Moving in the right direction: Sustainable and ethical brands in the sports, outdoors, and fitness space.
The new year of 2022 had more optimism and energy than ever after two years of life being on hold because of the C-Word (Covid… obviously). With new years come near year’s resolutions, and we’re betting a record number of them were fitness and sports related. Our whole mission at Noise is to encourage people to live a more active life. Sports, fitness and nature is where we find our creative energy and inspiration, and we love to hear when other people find this same passion in the outdoors.
So if you’re losing the enthusiasm you had in Jan to get up and out, perhaps some sustainable retail therapy might do the trick?! As everyone knows, step one in getting fit is getting the kit. Stash, merch, gadgets… if you’ve got the right running shoes that automatically makes you a faster runner, right? Unfortunately fast fashion is a huge contributor to global pollution, and we all know a new sports bra isn’t going to give you an overnight six pack either.
Beyond being exceptionally good quality, these sustainable and ethical active-based brands we’ve listed below are the perfect conscious companies to invest in for your fitness journey, and ensure you keep it up for the rest of 2022.
What to look for / bear in mind
- Fair Trade
- Ethical labor practices
- Natural & recycled fabrics
- Local, limited, and conscious production
- Waste management, carbon emissions, impacts on water
- Animal welfare
Where to look for them
‘Good On You’ has read between the seams to find the most sustainable brands out there, so that as a consumer you don’t have to. By choosing to support ethical, sustainable brands they believe we all have the power to change the way the fashion industry operates in a fundamental way. Download their app to find an ‘ethical brand rating’ system at your fingertips for when you’re on the go.
The Good Trade is a resource and community for sustainability and slow living. It covers fashion, beauty, home, holiday and culture where you can read articles and access information about how to make more sustainable decisions in everyday life.
Less fashion and lifestyle, and more general, Sustainability Magazine gives up-to-date news ‘combining executive thought leadership interviews with the very latest case studies on Sustainable Transformation, Renewable Energy, automation & AI and supply chain sustainability.’ It marks the pivot in sustainability between technology and digital transformation.
Noise favourites
Every member of Noise is dedicated to protecting our natural playgrounds, which means we’re committed to living life in a more sustainable way. We’re not claiming to be perfect, but sharing information and inspiration around sustainability is common-day chat in our slack channel. Here are some of our favourites:
Sport & Fitness
TALA
TALA is the brand you always knew you wanted but could never quite find — sustainable activewear and athleisure without the need to compromise on high-performance designs. TALA is here to disrupt the industry and demand change with wardrobe staples and on-trend pieces, making conscious shopping choices easier for everyone.
Stay Wild Swim
The founders grew up enjoying water sports and the beauty that the ocean gives. They felt a responsibility to give back to the ocean and Stay Wild is their way of doing that. Their mission is to produce swimwear with a purpose using regenerated ocean plastic.
Organic Basics
Organic Basics is an active and loungewear brand that puts sustainable thinking at the center of everything they do. They only choose fabrics that care for our environment and only ever partner with factories that care about their impact too.
Outdoor Voices
Outdoor Voices is an activewear brand committed to protecting our natural playgrounds. They design their products always with longevity and circularity in mind so that you can buy less that lasts longer.
Outdoors
Patagonia
Patagonia doesn’t really need an introduction... Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. They’ve awarded over $89 million in cash and in-kind donations to domestic and international grassroots environmental groups making a difference in their local communities. They’re the pioneers in sustainable outdoor products and lead the way for the rest of the industry.
Finisterre
Born over a decade ago from the needs of hardy British surfers, Finisterre designs functional and sustainable products for those that share a love of the sea. Since day one they’ve taken a pioneering approach to making better and more sustainable products. The brand has a heart and soul that is hard to find, and their clothes are epic as well.
Vivobarefoot
Vivobarefoot is based on one simple insight — barefoot footwear is sustainable footwear. Their products literally bring you closer to nature. They hope that this connection between people and nature will encourage people to protect our playgrounds in a more active way.
Tentree
Tentree has planted 67,126,602 trees to date. They create aspirational outside products for those who identify with the outdoors, and motivate and encourage environmental stewardship through earth-first apparel. As the name states, every time you buy a product from them they’ll plant 10 trees.
REI
Rei believes that a life outdoors is a life well-lived! They believe that it’s in the wild, untamed and natural places that we find our best selves, so their purpose is to awaken a lifelong love of the outdoors, for all. They have no shareholders, so with every purchase you make with REI, you are choosing to steward the outdoors, support sustainable businesses and help the fight for life outside.
