Environmental responsibility and 'natural' clothing.

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
Yep anti static and flame retardant and with a 100% wool liner...

Sounds like a contradiction. Try the old elementary school experiment: Rub a pencil or pocket comb on the wool a few times and watch the static charge the pencil (or comb) picks up from the wool attract small paper chips.

The same experiment on the Nomex side won't have that effect.
 

robin wood

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 29, 2007
3,054
1
derbyshire
www.robin-wood.co.uk
More than considering the environmental impact of the production and distribution we should consider the lifetime impact of washing and this is where naturals particularly wool really score. howies as a company do good research into this sort of garment lifetime ecological impact, see their blog here http://brainfood.howies.co.uk/footprints/know-thy-enemy/
"Making our products uses this much energy:
8%
Bringing our products to you from our factories around the world consumes this much energy:
3%
Washing and ironing our products uses this much energy:
80%
As a company that wants to find the lowest impact way to make its quality clothing, that long red line needs all our energy.
We have to start designing products that need to be washed less.
It might take us some time. But at least we know who the enemy is."

If you can wear your wool base layer say for a week instead of 2 days between washes the beneficial impact is far more than changing from non organic to organic.
 
I don't know if I should admit this, but I have two wooly jumpers that I wear day in day out (in the autumn / winter at least). They're lucky if they get washed twice in a year. They never smell and never look grubby :) And I'm talking about jumpers I wear for working in a smart office.

My partner is ashamed of me, but even she has to admit they seem as clean as the day she bought them for me...
 

robin wood

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 29, 2007
3,054
1
derbyshire
www.robin-wood.co.uk
I don't know if I should admit this, but I have two wooly jumpers that I wear day in day out (in the autumn / winter at least). They're lucky if they get washed twice in a year. They never smell and never look grubby :) And I'm talking about jumpers I wear for working in a smart office.

My partner is ashamed of me, but even she has to admit they seem as clean as the day she bought them for me...

I am just back from a conference on crafts and sustainability and there were some good papers on sustainable design in fashion. One of the key issues was felt to be changing peoples attitudes. You should not fear to admit stuff like this you should tell everyone else in the office and point out how antisocial their regular washing is. If everyone in the world today used western washing regimes the environmental demand in water and energy would be unbelievable.
One of the better papers at the conference was by Kate Fletcher looking at the way people use clothes after they buy them, normally that's the point at which the fashion industry loose interest. This is the website for that project http://www.localwisdom.info/
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
I don't know if I should admit this, but I have two wooly jumpers that I wear day in day out (in the autumn / winter at least). They're lucky if they get washed twice in a year. They never smell and never look grubby :) And I'm talking about jumpers I wear for working in a smart office.

My partner is ashamed of me, but even she has to admit they seem as clean as the day she bought them for me...

Typically wool over here isn't washable although there are some exceptions. For items such as sweaters though it's not really a problem as outer garments (when I wear a sweater I have a shirt and undershirt as the first two layers) usually only get dry cleaned once a year or so.
 

EdS

Full Member
the washability / unwashability is as much to do with the difference in the style of washing machine in Europe compaired to the US.

European machines tend to have a lot cooler & gentle cycle than the US ones. If you can hand washing it you can machine washing it in a modern machine.The wool / delicate cycle on most European machines is gentler on the fibres than handwashing with its pounding and twisting.

I reguarly wash "dry clean only" wool and woll / possum fur jumpers & shirts inc vintage Pendletons in the washing machine on wool cycle with no problem
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
Possibly. But I wash EVERYTHING in cold water only. And all modern machines have a "hand wash" cycle. Pendleton was one of the exceptions I mentioned; some (not all) of their shirts are listed as machine washable.
 

Kotteman

Tenderfoot
Jun 3, 2009
59
2
Östansjö Sweden
I'm a big fan of Klattermusen stuff. Not only is it fantastic kit-some of the best in the world, they really seem to care about their impact. They use lots of recycled fibres.

I'm also a big fan of Klättermusen stuff, environmental friendly and holds forever. I don't own any Klättermusen gear but all my friends that has it loves it.

Another gear manufacturer that is environmental friendly and everlasting (and Swedish :p) is Lundhags, they have a poly/ ecocotton blend in most of their outer layer products and a new shoe made of vegetable tanned leather.
 

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