Sustainability

Our roadmap to the lowest possible impact on nature.

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Vision

We are always looking out for new innovative materials that are ideally based on natural resources or at least don’t use any virgin oil-based resources. We hope to produce products with the lowest possible impact on nature that are still high performance and let you enjoy surfing.

When developing new products, selecting materials or purchasing packaging materials, we always follow our R-Principles — Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Resell, Recycle.

Our R-Principles

Our R-Principles can also be applied in your everyday life as a guideline for a more sustainable lifestyle. Try to memorize the following…

Materials

Our surf bikinis and swimsuits, as well as our yoga & activewear require the highest quality and performance material. In the water, it should feel like a second skin, and back on the beach, it needs to dry quickly. Giving your body the full freedom to stretch and move requires immense elasticity. With this in mind, we chose the best fabrics with the lowest environmental footprint – recycled yarns sourced in Europe.
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Fabrics with Recycled Polyamide

Our uni-colored fabrics are made of recycled polyamide, also known as Nylon. We use a regenerated polyamide from industrial waste called Econyl®. The global warming impact of using Econyl® is 80% lower compared to nylon produced from petroleum. After being mixed with elastane it is woven into a very high-performance fabric that suits perfectly for our surf bikinis and yoga leggings.

Opportunity

By working with Econyl®, we relinquish using nylon, and therefore no new oil resources are needed. Technically, Econyl enables a fiber-to-fiber production that allows the yarn to be recycled over and over again. In this way, our products would not be wasted after being worn out.

Challenge

Technologies to split elastane from polyamide through chemical recycling have not been developed yet. This is why our surf bikinis and active-wear can’t close the loop for a circular economy at the moment. We actively follow the developments in recycling technologies and hope to provide you with a fully sustainable solution.
Fabrics with Recycled Polyester
For our print designs, we use recycled polyester made of former plastic bottles. Recycled polyester is almost the same as virgin polyester in terms of quality, but its production requires about 60 percent less energy compared to virgin polyester. Similarly, the polyester material needs to be woven with elastane to turn into a high-performance swim- and activewear fabric.

Opportunity

By using recycled polyester we can lower the environmental footprint and reuse waste material that could have else contaminated landfills and oceans. Polyester has a similar quality to Econyl®, as it shows potential for an endless circle of recycling.

Challenge

Our fabrics do not yet allow the use of 100% recycled polyester fibers. Unfortunately, the high quality and functionality that we expect from our surf bikinis still requires a small amount of new polyester fibers. We are continuously exploring ways to increase the amount of recycled material, as well as following the latest science on technologies to separate elastane from polyester that currently do not exist.

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Recycled polyamide has 80% lower impact on nature than polyamide made from petroleum.
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Recycled polyester requires 60% less energy to produce compared to polyester made from petroleum.

Microplastic Pollution

Recycled or not – synthetic fabrics will somehow always have an impact on our environment. When washing synthetic materials, abrasion creates microplastics, which are released into nature via wastewater. In order to prevent this, the washing water would have to be filtered, which is not yet done by any washing machine.

We recommend to use the Guppyfriend washing bag to prevent microfibers from entering into the sanitation and from there into rivers and oceans. It also protects your garments so they last longer through less abrasion.
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Animal Protection

Up until 2020, we were using leather tags for the branding of the products of our signatures collections. With the branding update in 2021, we are completely eliminating the use of leather. Additionally, we will have a closer look at our supply chain in order to figure out if there are any components using animal products, e.g. in glue or dye. If possible we will substitute these products or mark them for full transparency.

Routes of Transportation

In 2018 we decided to move our production from Indonesia to Europe in order to bring it closer to where we source our fabrics and therewith get rid of unnecessary circles of transportation. Our products are now made in Portugal by a small family business under fair working conditions. All our materials are sourced in Europe.
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Shipping and Packaging without Plastic