Feature

Sustainability:
Essential to
Performance
By Glenna B. Musante

I

t still may not have a leading role, but
if there is any doubt that sustainability
has moved from bit player to supporting
actor in the performance wear industry,
consider these numbers.
In 2010, Unifi—a global manufacturer
of fibers, including a line made from
recycled plastic bottles—opened its
first US recycling center. At the time,
the facility was producing around
five million pounds. By May of 2014,
demand for the fiber made from those
bottles, Repreve, had grown so quickly
that Unifi had to expand its recycling
capacity to 70 million pounds annually.

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Feature

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Feature

Meanwhile, in December 2013, Unifi launched a
multipronged recycling awareness campaign during
a major college basketball game and a professional
football game, both televised on ESPN. Thousands
of green Repreve t-shirts and towels were distributed
at the events and seen by millions of sports fans, as
well as thousands attending the games.

growing demand among consumers for sustainablymade products has begun pushing the industry in
that direction.

It’s a big investment, but one that underscores the
fact that sustainability—once considered nice, but
possibly impractical—has emerged as a significant
supply chain sourcing driver for performance wear.
To many in the industry, the growth of companies
such as Unifi through partnerships with major
brands is evidence of this trend.

Pinning down exactly what the word “sustainability” means in daily practice has become a difficult
issue for the textile industry. As interest has grown,
the subject and its many dimensions have become
increasingly complex.

“The performance industry has an inve; stment in
protecting the environment,” says Jose Fernandez,
president of Global Merino. “That’s their playground,” and where they and their customers ski,
run, hike, camp, fish, and engage in wide spectrum
of outdoor athletic activities. This is one reason, he
says, why the performance wear industry is more
likely than other industry sectors to focus on sustainability. But there are others.
There has long been the desire in the performance
wear industry to use sustainable practices, and

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Vol. 15, No. 1

In the world of athletic and outdoor clothing, says
Fernandez, “this issue resonates with their customers.”

Changing Definitions

According to Fernandez, “A few years ago, sustainability was about dealing with factory issues,
[including] recycling and garment production
that minimized water [use and pollution].” By that
definition, he says, sustainability meant reducing
the chemicals in the water discharged from textile
manufacturing processes.
But as brands have become more intelligent about
these processes, they are considering other factors—
including which fibers are kinder to the environment.
For a fiber such as wool, he says, issues such as land
use, animal welfare, overgrazing, and diminishing or
limited water resources need to be considered. For

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Feature

polyester, he adds, you need to factor in the cost of
the energy used to make the fiber, as well as how to
recycle or reuse the end product.

our own trucking fleet in order to reduce emissions,
and closely monitor electricity and water usage for
better efficiency.”

Meanwhile, as the industry increasingly adopts a
sustainability focus, some companies are coming up
with their own definitions of sustainability.

There are yet more ways to weave sustainability into
a company’s products and cultures, says Fernandez.
“I think the brands have become better educated
with regard to this issue. I see brands going down
deep into the supply chain” questioning the sustainability of fibers and production methods. He sees
a general desire in the performance wear industry to better understand the supply chain from a
sustainability perspective.

Says Grant Castle, director of distribution and channel partnerships for sock maker Swiftwick, product
sustainability for his brand includes sourcing in
ways that reduce the supply chain carbon footprint.
“We have worked hard to build a production model
that utilizes a ‘fiber forward’ approach to US production,” he says. “We have placed great emphasis not
only on designing and building socks in the US, but
also on sourcing as much of our fiber content as possible domestically. For Swiftwick, reducing garment
miles [the distance a product and all its components
have to travel from manufacturer to the shelf] and
innovating with US employees is critical.”
Unifi has built its brand on recycling, which is a
cornerstone of sustainability, but uses other sustainability practices as well.
“We can’t speak for the industry,” says Jay Hertwig,
Unifi’s vice president of global branding, “but Unifi
has been committed to doing business more sustainably for years. We have been landfill-free at all of our
domestic locations for more than a year. We operate

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It Still Has to Work

Although sustainability is a goal for the industry,
making a successful, cost-competitive product is still
the first imperative of a brand or supplier.
“For performance companies, the challenge in balancing all of these sustainability levers is the overriding
driver that the product has to deliver the functional
performance the customer wants,” says Ben Mead,
speaking for Hohenstein Institute America.
“A performance product can’t sacrifice those qualities in the name of sustainability,” he adds. “Those
companies [that] have integrated sustainability into
their ethos or at least early into the design process are
the ones who continue to find success in marrying
sustainability and performance.”

