Fast fashion changed the way we looked at clothing from designer-led seasons to relentlessly adapting fashion to sync with consumer demand. Pioneered by reclusive entrepreneur Amancio Ortega Gaona and his companies Zara and Inditex.

The cost of low cost fashion

So according to the Labfresh study in Ireland (https://labfresh.eu/pages/fashion-waste-index?locale=en) we send 22,944 tonnes of textiles - more than 60 percent of fabric fibers which are synthetics, derived from fossil fuels - to landfill (4.7kg per person). So if and when our clothing ends up in a landfill it will not decay! Neither will synthetic microfibers that end up in the sea or freshwater. Future generations exploring the ocean depths may discover evidence of your goretex jacket in years to come.

Greener Gear

Outerwear containing polyester is made using polyethylene terephthalate, this is the same material used to make plastic bottles. More outdoor companies are switching their packaging material from virgin plastic made from petroleum to sustainable materials made from post-consumer bottles.

Synthetic fibres are used throughout the outdoor gear world. They create moisture repelling barriers, sweat-moving layers and non-absorbent fibres which are all very useful to the average outdoors person.

PET Plastics

Since plastic waste is a serious social issue, fashion companies are attempting to develop sustainable apparel made from “post-consumer” plastic bottles. In a nutshell the bottles are gathered, compressed, stretching into fibres and made into material.

Creating the fibres from recycled PET plastics instead of virgin plastics uses fewer resources to create fabrics by recycling clear plastic bottles. The North Face claim there is 51 plastic bottles in their men’s medium Denali jacket.

Recycled Down

Down is a layer of fine plumage found under a bird's tougher feathers. There is an increasing awareness of the suffering involved for the animal in the retrieval of their soft feathers. Conscious manufacturers like Columbia are increasingly stepping away from traditionally sourced down and signing up to a global standard for Responsibly Sourced Down (RSD). This standard follows a chain of custody from the goose to your jacket. Rab have taken this a step further with recycled down - this is goose or duck down that has been recycled from post-consumer sources; down duvets and pillows.