Whatever the colour, make it green. 

We're not going to talk about the colour of money, Newman and Cruise hustling in a basement playing pool or even how to dye the rivers and the Guinness green for St Patrick's day.

Nothing like that. We're here to talk about how the textile industry's impact on the global environment is a concern for all brands, that Asphalte’s no exception and that we need to take that responsibility head-on.

You might think it's a bit rich for a clothing company to start preaching about the environment. So first things first we need to understand what we’re dealing with. That requires knowing precisely the exact impact our clothes are having on the planet and on the people that are making them. A few of you have asked: “What’s the cost of your clothes....to the planet that is?”, and it’s driven us mad not being able to give anyone a clear answer to such a simple question.

So in 2020, we decided to put our specs on, get hold of the right data and crunch the numbers behind the clothes we make. We’re not gonna lie, it was long and it wasn’t easy, but obviously something we could no longer ignore.

And we’re now fully up to speed so from now on, every item we launch will come with its full environmental impact stats, exactdata and rating for everyone to see. We'll publish all the resources that go into every item, that’s the CO2 emissions, water consumption and energy used, and compare them to everyday activities so you can get a clear sense of what it all means.

This is what it looks like:

So now that we’ve taken this first step, what’s next ? Can a brand like ours honestly say that we want to protect the environment?

Producing clothes uses up resources by definition, there’s no way around it. The only truly sustainable act for a clothing brand would be to stop making clothes altogether and start picking up the rubbish on the beach.

To answer this, we need to ask ourselves one key question: what role can a brand like Asphalte really play in all this?

As a brand:

- Do we have a purpose?

- Aren’t we just gatecrashing the planet’s “demolition party”?

- Should we simply pack up what we’re doing and find a less resource-intensive activity?

We were raised on hard-hitting documentaries such as Cowspiracy or The True Cost. We‘re in tune with the Gretas of this world and don’t want to go down as the generation that left behind mountains of aluminium coffee pods and the reason that our grandchildren can only find animals in books.

Let’s start by asking ourselves: “What we don’t want to leave behind?»

- a planet that’s boiling up

- a new polyester continent floating on the ocean

- workers with skin diseases

- rivers that run fluorescent orange

- seagulls with more chrome than feathers

- burnt-out partners

and the list goes on...But that’s a start.

It’s more than time that we came up with practical solutions. We started with a clear objective for Asphalte: make quality clothing, that are durable, accessible and made in fair conditions. Because we believe in the idea of taking pleasure in owning clothes that last and age gracefully and refuse to give into throw-away culture.

There’s no two ways about it, to make better clothes that last longer, you need to focus on quality and durability. Because clothing that lasts means clothes that are replaced less often. And that in turn means less production, less waste and less strain on natural resources and the environment. It’s a no brainer.

What we do want to leave behind however are clothes that can stand the test of time and customers that buy fewer clothes because they want to wear them over and over again. And when the time they are still in good enough shape to find a new home.

First up, we need to take a look at how fashion’s been turbo-charged over the last 20-30 years. Here’re a few numbers to get an idea of what we’re dealing with:

Textile waste:

- Every second, the equivalent of a 32-ton garbage truck full of clothing is incinerated or thrown into landfill (World Economic Forum).

- 500,000 tonnes of micro-plastics are flushed into the oceans every year.

Environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions:

- 64% of all clothes currently produced contain petroleum-derived micro-fibres (Friends of the Earth NGO).

- The textile industry alone accounts for 4 to 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

- The production of cotton, synthetic and natural materials and processing them into fabrics is responsible for the emission of 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases a year (Foundation Ellen MacArthur *)

Overproduction of clothing and accelerated consumer-cycles:

- In 2014, the world produced twice as many clothes as it did in 2000 and we reached the earth-shattering mark of 130 billion items produced in 2018 (Ellen MacArthur Foundation & Lectra).

- We buy 60% more clothes, and only keep them for half as long as we used to (Greenpeace)

- H&M put out 16 collections a year, Zara 24 (World Economic Forum)

- Sales and discounts are no longer ways of legitimately selling leftover stock but have become business models in their own right. 30% of all clothing is sold at a discount. This means that many brands produce clothes with the sole purpose of discounting, factoring this into their margins so they still turn a profit at -70%.

You get the picture, you don’t need a degree in sustainability to guess that we can’t keep this up. And this all has much further-reaching consequences.

The textile industry with its huge consumption of natural resources carries a great responsibility in global warming and human exploitation.

