The Surf Clothing Industry
As some-one who cannot remember the last time I spent money buying surf clothing I can confidently say if you google the words sustainable and Tshirts you will find any number of companies making Tshirts out of organic cotton or bamboo or hemp or wool and for a much cheaper asking price than what you will find is the going rate in surf shops.
Any 'eco-friendly' range brought out by the major surf labels is a joke. Every single recycled/sustainable/organic/however-they-want-to-spin-it product comes individually wrapped in it's own plastic bag. Anyone who has ever set up a surf shop can attest to being literally waist-deep in thousands of plastic bags after unpacking stock to put out on the racks. While I fully support sustainability initiatives, unfortunately they are just another example of marketing gimmicks when it comes to surf clothing. If they actually cared about off-setting their carbon footprint they wouldn't be supplying Range Rovers as company cars either (Quiky).
completely agree with both of you, the amount of plastic in the surf clothing industry, or any other clothing industry for that matter would be quite disturbing, surely there could be a switch to a better option maybe a paper type option, possibly recycable, at least its a step better than all the plastic. dont know if you have seen it but most of the campaigns, such as the ones from insight, where theyre all holding all those meaningful signs and quotes, which i love by the way as well as billabong's whole "be the change you want see in the world" campaign, while they're good and probably a very successful marketing scheme, there should probably be a lot more walk to back it all up
Its just all about money, how much demand there is for those kind of products and if there going to make more or less money producing them, some products also may come across all eco but then in reality not be much or any better for the environment.
Apart from boardies for surfing I haven't bought any surf clothing for 10-15 years although i strangely enough i do have a cupboard full of surf brand clothes as I have a few friends that work or have worked in surf shops and they give me there surf clothes, i actually pass on a lot of them to grommets in Indonesia almost every year, so perhaps its just karma that my cupboard seems to restocked by quality hand me downs, not that i really care, i prefer basic stuff these days and don't care for labels.
what id like to see, be it an old or new surf clothing come in and just flip the whole industry on it ass. simply if the company makes good, affordable clothing, even for the people who dont give a shit whether its eco or not....its going to sell well, most of the surf gear in my taste anyway at the moment is rather ordinary, so surely its a simple solution, but possibly more expensive solution one to create affordable, good looking eco threads
I dont think im the only surfer who thinks about this but its been on my mind lately... you see some surfboard shapers beginning to think of sustainable alternatives for boards. but with the clothing industry, there is very little done on making the clothing more eco-friendly, yes billabong and other brands have made little collections of recycled and organic cotton type products, but thats about as far as it goes. the only brand i've seen with some proper thought into it is patagonia.....just wondering on everyone else's thoughts? surely it cant be that hard.