Burton, Dew create recycled fabrics

"As a snowboarder, it's important to reuse and reduce materials as a step towards making sure we protect winter because of global warming," says Burton rider Danny Davis. "But forget about being a snowboarder for a second. As a person, I support the use of recycled fabrics and reducing raw materials. It just seems logical to take waste plastic and make it into shirts, jackets, and eventually other snowboard products, Reducing and reusing should be important to anybody."

Since the launch of its GMP line in 2008, Burton has been looking for ways to incorporate rPET into more of its products. In the past four years the recycled-blend fabric has made its way into Burton Outerwear, First Layer and Tech Apparel products.

"For our current 2012 product year, we have dozens of products across most categories that are created with an eco-influence and recycled materials," says Burton's Jeremy Kent. "So when Mountain Dew came to us with their rPET program, it seemed like a natural fit given our history with recycled materials."

The Dew-partner rPET fabric will first be seen in the t-shirt line, blended with organic cotton for a feel that Davis says is "super soft -- They're damn comfy!" Down the road, Kent expects the partnership to allow even more recycled content to make its way into GMP products. What's exciting from the snowboard industry perspective is that the rPET has proven to have pretty impressive performance characteristics, along with being easily printed or engineered to meet the latest demands of style.

"It helps the environment by cutting down on the use of raw materials and getting a sort of 'two-for-one' deal," says Davis. "You drink what's in the bottle, and then down the road, you're wearing it. As far as awareness goes, this program shows people that we can reuse trash to make goods -- hopefully, people and companies will look at this and get inspired to see if they can reuse materials to make things we use everyday."

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