Sustainable Brands at Mount Surf Shop
The Eco Revolution is well and truly underway, and a huge number of surf and snow brands are making huge efforts to move towards a more sustainable future, utilising materials that would normally be discarded; partnering up with foundations that tackle environmental issues; and developing products that contain natural components, among many others.
After trawling though a few brands' sustainability statements, we realised just quite how many companies are changing their production methods, and thought we’d share what they're doing for the planet with you, to hopefully make shopping responsibly a little easier.
Afends
You may have seen some recent Afends campaigns shot in hemp plantations, models surrounded by spiky green leaves, and it’s not just because they’re big fans of getting high. The fashion industry is a huge polluter for the environment, causing devastation the world over, but the team at Afends believes there are solutions and alternatives to these issues, and this is where hemp comes in. As a renewable resource, hemp takes as little as 90 days to cultivate, requires significantly less water than cotton, and produces loads more fibre per acre. It supplies its own nutrients to the soil, which replenishes its fertility, and needs no toxic chemicals, pesticides or insecticides in order to grow. Afends are increasingly using hemp to produce clothing, and seeing as the super plant consumes four times as much CO2 as trees do, by utilising it, the brand is effectively fighting global warming.
Vissla
One of the most popular wetsuit brands we stock, Vissla are paving the way for sustainability in a number of ways, including using waste coconut fibres, developing an Eco-Seas wetsuit, and recycling bottles into boardshorts. The outer husk of coconuts is usually considered waste and discarded, but it turns out, coconut husks blended with recycled polyester are a perfect material to make boardshorts, offering strength, flexibility and durability.
Vissla also produce an Eco-Seas wetsuit, and they have done for a number of years, developed to utilise some of the most environmentally conscious materials and production techniques, including natural rubber instead of neoprene, water based glues rather than solvent based materials for laminating, and recycled plastic bottles used for the interior and exterior jerseys. Hats off to you Vissla.
Patagonia
We couldn’t share anything about environmental responsibility without mentioning The Activist Company, Patagonia. The brand pledges at least 1% of sales, or 10% of pre-tax profits— whichever is more—to environmental groups, with a mission statement that reads “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” Under the brand’s Ironclad Guarantee, when customers aren’t satisfied with Patagonia products, they can return them to for repair, replacement or refund, and through the Worn Wear programme, they fix customers’ gear, teach them how to fix broken items themselves and provide opportunities to purchase quality used clothing and gear instead of new.
To be quite honest, if we listed everything Patagonia does to build a sustainable brand, we’d be here all day, so instead we’ll show you a video on how the company is tackling discarded fishing nets:
Globe
Globe are moving towards becoming a sustainable brand, teaming up with the National Forest Foundation in a skateboard 'Regrowth' partnership. As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of premium skateboards, Globe uses a significant amount of wood in production, and in order to off-set the timber it uses, its goal is to engage in forestry efforts that replace far more than it consumes. As part of these efforts, the brand also promises to plant a tree for every pair of shoes it sells from its Low Tide range, a collection of casual shoes designed to be skated in, with minimal impact on the environment.
Brixton
Brixton has admitted it needs to do better going forward, and has outlined the brand’s aims for the next few years on its website, committing to put sustainability at the heart of everything it does as a brand. By 2021 Brixton hopes to introduce Re-stitched, a recycled product initiative, and use packaging sourced from 100% sustainable sources.
The brand already features a range of eco clothing constructed with sustainable fibers, including a t-shirt made of 100% recycled fabric, using 0.26 lbs of recycled fabric scraps and five plastic bottles, which ultimately saves 63 gallons of water per shirt. To read more about its resolutions, head here.
Thrills
Thrills want to ‘make quality clothing and accessories while reducing (its) impact on the planet and inspire an achievable path for change.’ As the company has grown since its conception in 2011, its understanding of the fashion industry and social responsibility as a fashion label has evolved, becoming more committed to reducing the impact it leaves on the environment.
All of Thrills’ Australian locations, including offices, stores and warehouses, have opted for ‘Green Power’ to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and support renewable energy production, and Thrills currently uses an array of environmentally friendly fabrics such as hemp, recycled cotton and linen in many of its garments.