OUR COMMITMENT TO SAFE, SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS We voluntarily push beyond industry standards to help ensure that the materials we use in our products are safe for you, our employees, and the environment.
PFCs (perfluorinated chemicals) are used everywhere in the outdoor industry to repel water. They create a dense coating on fabrics; water beads up instead of soaking in. They’re durable, and they do a good job. However, they’re also suspected carcinogens and break down very slowly. So we switched to nontoxic, alternative chemistries that are just as effective, yet safe. Today we are over 95% PFC-free.
Tanning leather is a dirty process. Traditional tanneries use a ton of water and leave a lot of chemicals in the water after the fact. So we source our leather from tanneries certified by the Leather Working Group. LWG-certified tanneries are the gold-standard in responsible leather. They use a closed-loop system that reduces water use and energy use—and completely eliminates wastewater pollution.
Foot odor is caused by bacteria. And traditional odor protection means spraying pesticides in shoes. Pesticides use heavy metals and hazardous chemicals that ultimately end up polluting our waterways. We wanted to skip all that. So instead, we use natural probiotics that pass the same sniff test—saving us from using 15,400 lbs. of pesticides every year in the process.
