Inspired by a manhaul expedition across Greenland in 2006, ex-professional pole vaulter (yes, really!) David Gordon set up BAM Bamboo Clothing – with the aim of creating a viable yet environmentally sustainable clothing business. Fifteen years later and the business is thriving, with 72 staff and a leading approach to eco matters (it has pledged to be “impact positive” by 2030).
BAM has built its reputation on technical baselayers made from bamboo, a resource that “absorbs five times more carbon than hardwood trees, needs half the land cotton needs to produce the same amount of fibre, and doesn’t need irrigation or pesticides”. But now the brand has released its first ever insulated jacket, the recycled and recyclable 73 Zero Insulated Jacket. Billed rather confidently as a “revolution in recycling”, here’s the lowdown on what BAM call a “trailblazing, low impact insulated jacket” with a “completely unique recycling solution”.
The big innovation here is that the jacket is not only made from recycled materials (like many other jackets on the market now), but that it’s also 100% recyclable. BAM have achieved this by focusing on the recycling solution from the very beginning of the design stage, and by working in collaboration with specialist textile recycler Project Plan B. This firm, which has a “ground-breaking fibre-to-fibre technology for recapturing the polyester from a garment”, will be able to turn the 73 Zero Insulated Jacket back into fibre grade polyester at the end of its life and return it to yarn, ready to be knitted or woven into another garment.
