“You hear a lot from the industry around sustainability like ‘we’re thinking about doing this or we’re working on it or we’re researching it or whatever.’ That’s a cop out, frankly.”—Brad Sheehan, CEO and designer of Velocio apparel.
Well, okay then.
In a short documentary, bike apparel brand Velocio explains why the apparel industry is already way behind the 8-ball when it comes to sustainability (waste, primarily). And, of course, what they’re doing about it. Not planning to do, or considering, but actually doing. For Velocio, that means slowing down, making fewer products, using longer-lasting materials to combat fast fashion, shipping things at a slower, less carbon intensive pace.
We’ve long trumpeted the mantra: Own fewer, better things.
That seems to be Velocio’s program here, and whether you dig their stuff or not, the documentary is an interesting look into the manufacturing process and how a brand that cares about profits and the environment figures out how to have the best of both.
The whole “fast fashion” thing is why I preach so much about milsurp in lieu of conventional civvy gear. Do you want to spend $200 for X piece-of-equipment that looks cool now but is engineered to fall apart and become waste after a year, or the same $200 for the equivalent piece of military equipment, bland and utilitarian in form and possibly quite heavy, but will probably end up being handed down to your grandkids? What are your priorities?
Besides, you can wear olive drab, desert tan and camouflage with virtually anything and they never go out of style. The extra weight builds muscle and character.
// steps off pulpit for the moment
I don’t know if you subscribe to print, but I wrote a profile of a Bay Area artist who refuses to wear synthetic technical apparel entirely. He backpacks in denim and cotton and leather boots. At first I thought it was kind of a precious fashion quirk, but then I realized, heck, that stuff will last, and if it was good enough for Muir, it’s good enough for me.
Well, I usually wear jeans or some old beater Carhartt canvas dungarees and big clunky leather Red Wings or black ICWs hiking/backpacking, so there’s that. I can not wear a cotton shirt though. Ugh. I made that mistake once; never again. That’s why I have Diadora or Adidas synthetic jerseys/tanks (cue the usual treehugger conditioned fake outrage response in 4, 3, 2….).
But then I’m a supermarket produce/dairy manager from Washington, not an artist or a Californian, so…..
Consider, also, that just being made of cotton isn’t necessarily a metric of a garment’s longevity. For example, look at jeans. I recently got some new Honduran-made Wrangler 13MWZs (the old-skool, sexy-cowboy-butt Wranglers) recently and they were damn near paper-thin, as opposed to my 20-year old American-made ones that I’ve had since high school that were (actually still are) twice as thick and still kicking. I only see the new ones lasting maybe a year before they become threadbare or blow out. Even the new Riggs utility carpenter dungarees are so much thinner than 2018’s model (the last time I ordered them), and those are supposed to hold up to the torment of a jobsite?
Yes, there is still heavy-weight cotton clothing comparable to what used to be standard 25-30 years ago, but it seems they’re getting to be fewer and farther between. Clothing companies love to cut as many corners as possible in the name of profit, especially these days.
You’re absolutely right about the leather boots, they only get more ‘customized’ with time. Unless…
But beware of non-leather “improvements”. I bought the top of the line $300 Asolos from REI in the late 20teens; they had a plastic air bladder under the big toe, located between boot and sole.
Shattered my leg in 2015. By the time I could try the boots again 3 years ago the whole plastic bit had turned to granules, separating sole from boot: dangerous to use. Otherwise the leather is great, never any hardcore use.
REI really copped a rude attitude, sneered at my outrage of a quality leather product just disintegrating. Cobbler quoted $80 to remove and repair. I feel like I have lost dear friends! This is a pathetic response to inferior manufacturing.
I happen to have found a beautiful antique pair of WWII women’s logging boots that are 100% leather and could easily use them right now if they were the right size.
I notice that Asolo is NOT using the stupid low quality plastic in their $$$ leather boots now. Guess I was just the sucker guinea pig, and got stuck with the tab!
Shame on REI. I’m a customer since eighth grade-that’s several decades now- but no more. It’s just like any other greedy corporation now.
You have a point on flash vs quality, but “military” gear is usually just a different kind of flash.
Stuff marketed to consumers is often cheap, poorly made, and heavy. Instead of making you look flashy and light and fast it’s designed to make you look like you’ve got a Batman utility belt.
Things the actual military uses often aren’t much better. Much of it is designed by committee and put out for bids that care way more about price than longevity. The same piece of gear may have to work for a 5′ person in the tropics or a 6’3″ user in winter. They don’t particularly care about it wearing out and failing over time because they’ve got an entire warehouse full of the stuff to grab from. The amount of military gear intended to be used once and thrown away is staggering.
