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F*ck Greenwashing
We won’t sugarcoat the situation: fashion is one of the top polluting industries on the planet. Unlike big companies that spend tons of money on ads to make you believe they care about the environment, we’re willing to walk the talk. Although we’re not perfect and there’s lots of work to be done, we believe that transparency is the antidote to greenwashing.
The Good: Our Efforts from Cradle to Grave
From the conception of our goods to the delivery of your order, we are constantly finding ways to improve our company’s sustainable efforts. It’s our raison d’être, the reason we wanted to redesign the baseball cap in the first place.
Design
Materials
When it comes to designing our gear, we prioritize natural materials over synthetic ones. They’re often more sustainable as they can break down in the environment and don’t contribute to pollution like synthetic materials do.
But we also recognize that synthetic materials have their benefits – they can be more durable and water-resistant than natural materials. That’s why, when we do have to use synthetic fabrics, we make sure to choose those with the lowest environmental impact.
Brim
When folks think of a baseball cap, they’re often unaware of the presence of plastic inside the brim. Leaving no stone unturned, we set out on a quest to make a more sustainable visor. After 3 years of research and prototyping, we were able to make the first cap with a Blutech biodegradable visor.
Longevity
We design with durability in mind and avoid planned obsolescence at all costs. It’s better to have a cap that lasts 50 years than 25 caps that each only last 2 years. That’s also why all of our products are covered under a lifetime warranty, because we want them to last a lifetime.
Production
Ethical Manufacturing
When it comes to the nitty-gritty of production, we’ve adopted a hybrid approach. For example, our caps are ethically produced in a WRAP-certified factory in Vietnam, while our beanies are knit right here in Canada. It’s a balancing act that helps us stay cost-effective while remaining true to our values and supporting the local economy.
Certified Fabrics
It’s important to understand that fabrics are dyed and treated to improve performance. The sad reality is that some textile mills might use toxic chemicals as a cheap, yet dangerous shortcut to achieve maximum profitability. For us, it’s illogical to risk the health of people and the planet, which is why we opt for OEKO-TEX Standard 100-certified fabrics, a renowned industry benchmark for textile safety.
Marketing
Markdowns
We rarely do sales events, because we try to offer our products at accessible prices from the get-go. When we do, it’s to give a second life to production mistakes.
Black Friday
We boycott Black Friday, because the thesis of this event is to promote overconsumption.
Logistics
Packaging
We intentionally opt for minimalist packaging to avoid unnecessary waste. Our commitment extends to using recyclable cardboard boxes instead of plastic poly mailers. Additionally, despite its higher cost, we opt for water-activated tape over conventional plastic tape for its enhanced durability and eco-friendly properties.
Administration
Website
Unknown to many, websites are powered by servers that consume tons of electricity. Our website is powered by a data center that gives back 3 times the energy it consumes in the form of renewable power.
Giving Back
As a member of 1% for the Planet, we donate 1% of our annual sales to ocean-cleaning efforts.
Ownership
We are an independent, self-funded brand. We don’t have investors to please who expect endless, unsustainable growth.
The Bad: How We Can Do Better
Most brands will tout their sustainable efforts, with extreme reluctance to talk about what they need to improve. Instead of sweeping our flaws under the rug, we prefer to address them front and center until we’ve found a solution to address them.
Design
Visor
We’re pumped to offer headwear featuring the industry’s first durable, biodegradable visor. But let’s keep it real—it still has some plastic in the mix. We’re currently working on replacing it with recycled plastic to reduce the product’s impact. That said, it still doesn’t solve the initial problem. That’s why we’re in a years-long process to find a plastic-free alternative that will be flexible enough to bend at will for decades and naturally biodegradable at the end of its lifecycle.
Baseball Cap
In our flagship baseball caps, we’re using non-organic cotton. We’re aiming to upgrade to organic cotton, which is known for being less resource-intensive. Ultimately, we just need to ramp up production to make it happen as we aim for economies of scale to offset the steeper price of organic cotton. At the end of the day, we believe sustainability should remain affordable.
PRFO Cap
In our PRFO cap, the polyester we use is not recycled and the rear plastic buckle is not made with Blutech. This is on our roadmap for the next iteration of the cap. The reason why is purely logistical – as a new model, we had to choose materials that our production partner already had in stock. To produce our caps with these upgrades, we have to source them ourselves, which requires a minimum volume threshold. Once we reach this minimum order quantity, you can bet we’ll jump at the opportunity.
Logistics
Transportation
We do sometimes opt for air transportation when it comes to samples and urgent custom orders with tight deadlines.
Packaging
For custom orders, we package two dozen caps in a large plastic bag to shield them from the elements during transit. While we make efforts to recycle these bags and encourage our customers to do the same, our ideal scenario would involve ditching plastic altogether.
Production
Overseas
The manufacturing process for our sewn headwear takes place overseas to maintain competitive pricing without compromising quality. While local production may seem appealing, it would significantly increase the cost for our customers, which is a deal-breaker for many.
Overproduction
Unlike a made-to-order production model, mass production requires us to put our thinking caps on and estimate what the demand will be in 6 months from now. Due to the lack of a crystal ball to see the future, we sometimes miss the mark and overproduce. When this happens, we might offer markdowns, which can lead to overconsumption.
Marketing
Packaging
Each cap comes with a sticker detailing our innovative Blutech technology. This pains us, because in an ideal world we would provide our headwear free of packaging. In stores, it serves as an essential tool to help folks recognize our sustainable benefits. We experimented with cardboard hang tags in the past, but these proved to be problematic for users as they were trying the caps on for the first time, making a negative first impression.
Communication
In our commitment to sustainability, we prioritize asking the tough questions and making decisions that benefit both people and the planet. Unlike many brands that shy away from addressing these challenges, we embrace them as part of our communication strategy. However, we recognize that some may interpret our efforts as greenwashing. Our ultimate goal is to educate individuals on the complexities of the fashion industry and acknowledge that we’re not flawless. We’re all about being transparent and letting you know we’re putting in the work to do better.
Overconsumption
As we try to do better, folks with similar values might be tempted to buy our gear when they don’t really need it. Let’s be real though: realistically, one top-notch hat should cover us for a lifetime. But in the fashion world, there’s this itch for the latest and greatest, or we’re quick to toss something just because it’s got a tiny flaw. Do we really need all that? Probably not.