Reima, a Finland-based premium brand for kids’ activewear, is launching its first mono-material product, the fully recycled Voyager jacket. The Voyager is being released as part of Reima’s spring/summer 2020 collection of entirely fluorocarbon-free outerwear, eco-conscious SunProof recycled polyester swimwear and non-toxic Xylitol Cool fabrics.
The Voyager jacket is designed to show how a sustainable future is truly possible for our kids – made to be reused, recycled and reborn. It not only fulfils the high-quality standards of Reima, it is a pioneer project in circular economy, closing the loop between production, active use and upcycling, when the jacket is handed down to Reima for recycling at the end of its life.
Apart from the metal zipper lock and snaps, which can be recycled as metal, everything in the Voyager is polyester. The jacket can be easily and completely regenerated into polymers for new products. To enable monitoring of the recycling process, each jacket has a unique trackable ID for registering and tracking its journey. With each registered jacket, Reima is donating 11 USD (10 EUR) to remove toxic blue-green algae from the Baltic Sea through Finland’s John Nurminen Foundation, helping marine life thrive and letting kids living around the Baltic swim in cleaner water.
“This is an entirely new way to register a product. According to our knowledge, a similar effort has not yet been seen in the garment industry. There are registration programs for watches or sunglasses and guarantees given to the first owner of a garment, but the guarantees and benefits consumers get by registering are not transferred to the next owner. Our way of thinking is different,” explains Reima’s R&D and Sustainability Director Dr. Shahriare Mahmood. “Another child reusing the Voyager jacket will save as much CO2 as it would take to produce a new garment. The high quality and classic design of the Voyager jacket ensures it has enough value to be resold and reused by several children. We want to make an ecosystem with a true circular approach and provide the opportunity for our customers to act responsibly. We know that polyester recycling is possible and by creating a proper ecosystem, we are heading to add even more value through upcycling.”
The fluorocarbon-free DWR finish and polyester material enables washing at lower temperatures with less detergent, and quicker drying, all of which contribute to saving energy, water and chemicals during the hopefully very long life of the jacket.
