One of the country’s biggest outdoor retail shows has just wrapped up in Denver, the Outdoor Retailer Show. This is a show that connects brands with the newest of style, technology, and products with retail stores hoping to fill their shelves with the hottest items. Your favorite blogger (The Fatman) was able to score a media credential so I will be talking to some of these brands and passing on the information to you over the next few days. Also, a special thank you to all the brands that took the time to talk with me and give me permission to take pictures of their products at the show. Today is a look at environmentally minded companies.
Giving Back
One of the big themes of the show was environmentally minded products. There were a lot of companies who had technologies, processes, or philosophies to make a positive impact on the environment. I wanted to highlight a few of those companies in this space. Some of the brands are well known in certain regions, some are just starting out but they all had a story to tell.
Wild Tribute – Lifestyle Apparel
Wild Tribute was founded as a way to honor the country’s national parks and national lands. The brand has graphical clothing, hats, and accessories. These cartoon style logo’s of parks, trips, or even pets, are designed to commemorate the trips that create such amazing memories.
As Wild Tribute was designed to honor the country’s park they also honor the parks by giving 4% of proceeds back to the national park system. The 4% represents the companies desire to be “4 the parks”. If you would like to learn more about the Wild Tribute story you can click here.
Storm Creek – Apparel
Storm Creek is a midwestern company that focuses on their outerwear such as coats, rain jackets, soft shells, pullovers and more. Storm Creek had some great looking gear and on top of that I spent 15 minutes or so just talking with them. They laughed at all of my jokes so that makes them good in my book!
What really makes Storm Creek stand out is their dedication to working for a better environment. Storm Creek is using recycled plastic bottles for the base materials for their thread in garments. To date over nine million bottles have been recycled in the process! Storm Creek is also part of the 1% for the Planet organization. With 1% going back for positive environmental changes. There is more on Storm Creek’s environmental efforts that you can read here.
Ignik – Outdoor Fuels/Heat
Ignik is a company that is focused on sustainable heat while enjoying the outdoors. The first product I want to talk about is Ignik’s reusable hand warmers. We have all seen the hand warmer packets that you open use for a couple hours and then throw away. Ignik’s come in a resealable pouch so you when you are done you can put them away and get them out for the next trip. As they told me, “we sell you 10 hours of heat, we want you to use it all”.
The other passion of Ignik is to cut down on the amount of small propane bottles that are used a couple times and thrown away. Ignik has a refillable propane tank system with carrying sleeves. They are a little bigger but will allow you to not have to use so many bottles. They also sell seat warmers, small portable fire pits, plus cook stoves and heaters.
Ignik is also a proud member of the 1% for the Planet program, designating their 1% to fight climate change in the arctic. You can see more about Ignik’s sustainability efforts here.
Jetty – Apparel
Jetty is a popular east coast surf and lifestyle apparel brand. They offer everything for the beach life from board shorts and bikini’s to sweatshirts and jackets. Plus, towels, bags and everything in between.
Jetty is passionate about the health of the oceans and help to support this through Oysters. Jetty is working in an environmentally minded way with a fabric called “Oystex“. Oystex blends recycled polyester with pulverized oyster shells to create a breathable, anti-static and anti-odor fabric. Plus, it is super soft. Jetty also, through their charitable wing the Jetty Rock Foundation, provide support for the Oyster Recycling Program. The program helps form a sustainable oyster reef which filters water and provides a sustainable food source. Obviously, there is more but I can’t write it all on this page. You can however learn more about the Oyster Recycling Program here.
Being based in Colorado I focus more on the mountains and forget about the great job companies are doing for the health of the oceans.
More From the Fatman and Outdoor Retailer
It is great to see these companies working with sustainability and the environmentally minded approach with their products. I will have more from the Outdoor Retailer show, including more about environmentally minded companies, over the next few days. Make sure to check back with Fatmanlittletrail.com for all the latest updates. You can also see my previous Outdoor Retailer posts as well as my product reviews here. If you would like a fun look at my outdoor journey, you can find that here. You can also keep the conversation going on social media by following me on any of the below platforms. Happy Hiking!
Pingback: Outdoor Retailer: Environmentally Minded Pt 2 - Fat Man Little Trail