If you stepped outside during the recent polar vortex, you probably had on an insulated jacket, or wished you did. Normally, those insulated jackets are made of two layers of fabric with a heat-trapping fill in-between; a synthetic fill or a mix of feathers and down are the current most popular options. With the latter, feathers are plucked from the outside of a goose or duck, while down consists of the lighter fibers beneath the feathers that helps insulate the bird. For animal lovers and animal-rights supporters, this poses a problem, as both have to be harvested from the animal.
“Kapok is much more sustainable than down because it does not require the farming and slaughtering of geese to produce it,” says Jonathan Lantz, president of La Sportiva North America. La Sportiva, an Italian outdoor clothing and supply company founded in 1928, is on their second year of using a new insulation for their winter gear. It’s kapok fiber, a material sourced from the seed pods of kapok (also called ceiba) trees, which grow in tropic regions of Mexico, Central America, South America and western Africa. La Sportiva uses kapok fiber as insulation in a variety of products, including hoodies and jackets. There are currently six products available with the fill, and Lantz says more will be on the way if there’s a positive consumer response. They’ve produced 2,000 pieces using the insulation for 2019.
Lantz says that kapok fibers have several benefits, aside from being more eco-friendly. They’re a sustainable resource, as the fibers are harvested from seed pods that fall from the trees; no trees are felled to source the material. It doesn’t require any farming or slaughtering of animals (though in fairness, down and feathers are often harvested after ducks or geese have been slaughtered for other purposes.) Kapok is hypoallergenic, unlike down, and the trees are extremely pest-resistant, making kapok more eco-friendly as no pesticides or insecticides need to be used in the fields. While goose down is lighter, Lantz thinks kapok fibers are more durable. “Goose down tends to be lighter and warmer and has its applications in jackets,” he says, “but it is hard to wash and it breaks down much faster.” Natural down also tends to absorb water, unlike the kapok fiber, which can cause the insulation to become less effective in rainy or snowy weather.
La Sportiva sources their kapok from Flocus, a Shanghai-based company that grows their own trees to source 100% sustainable kapok fiber. No human intervention is needed to grow the trees (aside from planting) and no CO2, which contributes to global warming, is released during the harvesting process.
To create their jackets and hoodies, La Sportiva blends kapok with synthetic PrimaLoft insulation, as kapok fibers on their own are too slick and waxy to weave. The blend is split 50/50 between the two. The resulting yarn is then woven into padding, which is sent to the factories where their garments are made, including Italy (where about 60% of their product are made), China (28%) and Vietnam (12%.) Using kapok as fill costs about the same as using a 100% synthetic fill, which several of the now-kapok-filled pieces used to have.
A fully grown kapok tree yields about 33–40 pounds of kapok fiber per year via 1,000-to-2,000 seed pods. La Sportiva’s Kapok Men’s Hoodie, which is a blend of 50% kapok fill and 50% recycled polyester, weighs 520 grams, or 1.15 pounds. While some of that weight is due to the jacket’s other features, like zippers and a wind-resistant fleece fabric, about 10% is kapok fill, which Lantz describes as “very hearty.” With about 52 grams of kapok fiber needed per jacket, that means that the average kapok tree could produce enough fill for 287 jackets per year. For comparison, it takes the resources from dozens of geese or ducks to produce the fill for a similarly sized jacket. While synthetic insulation is also an option, and used by brands as a down alternative, it’s production still releases CO2. “Our goal is to start using the fiber more and more in our apparel line so we can use less petroleum-based synthetic insulation,” says Lantz.
With the recent eco-focused awards won by Flocus for their kapok fiber and the news that other brands are partnering with third-party companies to source responsible insulation, it looks like La Sportiva is leading the pack on what could be the next big trend for the outerwear industry.
Source: www.forbes.com