Quite often I get asked about sustainability & Eco sustainable products, garments, textiles & procedures.
We at SaddleDrunk we care particularly about the above, due to the fact we love nature and the outdoors. We are cyclist from childhood, we love spending time outdoors in any weather conditions.
The nature is where the mind & body connects to the earth, therefore sustainability is a core point for us.
Let’s start with our production line.
As we are 101% made In Italy, for fact, not like others claiming being Italian but production is outside the Italian borders. We do need to follow Italian government rules & regulations about work force and work procedures.
This include welfare, health & safety and following environmental laws. The latter include using recycling materials, renewable energies, eco friendly transportation and disposal of any textiles waste.
The factory being within the “BOOT” shape Italy borders when we ship to our clients we always use the lowest carbon emission meaning of transportation for deliveries provided by our various suppliers.
Also the work force in kindly requested to attend work by bike weather permitting in a safely manner to minimise the risk of delays and pollution.
There are plenty of recycled materials out there to choose from, but not all of them are 100% Eco friendly.
My latest statement indicates that some of them, do not follow the old English saying “IT DOES WHAT IT SAYS IN THE TIN” due to the fact the recycling process, from collecting the waste materials to the finished product it might include extra steps into production where extra energy is needed, resulting in further waste.
Therefore we analyse & choose those less harmful ones. We are using textile fibres made by leaves, plastic bottles ,bamboo etc etc.
Labelling is also an interesting one, as many brands place an “Encyclopaedia’s” size of tags & labels attached to the garments on the outside and/or the inside of the garments.
Most of the times the inside ones get cut off because rubbing on the skin and been a nuisance and the outside ones are usually ripped & binned as soon as the garment is received. Therefore what we do is to place a little and small bar code sticker in each garment, where our clients can scan to get all the required information about washing and garment’s origins. We only the size label and the composition of the jersey on the inside.
Other important matter we provide to our clients is the wash bag which all garments comes with. Sometimes we asked what is it for? Well, if you go back one step up and scan the label above mentioned it will tell you about the wash bag. The bag has many beneficial aspects for the nature and for our clients. You might wonder why!!
Let me explain to you the reasons, starting with the client benefits. If the garments are washed in those bags, those will prevent of any damages that might occur during the washing caused by Velcro, washing machine drum(people usually never check the inside of it), metal bits from other garments i.e. bra clips, zips from other garments, etc etc.
The most important is the nature’s benefit and is a crucial one because will help our eco system and the marine life. Why ? During our activities we sweat out all our toxins, we ride on roads which most of the times in UK or other countries are dirty full of pollution. Those micro fibres netted wash bags try to capture those microparticle entering the ecosystem during the wash. Obviously those methods help minimising the impact to nature, but we can not guarantee “users” behaviours.
Finally, our products are most likely to be delivered by one of our cycling friendly couriers, this might include myself.
Please see feel free to get in touch with me if you like to share any thoughts on the above. My email address is Stefano@saddledrunk.com or contact me on +44 (0) 2037143833.
Stay safe out there.
SaddleDrunk , Intoxicated with the Freedom of Cycling.
Stefano