PrimaLoft is pioneering a greener pathway for the outerwear industry with its Insulation Eco fleet.
In its robust portfolio, PrimaLoft features three varieties of sustainable synthetic insulation—PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco, PrimaLoft Silver Insulation Eco and PrimaLoft Black Insulation Eco—that contain recycled fibers. With its range of Insulation Eco products, PrimaLoft aims to reduce outerwear’s carbon footprint and enable outdoor brands to take part in a more circular economy.
“PrimaLoft historically has post-consumer recycled content within their insulation. Silver Insulation Eco and Black Insulation Eco have been in the product line for quite some time,” PrimaLoft global product marketing manager Tara Maurer said. “It has always been part of our DNA.”
PrimaLoft’s mission of delivering high-performance and sustainable insulation solutions thrives with its brand partners, like Patagonia. In 2015, Patagonia challenged PrimaLoft to add a post-consumer recycled component to the PrimaLoft Gold Insulation, one of the company’s existing insulation solutions, which Patagonia used in its Nano Puff jacket.
A year later, PrimaLoft debuted PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco—an update to PrimaLoft Gold Insulation that features 55 percent post-consumer recycled content. PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco possesses the same high performance capabilities of PrimaLoft Gold Insulation—including breathability, compressibility, softness and superior warm-to-wet ratios, with a more circular markup. The insulation is designed to protect consumers in the most extreme weather conditions, possessing similar qualities to down without the negative environmental footprint.
In fall 2016, Patagonia introduced PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco to consumers in its well-known Nano Puff collection, and entered into a one-year exclusivity agreement. With the agreement period now coming to an end, PrimaLoft’s sustainable insulation solution will become available to the global outerwear market, paving the way for a more circular outerwear industry.
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While PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco is relatively new to its portfolio, the company also has a host of other eco-friendly insulation products, including PrimaLoft Black Insulation Eco and PrimaLoft Silver Insulation Eco.
Combining advanced fiber technology and 60 percent post-consumer recycled material, PrimaLoft Black Insulation Eco features multiple high-performance capabilities to help consumers stay comfortable during everyday adventures. Breathable, packable and able to provide warmth without bulk, PrimaLoft Black Insulation Eco is a thermally efficient insulation solution for outdoor brands that want to minimize their carbon footprint, including adding an eco-friendly down alternative for everyday outerwear garments.
PrimaLoft Silver Insulation Eco is another insulation solution, made using 70 percent recycled fiber technology, a proprietary water repellent treatment and high-performance capabilities. Roughly 28 recycled water bottles are used to make each kilogram of insulation, making for an average of six plastic bottles reused in each finished jacket. In addition to its eco-friendly properties, PrimaLoft Silver Insulation Eco allows consumers to stay dry in wet weather—while keeping their bodies comfortable during physical movement. The insulation, like conventional down, is also highly compressible, breathable and soft.
PrimaLoft is making moves to continue incorporating more sustainable materials, including post-consumer recycled content, throughout its entire insulation product line. The company’s partnership with Patagonia has inspired it to go beyond PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco and further its environmental presence in the outerwear industry—with a major goal to incorporate more recycled content in its insulation offering over the next three years.
“After developing Gold Eco, PrimaLoft knew that it could do more,” the company’s PR and marketing communications associate Ken Fisk said. “Inspired by the initial challenge and partnership with Patagonia, PrimaLoft has since worked diligently to expand its product offerings containing post-consumer recycled material beyond PrimaLoft Gold Insulation Eco, as part of an overarching sustainability goal to convert 90 percent of its insulation product line to contain at least 50 percent PCR content by 2020.”
For the S/S ’18 season, PrimaLoft has made significant progress toward this goal—with 64 percent of the PrimaLoft Gold Series product line containing post-consumer recycled content, 50 percent of the PrimaLoft Black Series product line containing post-consumer recycled content and 43 percent of the PrimaLoft Silver Series product line containing post-consumer recycled content.
What’s more, PrimaLoft said it has saved more than 58.8 million plastic bottles from landfills by using PCR content in its insulation products. With more than 750 brand partners, PrimaLoft is continuing to make the outerwear industry more sustainable with its groundbreaking, eco-friendly insulation innovations.
“We as an industry are collaborative,” Maurer said. “Collectively, we all represent components of the end garment and it would be in the best interest of our brand partners, consumers and the industry for all of us to work on greener technology solutions.”