FOR THE OCEANS: JERSEYS MADE OUT OF OCEAN PLASTIC

"From Threat to Thread" - With this claim, FC Bayern Munich released their latest Champions League kit. Actually, a great metaphor to point out the new material of the jerseys. According to manufacturer information, the jerseys are made out of recycled yarn. In order to produce recycled yarn, plastic waste has been collected from beaches and coastlines.

Anyway, this environmental campaign is not a debut. In 2016, the Bavarians already played in jerseys made out of recycled plastic waste. Other renowned clubs such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus Turin and the German national team also played in similar environmentally friendly jerseys. Besides Adidas' flagship clubs, other manufacturers initiated similar campaigns. This spring, for instance, Erima produced sustainable jerseys for a Berlin volleyball club. Back in 2012, Nike drew attention to their recycled jerseys they have manufactured for some clubs at the European Champions League. Keeping that in mind, the innovation factor behind the news from Adidas seems to be comparatively small. The fact that the German brand still succeeded to gain a great amount of attention when they released their jerseys at the beginning of this year's football season can be traced back to a very clever marketing strategy. Under consideration of all these circumstances, we decided to dig a little deeper into this topic.

The Threat:

Plastic and marine litter - one of the most urgent environmental problems of our time. Every year approximately 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans. This equals the amount of trash a fully loaded truck would dump into the ocean: every minute for a whole year. If this trend keeps up, experts predict that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish swimming around in our seven seas. (ZEIT ONLINE - Umweltverschmutzung). These are just a few examples that clarify that immediate action is necessary to stop this plastic flood. 

The Good Thing:

Approaches and initiatives exist on several levels: strict regulations from the governments, less plastic use by the consumers as well as ecological activities from brands and manufacturers. The marine conservation organisation "Parley or the Oceans" claims that the key to ending the overall problem of marine litter can only be achieved if everyone works together. A strong statement on their website reads as follows: "Nobody can solve the problem alone. We have to look at it and approach it from several angles. The responsibility lies in a creative industry, big brands, environmental activists, last but not least, consumers."

Now, let us take a closer look at the industry site: environmentally friendly product alternatives such as sports shirts made out of recycled polyester can be evaluated as a positive contribution to our ecological footprint. After all, the production steps to manufacture a "regular" t-shirt compared to an environmentally friendly one are almost identical. The only severe difference is, that the sustainable products are made out of yarn, which is made out of recycled instead of virgin plastic. Given the fact, that the textile pulp used for yarn production consists of extremely fine macromolecules, the produced textiles still have the same positive characteristics as conventionally produced apparel. Hence, athletes and consumers still benefit from the sporty wearing comfort as well as optimal climate control. According to the information given by Nike, a single jersey is produced out of 13 recycled plastic bottles. By estimated eight million sold jerseys, that results in approximately 100 million saved plastic-bottle-resources. In consideration of these facts, it only seems logical that sports brands use this topic for their PR and marketing activities. 

Criticism:

Yet, huge sports brands like Adidas or Nike often receive a lot of criticism for their sustainability campaigns. This may be due to the fact that both companies mainly produce their products in Asia and a lot of Asian countries struggle with big waste problems. Also, the working conditions of the employees in the factories are criticised a lot. Moreover, some products are still sold in plastic bags, which, at the end of the day, could end up in our oceans. 

Finally, PR-activities or these eco-friendly products are set up very professionally and allegations of Greenwashing arise easily. As a matter of fact, Adidas and co. use testimonials, such as the environmental envoys of the FC Bayern München, Mats Hummels very deliberately to give their campaigns a face and increase their credibility (cf. ovb-online). In further contemplation, the achieved resonance of their "waste jerseys" seem to be disproportionately, if you take into consideration, that recycled products only make a relatively small percentage of their sales. 

Looking forward:

Can one really blame the big players to use ecological and sustainable subjects for their campaigns? Doesn't the great achieved resonance of such campaigns indicate that environmental commitment nowadays plays a crucial role for consumers? And finally, isn't it pretty common to introduce a new product with the typical marketing buzz? Last but not least, we still cannot oversee the enormous amount of resources that are saved by using recycled polyester to manufacture functional textiles.

However, another fact is that the environmental change and the commitment by companies (not only from the sports sector) has to continue, as the responsibility for our environment does not end with innovative products. For instance, the environmental commitment can be expanded into internal areas through employee training, etc. Also, partners and production facilities can be persuaded to more sustainability by using certifications. As stated by Parley for the Oceans, we once again see, that for effective sustainable efforts many activities need to go hand in hand. 

To conclude, we can state that using recycled polyester to manufacture functional shirts and jerseys is a first step towards more sustainability within the sports fashion industry. And according to the motto by Walter Fischer "Do good and talk about it", we feel free that the PR-accompaniment should not be demonised. 

This is the reason, why we from KONABLE also follow the advice given by Walter Fischer in this specific case. Sustainability and the responsible use of resources are important cornerstones of our entrepreneurial activity. Our sustainable aspiration not only shapes our daily work but also the development of new materials and products. That is how we created our DRYPOWER EVOLUTION, a high-quality functional fabric made out of 100% recycled materials.

With its sporty and pleasant wearing comfort as well as the optimal climate management DRYPOWER EVOLUTION has the same positive characteristics as our classic functional material DRYPOWER. The OEKO-TEX 100 Standard Certificate, certifies the trust in this material.

You can choose DRYPOWER EVOLUTION for a lot of our products, for example, our EVOLUTION TECH SHIRT. Discover DRYPOWER EVOLUTION for your brand and make your product assortment, our your next event a little greener. We are looking forward to your inquiry. 

If you want to share your own opinion or if you have further suggestions regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact us.

Your KONABLE-Team