686 Technical Apparel | The Fabric of Us: Ch.05 Recycled Poly

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The Fabric of Us: Ch.05 Recycled Poly

05.15.2023

We use Recycled Poly in key movement focused pieces and across our ATP collection. ATP itself has a couple meanings to us: All-Terrain Performance or - if you want to get scientific - Adenosine Triphosphate. For those non-biologists, that’s an organic compound that provides energy to drive processes in living cells, such as muscle contraction. But at its core it is recycled 100% polyester made from water bottles that excels where movement and comfort are paramount.

"Fabric Makeup: 100% RECYCLED Polyester"

Every superhero fabric has an origin story. Out of all the textiles available why did we build a collection around Recycled Poly? “It’s what we call a stretch woven and it’s used most often in athletic wear,” explains our lead Everywear Designer. “It's not woven as tightly as some other materials are and that's how we wanted to use it. An athletically functional type of material is what we wanted for the line.”

“The greatest strength of Recycled Poly is stretchability and breathability because of the way the material is made up,” he says. “It's a four-way stretch naturally because the way it's woven allows a lot of movement and recovery back to where it started from.”

We market the ATP collection around ‘Train, Trail, Travel’ because it excels in all these things. At first it sounds crazy that the same garment can be as perfect for sitting on an airplane for 13-hours as it can for doing lunges, but after hearing this backstory it all makes sense. It comes down to comfort, which when dissected comes mostly from garments that are high in stretch and breathability.

Our favorite part about the fabric though is the sustainability aspect. It’s made from recycled water bottles. Our designer estimates, “It takes about six or seven water bottles to make one whole yard of fabric.”

We’re proud to say our Recycled Poly garments, “Look like trash,” because they look damn good and we’re helping the environment at the same time. The ability to take single-use plastics and recycle them into multi-use garments that ideally will be work for multiple years also makes us feel damn good.

Written by: SAYER