How Fjällräven’s design improves the life cycle of garments

Always committed to developing functional, durable and sustainable outdoor clothing and equipment, Sweden’s Fjällräven promotes a design policy that takes into account not only the durability of the garment, but also its “emotional resistance”, allowing it to have a positive impact on the environment.

There are many companies in the outdoor sector capable of creating durable clothing and equipment. But how sustainable are these products if after a short time they are already obsolete and end up at the bottom of the closet? Not much, points out Christiane Dolva, Head of Sustainability at Fjällräven: “What good is a garment made from the world’s most durable fabric if it already looks old and outdated a year after purchase? The carbon footprint generated to produce it will not be compensated in any way by the number of times the garment has been used. Every garment also needs what we can call ’emotional resistance’, that is, the factor that leads you to keep it and use it for a long time, perhaps even passing it on to generations after yours”.

The favorable opinion of science
A recently published report by the independent research foundation Mistra* (the Swedish Strategic Environmental Research Foundation) investigated the relationship between the life cycle of a garment and its impact on the environment. It found that a design policy that takes into account the lifespan of a garment, a subject on which the Swedish company Fjällräven has been fighting since its foundation in the 1960s, has a surprising impact on its environmental impact. “If you measure the carbon footprint of a jacket and state that it corresponds, for example, to about 20 kilograms of CO2 equivalent, you can divide that amount by the number of times the jacket has been worn and you will get a measure of how much that carbon footprint is actually worth. According to Mistra’s research, the average Swede uses a single jacket about 140 times. This number is therefore equivalent to his average life cycle. But if the same person used the jacket twice as often, the carbon footprint of that garment would be almost halved. This confirms the value of what we do at Fjällräven and why we strive to create products to love and use for life,” concludes Christiane.

Trendy since 1960
Leader in Northern Europe in the production of clothing and equipment for outdoor activities, Fjällräven has always been committed to developing functional, durable and timelessly designed garments. A design that, instead of following current trends, expresses value over time, can be used more often and for longer. At the heart of this vision, Fjällräven’s “never out of fashion” design is accompanied by the search for materials that are as sustainable, durable and high-performance as possible.
One example of this is the G-1000 fabric, the flagship of Fjällräven’s production. Created in 1968 by the founder of the Åke Nordin brand, G-1000 immediately proved to be an excellent material for outdoor use. Today Fjällräven offers it in its Eco version, made of recycled polyester and organic cotton. Breathable and resistant, when treated with Greenland Wax, G-1000 Eco also becomes waterproof and offers additional shelter from the wind.