UKC

Apologies if this has already been touched on - a search didn't reveal anything! - but I just wanted to know people's opinions on 'ethical' outdoor gear. I watched an interesting (and very sad) documentary about the fashion industy and it got me thinking about outdoor gear- especially as I'm wanting a new waterproof soon! I'm ashamed to say I didn't really give much thought about how clothes/gear are made. Any recommendations on which are the 'better' brands to go for? Patagonia/Paramo are the obvious ones but any others? Cheers.

In reply to FranC:

only one I can think of off hand is Evolv which for at least some of their shoes use vegan materials (all of them? can't remember).

I've seen other discussions looking for more ethical down jackets, generally looking for British brands (so you know the workers are in good conditions), but nothing else is popping up in my memory at the moment, but here's a bump at least as I'm sure if some other peope see this they can advise better.

In reply to Scarab9:


On the down front, Mountain Equipment set up the down codex quite a while ago which spearheaded the industry into taking a look at their down sourcing, ensuring it was traceable and was from an "ethical source".

In reply to FranC:
In what sense 'ethical'?

From a worker POV, Paramo are pretty good; go read their story.

https://www.paramo-clothing.com/en-gb/ourethics/manufacturing.php

Did I say 'pretty good'? How about 'exemplary'?

In reply to captain paranoia:

Thanks for the replies! More fair pay/conditions for workers but also interested in enviromental/welfare aspects as well.

In reply to FranC:

Patagonia is the gold standard, if only because them seem pretty transparant about it:

http://eu.patagonia.com/enGB/environmentalism

That link details their social and enviromental responsibilty policies.

Within the UK, PHD would be classed as having good social responsibility (I've been to the factory):

http://www.phdesigns.co.uk/phd-company-ethics

In reply to FranC:

Arcteryx have a pretty comprehensive set of info on their site:
http://www.arcteryx.com/csr.aspx?country=gb&language=en

And they did a program of creating waterproof ponchos for rough sleepers in Canada that was pretty cool I thought:
https://gearjunkie.com/arcteryx-capes-for-vancouver-homeless