The real ideal alternative right now small businesses with employees in the single or low double digits. These people are making things by hand and watching every stitch. They get as much material out of a roll as they can because they’re paying way more in labor and material costs than the big guys that outsource. They care about longevity because they know the people who are willing to pay more and often wait for things to be made after they’re ordered are definitely going to call them up if it falls apart instead of throwing it away and buying a new one.
In the biking industry in particular, there are a lot of small shops making clothes, accessories, and bags by hand. You pay more, but you can get something that’ll actually last. If it doesn’t last, many of them will even offer to repair it for you.
john muir wore wool I’d bet. wool pants, wool sweaters, wool socks.. wool shirts. I backpacked before synthetics.. and I wore wool stuff along with some cotton shirts and short. I even had a wool ww2 sleeping bag as a kid.
I picked up 4 apple crates full of Gore-Tex scraps from the dumpster behind an outdoor clothing manufacturer in Santa Barbara, CA in 1978 and used the fabric over the course of 25 years to make custom gear items, including stuffsacks, day packs, duffel bags, pack extensions, rain pants, ski bags, gear patches, etc. Recently turned an old tent that had minute insect holes into dozens of stuffsacks, and made reusable produce bags out of mesh curtains that were being thrown out.
Awesome
I bought a big yellow and black Outdoor Products 90L internal-frame backpack around the turn of the century and it was my main crap-hauler all throughout high school. (Long story short, place was built in the early 60s so the lockers were designed for the trade paperback-sized textbooks Boomers had, not the coffee table tomes that helped an entire generation of their offspring grow up to have lower back problems. The place was also designed for a student body about half as big as it was when I attended and had to share a dated, undersized locker with someone else.)
When I brought it out of storage a couple years ago the internal waterproof membrane (really just a plastic coating) was pretty much shot, peeling off the fabric and the pack really was in sorry shape overall. I gave it to my buddy who’s a tailor and he made himself a decent, heavyweight hiking tank top out of it.
“Own fewer, better things“
We need a similar saying about owning some used classic things, not just for the outdoors.
1) vintage cast iron cookware that you can use and pass down to your kids
2) wusthof knives have been around 200 years. Own a used set and aim to pass them down to your grandkids
3) I’ve recently gotten into some used tools. 1890’s USA made hand saws etc
Own fewer things, but nicer ones, and own as many of these things as used timeless classics rather than flash in the pan [email protected]
There’s a place for a modern down quilt over a 10 lb wool blanket, so I’m not a Luddite.
I’m just not sure how I feel about this. I understand companies like Velocio and Patagonia are really leading the way in terms of apparel companies trying to reduce their carbon footprint by using more sustainable business practices, but I take issue with this mentality that people can just afford to “buy less but better”. I work for a bicycle based hauling service that specializes in trash, recycling and compost hauling all by bike and trailer. I ride about 20 hours per week and everything I wear gets pretty torn to shreds and quite stained/nasty pretty instantly. For someone making less than $30,000 a year, how can I justify spending up to 4x on a piece of clothing that may or may not last any longer just b/c it’s marginally better for the environment? I see the same issue with our conception around sustainability with our food supply. It is often only the privileged who can afford to buy local/organic. These types are then able to further green wash their conscience by believing they’re making the more “sustainable” choice. I do try to buy the best I can afford with hopes that it’ll last longer, but that’s already got me into trouble with ski apparel. I think I will stick with my walmart spandex for summer sports.
@Cyrus – You bring up a good point. For sure you can’t just pop into a Patagonia store and drop hundreds on clothing. You’ll have to be more targeted with used items etc. I got a nice Patagonia shirt for $15 on ebay recently with tags still on. So it can be done, but takes more effort.
I did buy a $50 Rapha t’shirt in 2009, and only now in 2021 does it have so many holes in it that I’m retiring it. So it was 3-4 times the cost of an Old Navy t’shirt, but lasted 10 times longer. I’m going to replace my Rapha t’shirt with a new one, rather than buying 4 Old Navy ones. And if I’m lucky, I’ll find a used Rapha shirt instead.
The nice thing with high quality stuff, is often the original owners cannot wear the item out. So used fancy brand stuff could still last 2-3 times longer than new cheap brand stuff.
And for sure, having to store 1/3 less clothing in my drawers helps. My wife does hassle me for wearing the same stuff over the over again though