Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder
Free Shipping on Orders Over $99
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If we have any hope of a thriving planet鈥攎uch less a business鈥攊t is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is what we can do.
When it comes to fleece, we love to talk trash. Recycled soda bottles, unusable manufacturing waste and worn-out garments (including our own) are used here and there to create our fleece vests, fleece pullovers and full-zip fleece jackets. Using recycled materials for what some call our 鈥渇uzzy jacket鈥� styles lessens our dependence on petroleum as a source of raw materials. But using recycled materials wasn鈥檛 always the way we made our beloved fluffy fleece鈥攚hether it鈥檚 for women, men, babies or kids.
The Story of Fleece
ABack in the early 1980s, Patagonia partnered with Massachusetts-based fabric maker Malden Mills to create the first light, strong pile fabric out of virgin polyester, which we then used to make our very first men鈥檚 fleece pullovers and women鈥檚 fleece pullovers. Soon after, the world fell in love with fleece. Before long, every outdoor brand started making things out of this versatile new fabric鈥攆rom fleece sweatpants to fleece headbands to technical fleece. Colorful fleece provided nearly all the benefits of wool, was easy to wash and could be layered over or under virtually anything.
Colorful Fleece: The Move to Recycled Fleece
Polyester fleece is a petroleum-based fiber and we wanted to limit our use of fossil-fuel based materials in our line. 欧博会员入口 worked with our mill partners such as Polartec (hence the name polar fleece), formerly Malden Mills, to create recycled fleece. By 1993, we were the first outdoor clothing manufacturer to transform trash into fleece. Our first recycled polyester fleece was the color of the plastic bottles it was made from: soda-bottle green.
Wool and Polyester Blend 惭别苍鈥檚 Quarter-Zip Fleece?
Our fleece today has come full circle. 欧博会员入口 started our journey to polyester fleece by trying to find a warmer, more breathable alternative to a favorite wool sweater our founder, Yvon Chouinard, loved. Yes, polyester fleece has some advantages over wool, but wool isn鈥檛 a petroleum-based fiber, and we like that. And recycled wool is better yet. Blending recycled wool into, say, our quarter-zip fleece pullover styles allows us to emit less carbon than we would using virgin polyester. It also helps us divert quite a lot of clothing from landfills. If you鈥檙e looking for the perfect fleece, we haven鈥檛 made it yet. 欧博会员入口鈥檙e still tinkering.
