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Environment

The Incredible Chase Behind Adidas’ Gillnet Sneakers

July 29, 2015

Sea Shepherd Thunder Adidas Parley For The Oceans

Yes, we are a fashion and technology blog, but every now and then we come across a story that cannot be missed. Recently we told you about the impressive Adidas sneakers made from ocean plastics and gillnets used for illegal fishing. The sneakers were created through a partnership with Parley For The Oceans. Well it turns out Parley For The Oceans has a few partnerships of their own including one with Sea Shepherd. As governments do less and less to go after the people harming our oceans, the Sea Shepherd organization uses private money to bring them to justice, focusing on the worst offenders.

Two of Sea Shepherd’s ships were responsible for the 110 day, 10,000 nautical mile chase that produced the approximately 75km of gillnets in-part used in the Adidas sneaker. They were in pursuit of the Thunder, the most egregious out of the five most notorious illegal fishing boats in the world. Despite being banned since 2006 from deep sea fishing in regions of the globe, the Thunder has sold an estimated $76 million in illegally caught fish over the past decade. Parley, for its part, is working to find new uses for materials such as the gillnets so that there is more money to be made selling them to be repurposed than on the black market, where the nets will inevitably end up being used again.

Please do yourself a favor and read The New York Times’ account of the incredible pursuit that helped lead to the creation of the Adidas x Parley sneaker.

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by Doug Parker
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Environment

Levi’s Wants To Sell You Jeans From Recycled Fabric

July 23, 2015

Levi's Begins Recycling Clothes

Levi’s is clearly trying to establish themselves as an ecological leader in the fashion industry. Soon after we posted the story about Re/Done transforming old Levi’s into new jeans, Levi’s announced it was accepting unwanted clothing for recycling. The company is trying to do its part to reduce the over 24 billion pounds of clothing, shoes, and textiles Americans discard into our landfills every year. Simply bring your garments into any Levi’s store or outlet and you will receive a 20% off coupon. The clothing, through a partnership with I:Collect, is then collected and repurposed into things such as building insulation, cushions, and new fibers for clothing.

This is all part of the iconic American brand’s effort to be involved in the circular economy. Currently most industries, especially fashion, participate in a linear economy; resources are gathered, products are created, and then the goods are discarded. Levi’s estimates that for a pair of jeans the lifespan averages  

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by Doug Parker
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Re/Done Jeans Denim Levi's
Fashion

Re/Done Rebuilds Old Levi’s To Make Them Fashionable Again

July 17, 2015

Re/Done Jeans Denim Levi's

Ever come across a box with old jeans in it? You aren’t going to wear those baggy circa-1994 Levi’s anytime soon, but you just hate for them to end up in a landfill. Re/Done is a fashion brand breathing new life into those old, outdated relics. The LA based fashion company sources vintage Levi’s and meticulously disassembles them. Once taken apart, they are restyled into current looks.

While salvaging jeans is not unique, the process that Re/Done employs is. The re-creation process is focused on the company’s objective to maintain the DNA of the original jeans: the wear, the wash, and hardware. There are no harmful chemicals and all the work is done by hand. The company’s objective is to maintain the DNA of the original jeans: the wear, the wash, and the hardware. They want to deliver a sustainable luxury product while highlighting a historic American brand. Started by fashion entrepreneurs Sean Barron and Jamie Mazur, Re/Done is currently sold online and at number of Barneys New York locations. Looks sellout quickly and when they are gone, they are gone. Also keep an eye out for their men’s collection later this year. Head past the break for a video about their process.  

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by Doug Parker
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Shoes

Adidas Creates First Sneaker Made From Ocean Garbage

July 17, 2015

Adidas Parley Prototype Sneaker U.N.

Back April Adidas announced it had teamed up with Parley For The Oceans to investigate creating sneakers from recycled trash. The goal was to demonstrate that ocean debris could be transformed into a valuable material for the fashion industry. The collaboration showed off their first prototype, the Adidas x Parley sneaker, earlier this month at the U.N. General Assembly. The entire upper of the shoe is created from items found in the ocean. The shoe is constructed from ocean plastics and illegal deep-sea gillnets. In fact, when gathering materials, Parley For The Oceans spent 110 days tracking an illegal fishing vessel off of the coast of West Africa and recovered nearly 45 miles of netting. As for ocean plastic, a 2006 U.N. study estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of floating plastic for every square mile of ocean.