Furthermore, it’s become more and more difficult for customers to make sense of it all and find simple, high-quality products that are affordable without getting caught up in the industry’s web. From the lack of transparency on how a garment was really made - by who, with what - to being hit with new collections every week, it’s hard to figure out what you really need from what you really don’t. And what’s the cost again....to the planet that is?

To give you a better idea, Brits topped the list in Europe (*) buying the equivalent of a heavy-suitcase (or 26.7kg) of new clothes in 2018, Germans bought a whopping 16.7kg in 2016 with the French just behind them on 9.5kg (*) per head. Let’s make a rough estimate and say each piece weighs 500g/item, that’s about 52, 33 and 20 odd pieces a year per person in these 3 countries. Let’s not kid ourselves, we’re not just talking a few pairs of boxer shorts here.

So we set up Asphalte in 2016 keeping all this in mind. We wanted to create a menswear line made up of fewer items that all looked good, aged well in style and quality and didn’t cost an arm and a leg to you, the planet and the people that made them. And that’s also what more and more of our customers were asking for.

And we’ve stuck to that ever since, constantly striving to make quality clothes that you’ll be happy to keep and wear over and over again for years and years to come. And then hand on to someone else.

Our aim is to never put clothes on the market that simply aren’t needed. To produce only what’s necessary and do what we can to make sure that our clothes are used and bring pleasure when worn.

It makes sense: the more you wear a piece of clothing, the more you reduce its impact on the environment. Said another way, 1 good jumper worn 100 times works out better than 10 average ones worn 10 times.

Throwing out jeans, jumpers and coats should be pretty unusual. We should always be aware of what we’re doing, take good care of what we buy and repair, whatever that is, right up until the very end. And when that item really can’t take any more, make sure it makes its way to a recycling centre for it to be put to good use.

So our first task is to make sure our clothes are fit for a long and fruitful life. Some of you may know by now, but in case you don’t this is how we make sure that our clothes are as long-lasting as possible:

- We put a lot of time and effort into each item we develop, which means we release very few styles. In the space of 5 years we’ve only ever created 48 items. So not so much compared to Zara’s 24 collections a year.

- We ask you what clothes you want and how to develop them, and then test each element rigorously before making anything.

- We are inspired by clothing that’s successfully stood the test of time. That means pretty much avoiding fashion altogether and making clothes that could have been worn 10 years ago and can still be worn in 10 years’ time.

- We help you care for them properly after you’ve bought them.

Then, to make sure you don’t just buy anything on a whim, we present every item in detail, with a video, article and a long product page for every item so you can make an informed decision. The most important thing is for you to be able to ask that all-important question: “Do I really need this?”

This article is not about what we think we’re doing “right”, but also what we started off doing badly and have been working hard to straighten up over the years, often thanks to your feedback.

Obviously in these last 5 years we’ve done plenty of things wrong, and we’re by no means where we want to be yet. Here’s a shortlist of our least proud moments.

- Materials used

We only started using fully organic or recycled fabrics and materials in 2020, when we should have been on that much earlier. For those who’re interested, there’s a great article here (*) from our friends Loom in French that clears up any misunderstandings around organic cotton. Or this site gives a comprehensive look (*) and it’s in English. The main point is that pesticides used to grow conventional cotton upset the ecosystem by eradicating insects.In the last 30 years, 50% of the world’s insects have disappeared. Organic cotton is grown without pesticides. But moreover the quality of organic cotton is not lesser, you just need to know what you’re looking for.

We keep sourcing the most durable kind for our garments. Many brands have proven that it’s possible to make great clothes using mainly recycled materials. And that inspired us to make our first piece using recycled materials, the Swimming Trunks.

As we speak, 88% of our clothes are made using certified materials as for our cotton or our Mulesing-free wool...and we’re looking to improve on this too.

- Keeping it local

At first we produced our clothes in countries outside of Europe such as Morocco and Vietnam. Buteven though we visited all of our production partners in person to find out first-hand how they were meeting our quality requirements and providing fair conditions for their workers free from forced or child labour, it’s not always easy to keep an eye on and local regulations are often less stringent than in Europe where we can put trust the working conditions much more.

So we put a stop to that in 2019 and brought everything closer to home. From 2020, 100% of our clothes are made in Europe. That’s 82% in Portugal, 14% in Romania, 2% in Italy and 2% in France. .

- Quality control

Some of our clothes weren’t up to scratch. In 2018, we launched a pair of trousers and relied on the supplier’s testing without running it past an independent lab. The fabric was a disaster, we had to pull that item and recycled the excess fabric that was left. Lesson learnt.

