sustainable products

SUSTAINABILITY CONCERNS

A number of companies for the past few years have raised concerns about the sustainability of their products.

The outdoor companies that make available to the general public products to be used in the outdoors have all gotten on board to address what they perceive as a problem and in their minds working to correct them.

I have noted in the past that those companies that offer down filled products are supposedly tracking the lives of the ducks and geese that are killed for their feathers. Aside from the fact that down is obsolete and not as good an insulator as Lamilite is or could ever be which is available to them if they want to purchase it. These companies are no sustaining the birds are they? In reality they are not ever giving consideration of the birds, just using a component for their material gain.

The truth is the sustainability of the products made available from these companies employ any number of components that in my educated opinion do not function or function very well so the garment becomes useless quickly; so the question is are these companies making sustainable garments to include sleeping bags? I believe these garments and sleeping bags do not fit the category of sustainable products. These products have a very short life expectancy and must be replaced. Wiggy’s products have a significant life expectancy so they represent what is a truly sustainable product.

All of the companies that stress their sustainability concerns do not think about sustaining the US market place because they do not employ people in the USA in the manufacturing sector. They have office workers who stress marketing their products and as I have noted much of the marketing is presenting fictitious information about their products ability to function. When buyers of these products find out they do not do as advertised the are trashed, not very sustainable are they.

They show concerns about the people that are employed by the contractors that make product for them all over Asia, very admirable, but what about their customer base in the USA.According to an article I read today in SBG that states the following and I quote; “The conscious consumer is dictating sales with a strict checklist that involves quality and sustainability”. The sellers of garments know that people care where their clothing comes from and supposedly care about sustainable business practices, etc. in this case a person named Russell with Ridge Merino sources its wool from “certifies humane farms in Australia as if the Australian sheep farmers abused their livestock. Sure people care about the origin of the products they buy, as I know from the multitude of people buy Wiggy’s because it is made in the USA, the further benefit to the customer is the fact that my products are better than those similar products brought into the country.

I say if you want sustainable products made with the best of materials they should be producing in the USA where we have the best of everything from raw materials to workers. In this manner these companies would be sustaining a working population versus just talking about what they are supposedly doing for the populations of other countries.

In reality the corporate managers of the few multi-billion dollar companies could care less so long as they get the product they want for the price they want to pay.

Possibly the worst offender is the footwear industry. They have gone too molded on soles for all makes and models of footwear. When the sole wears out it cannot be re-soled, does that sound like sustainability or does it sound like planned obsolescence?