While the current shoe is only a prototype, it demonstrates the value that can be realized from items currently damaging our oceans. If you have your heart set on owning a piece of recycled-based footwear, hang tight; Adidas has announced that, through its partnership with Parley, it is committed to releasing a line of consumer-ready products made from ocean plastics before the end of the year. Head past the break for video of the U.N. event.  

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

How Well Do You Know The Environmental Impact Of Fashion?

July 17, 2015

Fashion & The Environment

A sobering story published on the official EU website positions the fashion industry as one of the top polluters in the world. According to a Danish Fashion Institute study, 25% of the world’s chemicals are produced for textiles. In fact, the fashion industry is the 2nd highest polluter of clean water, only behind agriculture, and the 2nd most polluting industry overall, second only to oil. These are staggering numbers.

It is not surprising that the agriculture and oil industries have significant environmental impact, but we did not expect fashion to be immediately behind them. Part of the reason for being surprised by this is the opaqueness of the fashion business. As a consumer we have very little understanding about any aspect of our clothing; even if you were to seek out the information you would likely run into lots of dead ends. By and large, the industry does not  

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by Doug Parker
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MyExposome Chemical Absorbing Bracelet
Environment

MyExposome Bracelet Absorbs Chemicals Around You

July 15, 2015

MyExposome Chemical Absorbing Bracelet

Ever wonder what sort of chemicals you are surrounding your body with day in and day out. Personally, living in a city, I try to block thoughts like that from my mind, but there is a lot of important information that could be gained from the knowledge. While many of diseases are genetic, most of them are believed to also be influenced by other factors. These include diet, exercise, and exposure to chemicals. An understanding of what chemicals are most universally present around us would allow a focussed analysis of which of them might be harmful. This is where MyExposome comes into play. The rubber-like wristbands are worn for one week and absorb any chemicals you (and it) come in contact with. At the end of the week, the bracelet is mailed back to the company where is analyzed. So far the company has performed a pilot program with 28 people. Out of the 1,400 chemicals that can be tested for (out of an astonishing 84,000 manufactured in the US), only 57 chemicals were found among the bracelets in the pilot program. Also interesting, almost everyone was exposed to at least one pesticide and one flame retardant.

The company is currently on Kickstarter, aiming to get the bracelet in more hands and to help cover the costs of testing. With a price of almost $1,000 the testing must be incredibly expensive! While the concept is excellent, the price model isn’t there. One has to wonder if they were unable to get funding or grants through other channels. Hopefully the processing costs can be driven down enough to allow for a broader sample in the future!

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by Doug Parker
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Manufacturing

Custom Silk Manufacturer Bolt Threads Raises $40 Million

June 8, 2015

Bolt Threads $40 Million Funding

Referring to their technology as “the first real fabric innovation in decades,” Bolt Threads has announced they have raised $40 million in funding. The company was founded in 2009 to study spider silk and innovate ways to make it even better. What they found is that there are over 240,000 different types of spider silk. The silk is constructed of proteins; it is the slight variations in these proteins and the protein structures which result in the unique properties of the different variations. Bolt Threads discovered that by utilizing the proteins from yeast, one can manufacture “natural” silk and program the fabric to have properties of your choosing. The lab-created silk can behave like a technical fabric, be waterproof, stretchy like spandex, or soft like cotton. The idea is pretty novel, a natural fabric that can take on almost any property you would like. There are no synthetic substances involved and since yeast is extremely renewable, no stress is placed on the environment. Bolt Fabrics is already working with the textile industry to incorporate the fabric into garments, partnering with a manufacturer in North Carolina. It will be interesting to see if this new fabric has the ability to catch on in the manufacturing realm. A lot will have to do with pricing, availability, color fasting, and durability. Head past the break for a video explaining more about the innovative work being done at Bolt Fabrics.  

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by Doug Parker
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