While sustainability hasn’t always been at the forefront in previous years or even decades, its increasing importance with major environmental changes has made waves in businesses. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by many companies, especially our own. In fact, we pride ourselves on doing our own substantial piece through upcycling and repairing outdoor clothing. We help repair jackets and other outdoor gear in Vancouver and surrounding regions to keep them out of landfills and ensure that your items from sustainable clothing brands you own last even longer.
Below, we break down 5 of the major clothing brands you can support, knowing that your dollars are going to a company that truly cares about sustainability.
Clothing Brands That are Adopting Sustainability Through Upcycling:
Arc’teryx
One of the most popular brands of clothing for extreme weather and intense conditions, they’re also doing their part to support sustainability as well. Arc’teryx Rebird program is the hub for all their initiatives in upcycling, resale, care and repair. The goal of the program is to embrace circularity and design waste and pollution out of systems, keep materials in use, and regenerate the natural system.
Patagonia
Similar to Arc’teryx, Patagonia also offers a program that focuses on reducing clothing waste. Their Patagonia Worn Wear program repairs damaged garments and recycles them once they’re beyond repair. Once you’ve purchased a new or used piece of Patagonia clothing, you can hand it in for store credit through this program and keep it out of the landfills, therefore reducing waste.
Other Clothing Brands That are Making a Positive Impact:
Tentree
Tentree is a Canadian company based around a core promise: for every item that’s purchased the company will plant 10 trees. This promise has led to the planting of over 65 million trees worldwide of all kinds of trees through charitable organizations like Eden Reforestation Projects, Trees for the Future and One Tree Planted.
Plus, they use sustainable materials like TENCEL™️, recycled polyester, organic cotton, and hemp in as many products as possible.
Kotn
A popular Canadian-made fashion brand, Kotn is proud to support local farmers and communities through its supply chain. They work directly with 2,390 small-holder farmers, offering guaranteed pricing, subsidies, and agricultural consultants to ensure their businesses can flourish.
When you order from Kotn, they donate a portion of the proceeds to fund and build primary schools in the Nile Delta and Faiyum, Egypt. In fact, they’ve built 7 so far and have funded 10 for construction.
Free Label
Finally, Free Label, another Canadian company, works closely with their manufacturers to verify that factory conditions are safe and clean to ensure ethical production. Like Franc, they also use sustainable packaging materials. Theirs are 100% home compostable and every piece of their clothing is made with natural, sustainable, and soft fabrics.
While these Canadian brands definitely stand out, there are many more that are worth supporting that practice and/or support many other sustainable practices.