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When we sift through our closet each morning, sustainability isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind. This is one of those areas of our day to day, where being “eco-friendly” isn’t quite as obvious as rolling the recycling bin down to the curb or installing solar panels.
However, what most of us take for granted is just how much of an impact our clothing choices can have on the environment. The good news is, when we seek out sustainable apparel options, we are making a bigger dent in our carbon footprint than we may realize.
What We Are All About
At Fascin8 Flow Wear, we are starting a new clothing brand centered around a commitment to only using fabrics, suppliers, and partners that align with and perpetuate sustainability. We don’t have it all figured out just yet, but with these guiding principles in place we hope to create a positive change in the apparel industry as we grow.
We appreciate the ability to communicate this opportunity to all of you GREENandSAVE readers. The editorial team gave us the “go” for this outreach and we’re thankful for this vehicle to connect.
Getting Things Started with Crowdfunding Through Indiegogo
We are reaching out to the community to announce our crowdfunding campaign which is live on the Indiegogo.com platform at the link below. We ask for your help in contributing to the mission and spreading the word! This campaign is designed to give us a jumpstart in the market by providing us with some early sales and a little bit of starting capital to build upon.
Please note, unlike other platforms or campaign types, this is not a solicitation for donations. We are more interested in using this campaign to give people the chance to purchase and start using a selection of our exciting products. Please visit the perks tab for more information on what is being offered. It cannot be overstated how much your contribution is appreciated!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fascin8-flow-wear-eco-friendly-comfort-apparel#/
Four Distinct Fabrics to Green Up Your Wardrobe
Find out how we combine Comfort, Quality, and Conscience by reading a little more about how sustainable fabrics are poised to replace their contemporary counterparts in the clothing industry.
1: Organic Cotton
Conventional cotton is ubiquitous in the clothing industry and has earned a reputation for being extremely damaging to the environment. We won’t overstate it in this small space, but this article about the effect it’s had on the Aral Sea Basin in Central Asia really helps put it into perspective.
The alternative is to use certified organic cotton. In a nutshell, this is cotton that is responsibly farmed without the use of pesticides or fertilizers and with a focus on minimizing water consumption. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but more information on what constitutes “certifiable” cotton is available here.
Certified organic cotton, in varying percentages, is the foundation fabric in most of our garments. In addition, our cotton is ring spun which produces a softer yarn that is stronger and lasts longer than conventional cotton.
2: Bamboo
Bamboo is quickly becoming a crowd favorite in the sustainability world, and for good reason. Bamboo is prized for being an extremely strong fiber which enables thinner and more lightweight fabrics to be manufactured without compromising quality. This produces garments of unparalleled softness, comfort and feel.
A member of the grass family, bamboo also benefits from regular harvesting which stimulates regrowth. This rapid growth makes it a champion at converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. It is estimated that an acre of bamboo sequesters 4x more carbon dioxide and produces 35% more oxygen than a young forest of equal size.
That’s a big impact, especially considering the urgency of climate change. If that weren’t enough, bamboo is also naturally hypoallergenic, moisture wicking and UV repellent. Qualities most major labels charge a significant premium for.
3: Hemp
Hemp is a veritable miracle plant. The plurality of this one little plant across so many applications makes it the “go-to” of the sustainability world. Hemp is used in everything from paint and plastics, to fabrics and food.
What makes hemp so eco-friendly is its ability to thrive in virtually any environment. Hemp uses about 1/20th the amount of water as cotton to grow, doesn’t require fertilizer or pesticides, and the deep roots preserve topsoil and eliminates the need to rotate crops.
One of the greatest qualities of hemp fabric is that it tends to get softer and more comfortable with use. This is a significant accomplishment for the fabric which is already the softest in our product line. As the saying goes, hemp doesn’t wear out, it wears in!
4: RPET Polyester
RPET or recycled polyester is a synthetic material sourced from recycled plastic drinking bottles. When most people first hear this, they tend to get a quizzical look on their face and imagine an itchy, course fabric that feels like wearing a trash bag. However, what most people don’t realize is that polyester fabric and the plastic in disposable bottles is chemically identical.
Like cotton, polyester is ubiquitous in the clothing industry and a quick scan of your closet would likely reveal more polyester garments than you’d care to admit. The real problem here though, is that much of this is virgin material. This seems especially unconscionable considering there is a trash-berg the size of Texas floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean comprised, in large part, of plastic.
It’s certainly not a silver bullet to solve the world’s plastic problem, but using recycled over virgin polyester gives the billions of tons of plastic waste headed for landfills and oceans a second life as something useful while cutting down on the amount of new material being produced.
For those wondering what it feels like, it is a far cry from a plastic trash bag. Most of the RPET in our garments is blended with ring spun cotton to create an extremely soft, comfortable fabric.
Once again, we thank the GREENandSAVE community for the opportunity to share our mission and provide a few highlights of what makes certain fabric types more sustainable.
For more information, we kindly invite you to follow our journey at your media platform of choice below.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/fascin8-flow-wear-eco-friendly-comfort-apparel#/
https://www.facebook.com/Fascin8FlowWear
https://www.instagram.com/fascin8fw/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIDYVbrwMq0fcP27qtyfbAw
