How soon the warm weather is here. Icebreaker has released a new line merino clothing for spring. Available from Moosejaw.

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Khunu is a start-up company that aims to be the first to bring yak wool clothing to the global market. They offer a range of athletic clothing that is made with 100% Himalayan yak wool. What are the advantages of yak wool? Khunu says that independent lab tests have shown yak wool to be 10-15% warmer than merino wool of Australia and New Zealand. They claim the wool has a luxurious hand feel which is comparable to cashmere, because only the ultrafine down fibers of the wool are used. (more…)

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Looptworks Hoptu Laptop Sleeve

I’ve been testing some Looptwork products, and they are amazing. Here’s why: the company makes all their products from 100% industrial “excess” materials. That means every zipper, button and thread used in their designs was about to be thrown out. For example, the Hoptu Laptop Sleeve shown above is made with 100% upcycled nylon neoprene which was recovered from a wetsuit factory. All Looptwork products are limited edition runs. This is because production only continues until the reclaimed material runs out, as explained in the Looptworks FAQ:

We never know how much of any one material we’ll find. But we use what we find until it runs out. Production runs go as low as 100 pieces and up to 500, and each garment is hand numbered by either color or style. It’s a reminder that when you buy a LooptWorks product you get a one of a kind item, literally preventing the materials used to make it from going into a landfill.

Looptworks also offers a collection of men’s and women’s clothes. The Men’s Kawasan Jacket shown below is made of 61% organic cotton and 39% cotton canvas recovered fabric. It sells for $95.

Looptworks Kawasan Jacket

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I neglected to mention a few more items for the MetaEfficient Winter 2010 Outfit: a belt, a pair of shoes, and some snow pants. (more…)

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Patagonia Jacket Made With Recycled Materials

In this new series of posts, I will be reviewing the top MetaEfficient Products of 2010. For a product to be considered MetaEfficient it must be: green, functional, durable and reasonably priced. Where possible, the product should be made by a company with high environmental standards and good manufacturing ethics.

Our featured Men’s Winter Outfit is multifunctional — it works well in both urban and wilderness environments. A single optimized system. (more…)

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Ultra-Efficient Design Meets Low-Impact Manufacturing: Patagonia Wetsuits (photo: Patagonia)

If you’re not a surfer or a diver, a wetsuit may seem like a fairly specialized or even obscure piece of equipment. But once in a while, a product arrives on the market that’s noteworthy not only for how well it performs its job, but also for how it’s designed and produced. Such is the case with the amazingly efficient line of wetsuits recently added to Patagonia’s catalog of outdoor gear. (more…)

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Brooks Trance With Biodegradable BioMoGo (photo: Brooks Sports, Inc.)

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Just a couple years ago, a simple organic cotton T-shirt wasn’t so easy to find. Now, with Quicksilver, H&M, and even Forever 21 getting into the green fashion business, eco-friendly T-shirts are a dime a dozen. Still, finding well-fitting and stylish T-shirts made using fair labour can take some work — especially if you’re interested in the latest in eco-friendly and innovative materials and design. Here’s a look at five of the most efficient T-shirts available now:

Revenge Is… a Plastic Bottle T-shirt

The Revenge Is Plastic Bottle T-shirt’s made of an innovative new fabric — a blend of organic cotton and recycled PET (recycled plastic bottles) — that’s soft, stretchy, and comfortable. A Los Angeles-based company that’s committed to using local labor, Revenge Is prints the company’s eco-angst-y name on the front of each T-shirt. For the back, customers can take their pick of a few progressive messages — i.e. “energy independence” or “taking back our country.” The shirts cost $38 at Revenge Is.

Artevist Community-Designed T-shirt

Threadless fans with a socio-progressive bent can source their outfits at Artevist, a new site that lets designers submit — and members vote on — T-shirt designs with a message. Winning designs — like “Destroy and Deny,” pictured above — get printed on T.S. Designs and Bamboosa T-shirts, all made in the U.S. out of bamboo and organic cotton. T-shirts cost between $27 – $34 at Artevist.

Sub Urban Riot Organic Cotton T-shirt

Sub Urban Riot, a company founded by Pacific Northwest replants who settled in Venice., Calif., offers some unique twists to the regular organic cotton T-shirts, like the extra length and asymmetrical V-neck line in the pink Guns and Roses T-shirt above. The designs often have an ecological message that’s more hip than preachy; they’re available for $14.99 – $39 at Sub Urban Riot and BTC Elements.

Under the Canopy Organic Cotton T-shirt

While Under the Canopy’s T-shirts are fairly basic, these soft organic cotton tops have the best fit of any T-shirt I’ve ever tried on. Under the Canopy’s use of innovative materials is a topic we’ve written about before here. The T-shirts generally cost $28-$34 at Under the Canopy, but the men’s Vote Ecologically T-shirt’s on sale for a mere $9.99 at the moment.

Cubist Literature Reclaimed T-shirt

Pre-loved thrift store T-shirts turned inside out + off the wall design + wry slogan = Cubist Literature’s eco-friendly T-shirts. Craig Hunter, who makes these eco-T-shirts, says he likes “the recycling/upcycling factor involved in giving old clothing new life.” Cubist Literature’s upcycled T-shirts are efficient because they avoid the energy-intensive process of re-manufacturing a T-shirt. Plus, since this Etsy store puts the customer directly in touch with the creator-seller, the T-shirts avoid the travel carbon footprint of regular T-shirts. The T-shirts cost between $16 – $35 at Cubist Literature.

A couple other Etsy sellers upcycling pre-loved T-shirts are KMStitchery and devotees.

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Efficient jeans are still hard to find. Conventionally grown cotton requires more pesticides to grow than any other crop. The more efficient method is to grow organic cotton or hemp. The surf company Reef makes some good organic cotton jeans, like their Heritage Jeans (shown above), their Philosopher Jeans and Heritage Cords. The outdoor clothing company Patagonia offers organic cotton jeans. Hemp is the most optimal material with which to make jeans, but few hemp jeans are available. You can find some at Hempest.

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Merino wool is the most efficient material for cold weather. Merino wool is softer than regular wool, and it feels more like cotton against the skin. Merino wool resists wind and warms better than synthetic materials. It doesn’t absorb odors and it regulates body temperature. It is also produced in a sustainable manner.

The jacket pictured here is the Smartwool Yampa Jacket. It’s designed with a woven wool sueded fabric, and it has a heavy 100% merino wool lining. There is a women’s version of this jacket too. Smartwool sells a whole range merino wool clothing, including summer wear. Merino wool clothing tends to be expensive, but you can find Smartwool at Altrec.

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