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Teflon Brand.
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AATCC Review | 41
1

Copyright © 2013 DuPont. All rights reserved. The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont , Capstone and Teflon are trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affiliates.
™

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®

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The Higg Index

The Higg Index is a sustainability measurement tool used by the apparel industry
to assess potential partners, materials, processes, and vendors. A product of the
Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the Higg Index is based on several other sustainability-measuring indexes developed by brands and industry organizations.
Originally released in 2012, an updated version of the Higg Index, called Higg
Index 2.0, was released in December 2013 to help apparel companies, textile
manufacturers, and brands “standardize how they measure and evaluate environmental performance of apparel products across the supply chain.” Higg Index 2.0
measures both environmental and social compliance/fair labor issues.
For more information on the Higg Index, visit: www.apparelcoalition.org/higgindex

Fernandez agrees. “Companies aren’t willing to compromise quality, but if there is an opportunity to do
both, [companies in the performance wear sector]
will lean in the direction of sustainable materials
and practices.”
An example of this is Unifi, which has positioned
its recycled fiber, Repreve, first and foremost as a
great fiber.
“Sustainability is an added benefit to performance,”
says Hertwig. “Repreve is made to be a drop-in
replacement for virgin fibers, and can include all the
same performance attributes as virgin fibers.”
With a company like Patagonia, “sustainability
is very high on the list of considerations,” when
designing products or sourcing materials, Fernandez
says. Other brands, however, are just beginning to
look at how to blend sustainability into their sourcing and marketing mix.

Shifting Perspectives

If there is one performance sector brand that has
embraced sustainability, it’s Patagonia. This California-based clothing company was one of the first
in the world to weave a commitment to sustainable
labor, sourcing, and manufacturing practices into
their company’s cultural fiber. It’s expressed this
commitment in a number of ways.
For one, along with companies such as Adidas
Sourcing Ltd., The North Face, prAna, and Nike,
Patagonia is a partner member of Textile Exchange,
donating US$125,000 a year or more to the organization. Textile Exchange is an industry nonprofit
dedicated to helping manufacturers and brands use
sustainable practices.
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Patagonia routinely considers environmental
issues in its sourcing or materials and supply chain
partners. The company has also launched a number of programs designed to reduce the impact of
their products on the global environment, even to
the point of running full page ads in the New York
Times telling consumers to not buy their products.
Patagonia makes a point of telling their customers to buy only what they need. In addition, the
company has endorsed resellers such as EBay for
consumers to reuse previously purchased and worn
Patagonia clothing.
Through the company’s branded “Worn Wear”
program, Patagonia will buy back Patagonia brand
shells, fleece, down, and synthetic insulation, and ski
and alpine pants that are still in good condition. In
addition, they sponsor a product repair program to
help extend the lifespan of their products.

A Continuing Process

Once considered an outlier in the apparel industry,
Patagonia’s approach to weaving sustainability into
its products and corporate culture has become a
model for other performance apparel brands following in their footsteps.
Whether a company is sustainability-savvy like Patagonia, or it’s just learning about sustainable sourcing,
many issues need to be considered.
“Basically the idea of sustainability is the same for
performance wear [made from] synthetic materials
as it would be for any natural textile materials,” says
Mead. “You still have material, process, function,
and care choices. From a material standpoint, traditional synthetic materials like polyester and nylon

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Feature

are reliant on non-renewable natural resources,
[and] companies that are committed to sustainability are investigating alternatives such as recycled
or bio-based feedstocks. Of course, these material
choices also have to be balanced with end of life possibilities for the garment.”
In terms of processing, he adds, “better knowledge of the chemical, water, and energy inputs
required to produce these materials are being
uncovered through life-cycle assessment strategies
and third-party facility certifications such as STeP
by Oeko-Tex.”
“And finally, from a function and care perspective,
the industry is really starting to better understand
how synthetic material performance and expectations of the consumer influence the care of the
garment,” says Mead.

Companies are also beginning to use sustainability
assessment tools like the Higg Index. Fernandez likened increased use of Higg 2.0, (a recent version of
the Higg Index) as well as other assessment systems,
to the demand for organic cotton 25 years ago.
At that time, he says, there was little interest in
organic cotton, but that has changed. “Use of organic
cotton has grown tremendously since then. Now
customers prefer it,” says Fernandez.
That, Fernandez predicts, is what the future has in
store for the industry—the continuing growth of the
recognition that sustainability is an essential component of performance wear.

DOI: 10.14504/ar.15.1.1

DOI: 10.14504/ar.15.1.1

January/February 2015

Vol. 15, No. 1

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