Threads 4 Thought and Teeki for Sustainability

Even though denim and activewear have been butting heads lately, I can’t help but love both sides and some of the sustainable initiatives that brands from both ends are putting their efforts towards. I normally saw leggings (and most activewear) as something just for the gym or maybe a festival or two, but they are slowly starting to infiltrate my everyday life. Well, maybe more of the stuff you’d wear up top…but I’ve got a decent little legging collection going too! There are so many activewear lines out there now that cater to the exploding yoga movement or music festal goers, so now I am a little more picky when I choose which ones I care to support. What catches me the most though is some of these activewear brands do work hard to give back or at least to clean up their manufacturing processes, and the two that pop in my mind first when it comes to earth-friendly missions are Threads 4 Thought and Teeki. Both of these companies have one rad thing in common: all of the pieces they offer are constructed with recycled plastic bottles!

Threads 4 Thought was born in 2006 and caters a little more to the more modern and less whimsical crowd, but offers a good amount of fun in their collections as well. They use three materials for their products: organic cotton, recycled polyester (made out of plastic water bottles), and lensing Modal® (which is a sustainable fiber from beech tree pulp). According to the brand, cotton is one of the dirtiest crops on the planet, using 25% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of the world’s pesticides. It also contaminates over 13 acres of farmland. Using recycled plastic bottles uses 50% less energy and produces 50% less CO2 emissions to produce compared to regular polyester, and obviously keeps more plastic out of our landfills! Lensing Modal® is great because beech trees are never cut down, only trimmed, and rejuvenate themselves on their own. In addition, 95% of of the production materials to make the yarn are recovered and used again. Modal® is also incredibly soft, which is another reason why it’s been used in so many stretchy jeans lately!

Teeki is made for the yogi or yogi at heart, and their collections are seen on the backs and bums of bloggers and fans all over Instagram. However, the fact that they turn plastic water bottles—one of the worst pollutants out there—into fun, beautifully designed athletic apparel puts them right at the top of my favorites list. I’ve had a few of their items on my mind for awhile, even though I don’t own anything from them yet (guilty).

These are the kinds of brands I want to support the most…and thankfully just about everything they create matches my tastes! Here are a few of my favorite pieces from both.

“Becoming a B Corp is yet another step we have taken as a brand to live sustainably. B Corps are a growing group of brands and companies that want to use business as a force for good. We are certainly one of those brands & feel that this is a movement that we wanted to align ourselves with.” – Eric Fleet, co-founder Threads for Thought

“We dance to a different beat, stretch with the yogi, run to the highest peaks, hike in unexplored territories, and swim where the ocean becomes one. we are teeki. we take water bottles and turn them into clothes, giving them purpose again through an eco-friendly process. we support you with your active lifestyle and adventures; yoga, gym, workout, surf, sports, dance, flow and constantly moving forward with your body, mind, and spirit.” – Teeki