The Dirty Truth About ‘Sustainable’ Apparel

Written By Dave Lewis

Let’s start with the part nobody tells you

The apparel industry is one of the dirtiest industries on the planet.

Worse than all international flights and shipping combined in terms of carbon emissions.

A single t-shirt can take over 2,700 liters of water to make — enough for one person to drink for almost three years.

Every year, billions of garments are made, worn a handful of times, and tossed. 85% of all textiles end up in landfills or incinerators. Even the fabrics marketed as “eco-friendly” often have footprints that would make you pause if you knew the full story.

If you’ve ever bought a “recycled” jacket or pair of leggings thinking you just helped save the planet, you’re not alone. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: while recycled is often better, it’s not a clean slate. It still sheds microplastics, it still takes energy to produce, and it’s still… plastic.

This is the system every clothing brand is part of — including us. And some days, it feels hypocritical to work in it. But the choice isn’t “perfect or nothing.” It’s “keep improving or look away.” We’re choosing to improve, in public, with you watching.

What the industry gets wrong

  • Waste starts before sewing. Even with efficient layouts, cutting fabric leaves ~15–25% as scraps. Some gets downcycled. Too much gets trashed.

Fabrics: the good, the bad, the “it’s complicated”

  • Cotton (even organic): Natural and breathable… but heavy on water, land, and chemical use. Organic cotton skips the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, but often needs more land and costs more. We also skip it for performance gear because cotton holds onto moisture instead of wicking it away — which means once you sweat, it stays damp and heavy.

  • Recycled polyester (rPET): Gives plastic bottles a second life and lowers demand for new fossil fuels. The tradeoff? rPET can shed more microplastics than virgin poly and isn’t infinitely recyclable. Durability can also be slightly lower — think years, not months — but with quality mills and blends, we can get close to virgin performance.

  • TENCEL™ / Modal (rayon family): Made from wood pulp in a closed-loop process that recaptures most solvents. That’s a huge improvement over conventional rayon, but it’s not perfect:

    • It still uses chemicals (even in closed-loop, you need to transport, handle, and eventually dispose of them).

    • Trees need land, water, and energy for processing.

    • Large-scale pulp production can still cause habitat loss if not carefully sourced.

      Better? Absolutely. Perfect? Not yet.

  • Bamboo: It grows fast, doesn’t need replanting, and sounds like the perfect eco-fabric. The catch? Bamboo starts out as a hard, woody stalk. To turn it into something soft enough for clothing, most companies dissolve it in a chemical bath — often using harsh solvents — and then spin it into fibers. That process is basically the same one used to make rayon, and if those chemicals aren’t captured and reused, they can harm workers and pollute waterways. Mechanically processed bamboo (crushed and combed without the chemical bath) is cleaner, but it’s rare, expensive, and produces a rougher fabric.

  • Hemp: Naturally pest-resistant, low water use, enriches the soil, and biodegrades. It’s one of the most environmentally friendly crops out there — in its raw form. But raw hemp fibers are coarse and stiff, better for rope and canvas than leggings. To make hemp soft enough for most clothing, it often goes through a chemical process similar to bamboo rayon production: the stalk is broken down into pulp, dissolved in strong solvents, and re-spun into fibers. When those solvents aren’t properly recovered and reused, as is the case with Bamboo, they can end up in waterways and create serious health risks for the people handling them. Hemp is fantastic for tees, bags, and durable woven fabrics. But for high-performance stretch like leggings, it still needs blending with synthetics — which brings us right back to tradeoffs.

What we’re doing about cutting waste

  • Smarter markers: We push factories to use high-efficiency cut layouts and share yield reports.

  • Scrap diversion: We prioritize partners who collect and downcycle off-cuts into insulation, shoddy, or fill — imperfect, but better than landfill.

  • Design for yield: We tweak pattern shapes where possible to boost material utilization without sacrificing fit.

How we try to lower impact (without greenwashing)

  • Performance first, then the lowest-impact option that works. If it won’t hold up at mile 22 or a HIIT class, it’s not sustainable — it’s disposable.

  • Durability over novelty. Longer-lasting gear means fewer replacements.

  • Short, transparent claims. No “planet-saving leggings.” We’ll tell you what’s in the fabric and why we chose it.

  • Iterating as tech improves. When better blends, dyes, or recycling methods are real — not hype — we’ll move.

What we’ll publish (so you can judge us)

  • Fabric breakdowns by style (what, why, pros/cons)

  • Care guidance and estimated wear life

  • Factory certifications we actually use — not a wall of logos

  • Annual notes on material utilization and scrap diversion

How you can help (this actually matters)

  • Wash less, cold, and gentle. Use a fiber-capture bag or filter if you can.

  • Hang dry. Saves energy, extends life.

  • Repair first. We’ll share simple fixes and offer help where possible.

  • Buy what you’ll use. The greenest item is the one that gets worn 100+ times.

The tension we live with

We’re building in an incredibly flawed system. Some days it feels like selling hope and hype with one hand and global harm with the other. We keep going because honesty plus better decisions beats denial. If you’re here for glossy perfection, that’s not us. If you’re here for hard truths and progress you can see, welcome.

You keep moving. We’ll keep improving.

- Dave (Chief Overthinker)

Dave Lewis