment. SWG’s guide specifically advises members to “specify low impact care such as cold water wash, line dry and no dry cleaning!” The energy savings mentioned here are tremendous as the washing machine and hot air dryer are two of the biggest energy hogs in your house. More benefits like that amazing sundried smell and feel can be checked out on this laundry site.

Its easy enough if we’re dealing with a recycled polyester hoody or cotton tee shirt but what do you do with a fully lined and padded “eco outdoor” jacket? What’s a nature lover to do?

The true nature lover will reject products like these.Any product that calls for dry cleaning should be avoided at all costs. In our opinion, the nature lover will go back to the days when clothing was made simply and as naturally as you can make it. None of this performance,rain repellent,stain resistant product that leaves such a heavy imprint on the environment.

When the winds blow cold, the nature lover will add on a scarf and another layer of clothing to keep the warmth in. Not add on a synthetic layer of cloth that will wreak havoc on the environment in its manufacture, in its use and in its end fate.

Green Party goes green with ecoGear tee shirts

Go go go, go greens!

I’ll be honest with you. This took a huge fat monkey off our backs!

For years we’ve been after green groups and companies to consider using the greenest tee shirt of them all, the ecoGear tee shirt from recycled cotton and recycled poly.

It was heartbreaking and hugely disappointing to have them choose other products because “ yours is a few dollars more than what we’re paying and it will hurt our fundraising bottomline.”

That’s a huge contradiction right there. Groups that call themselves green or groups that make their paychecks by saying they protect the environment CANNOT choose economy when the ecology is at stake! This turns whatever they claim to do into greenwashing because if you don’t watch the environmental footprints of your own group and its related actions and merchandise, how can you say you’re protecting the environment?

Then again, we don’t really blame them. Paychecks are important after all but most importantly is that none of us want to face the monster in all our closets. Ya, the clothing we all wear. Most of us know, especially those in the environmental protection business, about the massive destruction clothing wreaks upon the environment.

You get countries like Uzbekhistan being declared the environmental disaster of the century by the United Nations for its cotton growing. Rivers in India flow orange water from the dyestuffs. China’s Yangtze river flows blue from all the denim factories along its banks. Fish and animal species have all but disappeared from rivers and lakes where clothing factories discharge their chemicals. Bleach to turn the natural fibres white so they can be ready to dye. Dyestuffs. Then more bleach and enzymes to “soften” the clothing up before going to market. Not to mention the heavy metals and formaldehyde that always gets tossed into the dyeing and finishing processes of making tee shirts and jeans.

In recent months, we’ve been countered with “oh, we process our organic clothing in closed loop production systems where all the waste waters are treated before being released.” Sounds good right? Definitely eco but what they don’t tell you is that when you treat waste waters from dyeing clothing, there is a lot of inert dyestuffs, chemicals etc that are caught in filters or if they use a different capture process, more chemicals are added to the waste waters so that the dead dyestuffs etc are bonded together into a sludge. So they’ll skim the sludge off the surface…what happens to it? No one will tell us.

The point is, to make eco clothing in 2010, with the technology that is available, you don’t have to plant new crops to grow fibres. There is no need to go redye anything and burn up tons of coal and use fresh drinking water for it. There is recycled cotton and our stuff has such a nice handfeel, most people wouldn’t believe it when we tell them its 100% recycled fibres. They look at us like we’re the biggest greenwashers there is.

We could go on but we have another post just beggin to be written.So we’ll close it off with a big thank you to Peter Ormond, Green Party candidate for Hamilton Ontario, for going green with us!

Is there such a thing as eco outdoor clothing??

We're preparing to introduce what will be world's first eco outdoor clothing collection using our recycled fibres.

Working with the Sustainability Group out of Europe gave us a lot of insight into what other brands are doing wrong and how not to greenwash. A lot of clothing brands have already cashed into the outdoor lovers desire to be ecofriendly and to support eco clothing. HOwever, most of the brands and products talk up a good green talk without supporting product.

Recycled polyesters are great if you don't end up redyeing them! Polyester is one of the harder fabrics to dye and takes extreme high heat and toxic dyestuffs to color the yarns, even the newer generation rePET yarns that are supposed to be easier to dye. Even with the introduction of closed loop production, where dye waters are supposedly treated before being released back into the world, the dye houses are not clear as to what they do with all the sludge that is created from the inert dyestuff.So its buried somewhere and hope no one sees it?

One of the all time favorite beefs has to be the performance finishes that are added. You simply cannot have eco outdoor clothing that has had nano finishes or repellent chemicals added to make the clothing water or wind repellent. Such a product maybe a performance product and great for keeping the elements out but it is not an eco product!

In our opinion, the outdoor lover,whether its a weekend camper or day hiker, is prepared to make some sacrifices for personal comfort so that they can be truly friendly to the earth. Bundle up and pile on the layers to keep the wind out!The trees and the streams will love you for it as they would have seen that the clothing on your back did not cause any trees to be cut or waters polluted.

The great thing about making eco clothing from recycled cottons is that the process uses no new dyestuff. All the colors come from first life cotton clippings that are picked off factory floors and sorted by color before being processed.Less energy.Less water.Less emissions.Less chemicals. How much more eco can you get?

With the technology that is now available to make use of 100% recycled fibres, there are no excuses to take small steps in the right direction. We have arrived at the end of the journey for eco clothing and coming for the Fall 2010 season, we will show the world how a truly eco friendly outdoor clothing collection is made.Love green.Go recycled.