Ecologyst
Ecologist is trying to build the world’s most sustainable apparel company. They believe in owning fewer, better made pieces of clothing that last forever. They’re ‘For Nature’, so whether customers are using their apparel to explore nature or to contribute to nature’s wellbeing, they believe that experiencing the power of nature increases our consciousness to care for it.
Fashion
Baumm
Baumm is an Argentinian brand that is 1. Super cool and 2. Laser focused on sustainability. So you can wear eco-friendly garments without compromising on style.
House of Sunny
You’ll want to wear all of House of Sunny’s clothes, and then tell everyone you’re wearing them because it automatically makes you a better person. 100% of their accessories are made from recycled fabrics, as are all of their labels. Their denim uses low water consumption and no chemicals. In general, they’re proudly acting against fast fashion while being the coolest brand in and out of the sustainability market.
Lucy and Yak
Lucy and Yak are a brand that shares a lot of values with Noise Studio. It began in New Zealand after the founders decided to quit their jobs and travel across the world. Here, they spent hours sewing on the beach making tobacco pouches from old clothes which they sold to travelers. Eventually, they made it back to the UK, where they bought a van named Yak which they sold vintage clothes from. In the end, they decided to find a manufacturer who could make the dungarees they envisaged in their minds! They wanted to partner with an ethical producer and help a family that really needed it, eventually finding Ismail in Rajasthan, India. Now they’re a happy team of 13 making the coolest and most sustainable dungarees you can find!
Girlfriend Collective
Girlfriend Collective was born with transparency in mind. They chose every part of the process, from their raw materials to their facilities to their partners, with care. Their packaging is 100% recycled and recyclable, and they make their activewear out of ocean and landfill plastic.
Everyday
The Modern Milkman
David Attenborough inspired The Modern Milkman to set up a local milkround in Colne, Lancashire, in 2018. They were shocked by the amount of plastic in our oceans and a traditional milkround with reusable glass bottles seemed like an obvious way to reduce this problem. They’ve grown from a few people in a small place to a network of local milkmen and women supporting local dairies across the country.
Ocean Bottle
The Ocean Bottle is a water bottle that’s part stainless steel and part ocean-bound recycled plastic that also feels and looks amazing. It’s officially the most sustainably minded reusable bottle out there, and we love their design (product and digital) as well.
Who Gives a Crap
The founders of Who Gives A Crap started the brand when they learnt that 2.4 billion people don’t have access to a toilet (now 2 billion — yay for progress!). That’s roughly 40% of the global population and means that around 289,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That’s almost 800 children per day, or one child every two minutes. They started the brand to tell silly toilet humour and also pledged to always donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world.
Millions of bathroom products are thrown away every year and the sustainable and natural alternatives rarely cut it. At Wild, they want to shake-up the throwaway culture of bathroom products with high-performing products made from natural ingredients that never compromise on convenience or efficacy. They’ve created a reusable deodorant applicator made from aluminium that will last you a lifetime. What’s not to love?
Dash is a UK based drinks brand that infuses sparkling water with real, wonky fruit. It’s the fruit that supermarkets and others say no to. By accepting the misfits they are helping to reduce food waste. So you can indulge in a fancy sparkling drink without feeling guilty.
Sun Bum live by one message, ‘Work Less Live More.’ Based in Florida and California, they started the skincare brand to protect their loved ones from the sun. ‘We play way too much ping pong during work hours. We listen to old albums. We take surf breaks. We bring our dogs and kids to work. We want our lives to matter.’ Sound like someone you know!? *cough* Noise *cough*. They care about the planet, animals and their families, ‘So, we continue to look for ways to make our products without stuff that could hurt any of them.’
A few of the sustainable focused brands we’ve partnered with
We’re so inspired by these amazing brands listed above, and the people who work behind them. It’s always been our goal to work with good people doing good things. This is why we work pro-bono for at least one company per quarter. We’re lucky to name some of these brands below:
- POW EU
- POW Germany
- Outerspatial
- The Ethos Network
- Chilly SurfStyle
- Surf Soestre
- Southern Shores
- Nomads Surfing
- Trashwarrior
We hope that this list is useful, inspirational and habit-forming. Making sustainable decisions when it comes to new years resolutions and activewear is one thing, but we hope this inspires people to live in a more sustainable and eco-conscious way all the way through 2022 and beyond!
Noise Studio is an international creative agency working at the intersection of digital and branding. We create unexpected design solutions for some of the most exciting names in sports, outdoors and sustainability.
🖥️ www.noisestudio.co | 💌 hello@noisestudio.co
