Our Goal: 100% Plastic-free

WHY WE AVOID PLASTIC IN OUR PRODUCTS

Most outdoor products today contain plastic. Many products are made from 100% synthetic fibres. Even when a product is advertised as wool, it often contains more than just wool: Most manufacturers blend in at least some synthetic fibres into their performance clothing—sometimes as little as a few parts per thousand, and sometimes even making up the majority of the material.

Make no mistake: Even with a low synthetic fibre content of just a few percent, the entire garment is interwoven with thousands of plastic threads—because the percentage is based on the total weight when specifying the material composition.

Because the tiny polyamide threads are so incredibly thin and light, even 2% of the total weight can account for 50% of the material by area. So even with a low synthetic fibre content, you’re wearing more plastic than wool.

But very often, not even “100% wool” is actually 100% wool. This is because most of the wool you can buy in stores in the Western world—especially wool produced for outdoor use—is chemically pretreated.

In a special process called “Superwash,” virgin wool and merino wool are sealed with synthetic resin—so-called polymers—to make them easier to wash and less itchy. In this process, microscopically fine plastic is applied to the wool fibres.

So while the label on your garment says “100% wool,” the entire garment is actually “impregnated” with plastics that break down with every wash and every time the fabric rubs against your skin.

We believe this is the wrong approach. After all, plastic is one of the most environmentally harmful materials used in clothing.

With every instance of friction against your skin and on the mountain, and with every wash cycle in the washing machine, microscopic plastic particles are released and end up in the environment as microplastics.

Microplastics have been detected in hardly any place: in Arctic ice, in human blood, and even in the human brain—where we carry around about 10 grams of plastic, equivalent to a heaping tablespoon. The long-term effects of this contamination have barely been studied.

Plastic clothing also cannot be recycled, no matter what the industry promises you: When you buy a garment made from recycled material, you’re not buying an old T-shirt that’s been turned into a new one. Recycled polyester is made from PET bottles, which can be reused—albeit with some loss of quality. Once these bottles are turned into clothing, they are permanently removed from the recycling cycle—because worn-out polyester clothing can, at best, be thermally recycled as fuel, but more often ends up in landfills in Africa, where it endangers people and the environment.

100% plastic-free

OUR COMMITMENT

At Odin’s Wolves, we’re convinced that we owe it to our children and the children of future generations to treat our planet responsibly.

That’s why we’re committed to ensuring that plastic disappears from clothing in the long term—and, until then, is at least reduced to a minimum.

We’re starting with ourselves. The fabric for our functional clothing, made of yak and camel wool, consists of 100% natural fibres and contains no synthetic fibres such as polyamide or polyester. We bring you the pure power of the Himalayas, free of plastic.

Alongside dedicated brands like Rymhart and Dilling—two manufacturers of a wide variety of clothing made of virgin and merino wool—we are, to our knowledge, the only specialized outdoor manufacturer worldwide that does not use a polymer treatment (Super Wash treatment) on its wool. This means our wool remains untreated and free of plastics, and does not release microplastics into the environment when worn or washed.

For our buttons, we use genuine horn instead of polyester.

WE’RE NOT THERE YET EITHER

Our main material is already 100% plastic-free. But there are still some elements in our clothing that contain plastic:

Our cardigans and sweaters fasten with a zipper. This is made of metal—but is sewn onto polyamide threads. The cuffs of our socks also contain a thin spandex band (elastane), which provides a secure fit and prevents the socks from slipping.

Unfortunately, no solution currently exists on the market to replace these elements with natural materials of satisfactory quality. However, we’re keeping our eyes and ears open and regularly checking in with partners and manufacturers to see if a more environmentally friendly alternative is available. As soon as one is developed, we want to be among the first to integrate it into our products.

Because we have a commitment to nature and to people.

Support us in our goal and choose functional clothing from Odin’s Wolves, which uses (almost) no plastic and whose fabrics are already 100% plastic-free today.