Easy to Throw Away, Easy to Throw On

Around the world, 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute.

Reducing a business’s environmental impact doesn’t happen overnight. At Storm Creek, we’ve made major strides incorporating environmentally-friendly fabrics into our line of quality outdoor-inspired apparel. After years of searching for the finest recycled fibers, in a time when overseas dyeing and fabric mills were few and far between, we found a sustainable option that doesn’t compromise our high standards. The image below shows how recycled fibers are made. First, recycled plastic bottles are washed and chopped into flakes. Then they are melted into small chips. Finally, the chips are made into yarn that has a unique code proving the fibers are derived from plastics.

Company President, Doug Jackson, visits factories overseas three to four times each year to look for innovative fabrics and build trusting relationships with suppliers. Most of these trips focus on helping dyeing and fabric mills obtain BLUESIGN^® ratings and to explore different fabric options. He is passionate about performance and finding eco-friendly options that replicate the standards we’ve already set for Storm Creek apparel. Doug has been fighting to find high-quality sustainable fabrics for years.

"About five years ago, nobody was talking about recycled fabrics. When I asked to see recycled options, not one factory presented me with sustainable fabric. After multiple trips overseas, the few sustainable fabrics I found were either very expensive or poor quality. Now, more recycled options are readily accessible, which makes us hopeful and for a more sustainable future," Jackson said.

In June, Storm Creek launched the 4-Way Stretch Eco-Woven Shirts. Each shirt contains Polyester made with 37% recycled plastic bottles. By purchasing an Eco-Woven Shirt, you are helping us go from bottle to beautiful. Each shirt contains between 6-7 repurposed plastic bottles to keep single-use plastics from polluting the environment. With this new addition, as well as Storm Creek’s insulated outerwear, made with Thermolite^® Eco-Made Insulation, we’ve saved over 1 million plastic bottles from entering the ocean or ending up in landfills and repurposed them into fashion-forward styles. Our goal is to incorporate eco-friendly fabrics into every product and be fully BLUESIGN^® rated by 2021. As we celebrate this product launch, Storm Creek is poised to make even more progress towards reducing our environmental footprint.

Sustainability isn’t just a trend, it’s the future of our industry and the planet.