Eco-designed clothing

The Masherbrum commitment

Since our creation, we have been committed to developing products dedicated to mountain sports with a controlled environmental impact.

Our first choice in reducing impact is to work exclusively with alternative materials offering a high level of technicality and comfort, while being less polluting in their extraction and manufacturing stages.

Billion tonnes of CO2

are issued per year worldwide for textile production

Kilos of clothing

are purchased on average per year and per person in France

The impact of a garment

is represented by domestic maintenance (washing, drying, ironing)

Textile fibres used

in the world come from pre- or post-consumer recycling only

In our eco-design approach, we consider each of the following stages in order to determine impact reduction levers

Extraction and processing of raw materials: two crucial steps

These two stages make it possible to orientate the choice of raw materials according to their origin: fossil (petrochemical derivatives such as polyester, polyamide, elastane, etc.), animal (wool, leather, etc.) or vegetable (wood, cotton, linen, etc.). All inputs (energy, water, fertilisers, pesticides, solvents, etc.) and discharges (gas, liquid, solid, etc.) required for its extraction, cleaning, transport and processing must be taken into account.

This provides an initial energy balance to eliminate the most polluting materials. For example, at Masherbrum we have decided to use 100% alternative materials in all our products, i.e. either recycled,organically grown or from closed-loop production processes (such as fibres from wood cellulose).

Spinning and knitting: the choice of technical partners

Here are some golden rules that we strive to follow at Masherbrum.

○ Centralising the spinning, knitting, dyeing and making-up operations in the same geographical area to limit inter-factory transport ➔ All the workshops involved in our Ultrasoft2 and PROCLIMB2 products are located in the same perimeter around Braga, in the north-east of Portugal.

○ Avoid countries with an energy mix that is too polluting (e.g. whose electricity is produced by coal-fired power stations) ➔ In Portugal, renewable energy represents 63% of the electricity mix.

○ Choosing technical partners that meet demanding labels. ➔ Allour new Ultrasoft2 and PROCLIMB2 materials are Bluesign® certified, and we work with a list of recognised labels.

○ Reduce or eliminate operations such as treatments, coatings and dyeing ➔ The TENCEL Lyocell or TENCEL Modal cellulosic fibres we use do not require pre-treatment such as bleaching and are easily dyed without hydrophilic treatments, unlike polyester.

Design and packaging: aiming for simplicity

○ Limit the number of operations carried out on the garment and the number of accessories ➔ we create simple and durable garments, with a measured number of colours, and design our cuts to reduce the number of pieces to be sewn as much as possible.
○ Optimising the cut to limit material losses ➔ this optimisation is carried out by computer at our garment maker, and we recover the surplus material pre-cut for the realisation of accessories .

Household maintenance: it's up to you!

○ Machine washing and drying of a t-shirt has a very important environmental impact as it represents 38% of the final product balance! ➔ wefavour naturally anti-bacterial materials such as TENCEL Lyocell and TENCEL Modal cellulose fibres, which limit the development of bad odours and thus the need to wash the product each time it is used.
○ With each wash, micro-plastics, chemicals and polluted water are released into nature. ➔ In addition to clothes that can be worn for several days without washing, wehave chosen to use mostly non-synthetic materials in our products, which do not release micro-plastics.
○ As a user you also have a role to play by avoiding daily washing and favouring air drying.