Journey

While designing the very first Outerknown collection, Kelly looked at John and said, “We’re never doing denim.” He had a point. Two billion pairs of jeans are produced every year, each requiring almost 2,000 gallons of water to produce, not to mention the chemicals dyeing rivers around the world an alarming shade of blue. The message was clear: the old way of making jeans didn’t measure up to our sustainable standards.

But where there’s a will there’s a way and as John looked down at his vintage Levi’s® trucker jacket and thought of that soulful connection he’s always had with denim, a seed was planted. There had to be a better way to craft denim consciously.

Meanwhile, a similar seed was being planted in one of the world’s most recognizable denim brands. Levi Strauss & Co®, has long been championing sustainable practices and in 2015 launched Levi’s® Wellthread™ Collection, a revolutionary way of making denim using Waterless dyeing technology, which uses up to 70% less water compared with conventional indigo dying, and is centered around a single-fiber cotton designed for maximum recyclability.

With both companies working toward a singular purpose, a partnership seemed inevitable. Today we’re proud to present the fruits of that partnership. As brands, as friends, as people, we’re creating our favorite clothes in a sustainable way that benefits, not just us, but the entire planet.

They say the devil is in the details, but so are the greatest opportunities. At Outerknown, our focus on sustainability extends to every cut, stitch, and button. Especially buttons, which for our new SEA Legs pants are supplied by ocean plastic manufacturer Oceanworks. But what’s the big deal? It’s just a button, right? When it comes to Oceanworks, a button is more than it seems.

The Oceanworks story began during one of founder Rob Ianelli’s regular surf trips to Martha’s Vineyard. Sitting on the shore, staring out at the Atlantic, Rob noticed something disturbing—something he couldn’t ignore anymore. He’d surfed Martha’s Vineyard since 2009 and over that time he began to become more and more aware of plastic washing up onshore. Deep down, Rob knew there must be a way to endlessly recycle plastic and keep it out of the ocean. And from that simple idea, Oceanworks was born.

The process Rob and his partner devised to create recycled ocean plastic is truly inspiring. The plastic for each Oceanworks button is harvested from places like Haiti and Mexico, by locals who are paid a living wage for their efforts, thereby not only preventing plastic waste from entering the ocean but also combatting extreme poverty at the same time. For people living in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a country still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake, the chance to earn money by clearing out the plastic plaguing their neighborhoods and water supply is a double win.

With his manufacturing process in place, Rob’s next goal was to find a market for ocean plastic. He’d gotten a lot of interest from various industries following a successful crowdfunding campaign, but he only wanted to work with companies that shared his mission of safeguarding oceans—which lead him to Outerknown. He reached out to our Chief Sustainability Officer Shelly Gottschamer through LinkedIn and the rest is history.

If you look closely at any Oceanworks button you’ll find the material, year, and the coordinates where it was harvested, printed right into the plastic itself. It’s another tiny detail that speaks volumes, reinforcing our commitment to the oceans and those that love it. Expect our future collaborations with Oceanworks to also make a big impact, one tiny detail at a time.

Who made your clothes?

Not what store you bought them from, or what company designed them, but who made them? The people –– flesh and blood, hopes and dreams –– who sourced and stitched the clothes that live and breathe on our bodies.

Who are they?

This year we’re proud to be going a step further to ensure that the community that makes our clothes are treated fairly and come to work every day knowing they’ll be safe and supported. For us, there are two critical halves to a balanced and sustainable supply network: the environment and people.

Fair Trade changes lives. It’s that simple.

When you shake someone’s hand you feel their energy and what they’re all about, just like when you wear clothes that were made by people that were happy vs. people that were working in grueling factory conditions, they just feel better, and make you feel better. It might sound cheesy, but ideally our clothes are with us for the long haul, and you should feel good about where they came from and how they were made.

That’s why we’re partnering with Fair Trade USA, an organization that works to ensure that factories are safe, healthy, and prosperous for their workers. For every Fair Trade Certified™ product sold, additional money goes right back to the workers who made it. No middlemen, no red tape, just cash back for a job well done. Workers come together to vote on how to use these profits to empower their lives and address their greatest needs. They invest in things that strengthen their communities, like childcare, improved transportation, or simply as a bonus to save for a rainy day.

Mexico’s Hong Ho is our first factory to join us on the Fair Trade journey, and we’re thrilled to start making this Fair Trade dream a reality. Fair Trade USA, which started off certifying coffee in 1998, now certifies over 30 categories and is a global authority with over 354 strict guidelines in their certification process.

Fair Trade isn’t easy. It’s one of those complicated, multi-faceted concepts that takes some real work. Even so, it can be boiled down to a core principle: it strengthens people’s lives.

With rampant forced labor, human trafficking, and people toiling in badly paid and dangerous working conditions around the world, it’s our job as humans to shop smarter, and understand that cheap clothes often come at a heavy price.

At Outerknown, we’re aligning with factories and producers that care about the environment and the humans whose lives are interwoven with the clothes that we wear. Buying Fair Trade trickles down to nourish our global community. And if more of us started outfitting our lives with products made fairly, that trickle would turn into a flood of kindness that our world could really use right now.

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