What is the anatomy behind the perfect eco-friendly performance piece? For us, it starts with the materials, and we build outward from there. At Wise River, we aim to be tactical. We strive to create pieces that have many uses and perform in multiple settings. In order to create a diverse assortment to cover your daily life, it requires careful consideration of which materials go into each product.

It all begins with the base fabric. If it’s not of eco-friendly origins, we’re not interested. We look for materials that perform throughout the phases of your day, and stand the test of time. We want you to stay comfortable in our gear, while trusting that it maintains the durability to hold up for years to come. Many of our natural fibers are blended with other performance materials for this very reason.

For instance, we love organic cotton. Cotton, however, is a hydrophilic fiber that absorbs odor and wears down over time. As a result, we have blended our organic cotton pieces with Tencel® or recycled polyester. Here, you still have your super soft and comfortable garment, but with enhanced durability, wicking qualities, and protective features.

The next step is to reinforce many of our products with unique, re-purposed trims. We’ve mentioned before that the scraps of the fabric used in your clothing after cut and sew are often cast off into a landfill. We’re aiming to reverse this trend and promote a zero-waste mentality wherever possible. In fact, you can expect many of the trims on Wise River products to be re-purposed from the scraps of our other styles. With this approach, we promise there’s one word that cannot be used to describe our product… ordinary.

This process culminates with cutting our gear into classic, clean styles designed for everyday. We want our products to contain the necessary features to perform wherever you take them, but also maintain the qualities to fit into your more casual settings as well. In the end, you’ve got products that cover you no matter where your day takes you.

Lastly, it’s staying up on the latest innovations in sustainable fashion. Fabric suppliers are more advanced than ever, and we love to keep up on all of the cool new things that are, or will soon be hitting the market. For instance, did you know that you can take discarded fish scales from the commercial fishing industry and spin them into nylon fibers? We’re also starting to see that mills are able to develop recycled spandex as well. You may see both of these innovations from us in the future.

Sustainability can certainly mean different things. One aspect of being a sustainable apparel brand that often goes overlooked however is versatility. If your clothing transcends multiple settings, requiring you to buy less and get more out of what you buy- that’s sustainability in our eyes. Sure, we’ve developed certain pieces that are geared more towards performance activity, and others more suitable for your work week… but we always want to make sure that there’s a certain degree of crossover between each piece.

At Wise River, we’ll proudly tell you that we’re deliberate in the gear that we design. We know you live an active lifestyle, and we want to make sure that we can outfit you through all phases of your day, and for years to come. All while using materials that do not inversely affect the places that we love.