It is time the clothing we produce and wear are more respectful of the playgrounds we enjoy, of the planet where we live.
As a matter of fact, producing clothing has a significant impact on the environment: dying, finishing or printing of course, but making fabrics in the first place. Synthetic fibers are mainly oil-based and therefore using a non-renewable resource and polluting industry, but also natural fibers aren’t always as eco-friendly as they seem.
If the theory sounds kind of easy to get, it’s another story to make it happen. Eco-friendly fabrics are a lot harder to source, they’re still generally more expensive and there’s not a lot of choice. Same for dying and printing. As for finishing, it comes to choosing between fashionable and eco-friendly products. It’s really about finding the right balance between pricing, style, variety and ecology. If we offered products as eco-friendly as we possibly could, they wouldn’t look very appealing, would be much more expensive and there would be very little choice. Our bet is Rip Curl fans would maybe agree with the ethics, but would go for other brands !
We decided to take it step by step, while keeping offering cool products at reasonable price. So for now, we focus on the biggest environmental impact of clothing : materials. Season after season, more products are designed using eco-friendly materials. We promote as “more eco-friendly” surfwear products that are made with at least 55% of eco-friendly fabrics. As for mountainwear, we consider that technical multi-layer products which outershell is made with at least 55% of eco-friendly fabrics are also a good step forward. Those products wear the Rip Curl Planet label.
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