We were also disappointed with the quality of the leather of our first white sneakers. We got wind of that through your feedback in our survey and found a better alternative for the second version.

We learned from those mistakes and since 2018 not only have we beefed up our quality control procedure but we also systematically have all our fabrics tested by an independent lab, namely SMT.

Every time we sit down to develop a garment, our production team pits 3 to 5 materials against each other that match the style, weight and make required, and they fight it out like gladiators. Thumbs up to the winner.

All fabrics are made either in Europe or Japan, where social and environmental standards are very strict. Furthermore we send every supplier that we want to work with a corporate social responsibility form. It looks a little like this.

It’s a big factor in who we chose to work with s. No fights to the death here but it does help us workout who’s most committed to our sustainable mission.

The 2 or 3 materials that we pick are then tested by SMT. They run rub, colour fastness, tearing, pilling and a bunch of other tests depending on the material and product it’s intended for. And as said before only the strongest survive.

This is what a SMT scorecard looks like:

· Lack of impact stats

Right up to the end of 2020, we were still clueless on how to calculate the precise impact that every one of our garments has on the environment.

We had to swot up and ask some uncomfortable questions: This is how we went about it.

This is what it looks like for our T-Shirt:

It tells you what resources were necessary to make this item but as importantly sets the benchmark for us to improve on.

We like to say: to improve things, we need to measure them first. We now know where we are so it’s time to improve on them.

To get all this data, and be sure of it, we made our way as far as possible up the supply chain: this includes the raw materials, all the suppliers, the factories and the certifications for every one of them.

And this is what it looks like :

That was probably our biggest challenge for 2020 (ignoring the obvious) , and we’re quite relieved that all the data collected is now being put to good use and will allow you to make a more informed choice about what you preorder from us in the future.

But it’s one thing to monitor the impact for each item individually, but it’s another to get an idea of what the global impact that brand like ours, which is growing every year, looks like. And we’re not just talking environmentally but socially and culturally too.

Our aim is to develop a better model to create, buy and produce clothes. Rather than giving up out of fear of adding to the problem, we decided to double down and work on improving the situation.

We want to be an alternative to cheap clothes that give up after 2 months, but also offer an alternative to very good quality clothes that cost an arm and a leg. Simple clothes that look great and are made to last, all sold at a fair price.

To do that, we want to give the preorder model a fair shot, make sure we can make it work in order to produce only the clothes that you need, and have preordered, to avoid over-production and unsold inventory.

We hope that we can make this way of creating, producing and consuming clothes the way to go. Our aim is for our first customers to stop having to buy more clothes from us in 5, 10 or 20 years’ time. Simply because the clothes that they bought from us, are still holding up and they don’t need more of them.

If all the smaller brands like ours, that are trying to change the way things are done, give up and stop looking for alternative ways of making clothes, the bigger brands will have no reason to change. So we will keep on giving it our best shot.

We’ve recently joined a group started by Loom together with 1083, Hopaal and several other brands that are kicking down the doors in order to:

- Put up commercial barriers to prevent clothes being made in unfair conditions and protect the people who make them and the environment.

- Force companies to become more transparent

- Introduce eco-contribution taxes for clothes

- Penalize green-washing

- Support the repair and reconditioning of used clothes

We believe we can only improve things by making these ideas a reality. The main one being that we all need to play our part in order to avoid putting our planet under so much strain.

For Asphalte, on top of making better clothes year in year out, minimising their impact and making them last for ages, it also means sharing tips on how to take care of them properly.

Apart from buying fewer clothes and taking care of them, you show your support by bringing awareness to these initiatives.

We still have much to do and we hope you’ll be by our side in 20 years time to hold us to these high standards… still wearing a few things that you’ve bought already.

One last thing. Our goal is to make a real impact, one that pulls everyone up, and for that we need to become a global brand.

We want to fully endorse this ecological approach and hardwire it into how we work. …. We don’t stand a chance of making a difference if we stand by idly waiting for things to change. We need to do everything we can to make that change mainstream and for that we need to grow Asphalte.

We know it won’t happen overnight, but we felt the need to address this head-on with you now because it affects us all and it's the challenge of our generation.

It’s undoubtedly a long read and it took us a while to write it, but now you have it all. We hope that it clarifies where we stand and answers some of your questions in the process.

If you have questions, fire away in the comment section below or on our IG page, we’d love to know what you think.

And thanks again for trusting in us.

The Asphalte Team.