The mountain air is crisp, the trail soft underfoot. My boots are breaking in just right, that perfect balance between support and give. It’s the kind of day that makes you forget why you ever sit in front of a screen.
Then someone in the group starts talking about their jacket.
“Recycled polyester,” they say, tugging on the hem. “Sustainable. Whole thing’s made from old water bottles.”
They feel pretty good about it. The brand said all the right things—eco-friendly, carbon-neutral, better for the planet. They dropped a few hundred bucks on it, and why not? If you’re going to buy a jacket, might as well make the ethical choice.
I glance down at my own. Waxed cotton. Ten years old. Patched twice—once at the elbow where I tore it scrambling over deadfall, once at the hem when a campfire spark burned through. It’s been with me through rainstorms and icy winds, shoved into backpacks, dragged through brush, worn so much that it holds the shape of my shoulders even when I’m not in it.
And it hits me.
Most people think sustainability is about what something is made of. But that’s only half the story.
The real question is, how long will it last?
The Lifespan Problem
Your jacket’s made from recycled plastic. That’s nice. But what happens when it rips in two years and you can’t patch it—because most synthetic fabrics don’t take well to repairs? What happens when the lining peels away, the zippers bust, the seams give out? You do what most people do: toss it and buy another.
So I have to ask—how sustainable was that first jacket, really?
Because here’s the thing: If you have to replace something every few years, it doesn’t matter what it was made from. It was designed for the landfill.
Fast fashion pulled this trick ages ago. A brand will slap an “eco” label on a t-shirt made of recycled cotton, but if it falls apart after ten washes, what was the point? Outdoor brands do the same thing. They put out flimsy synthetic gear wrapped in green buzzwords so people don’t think too hard about where it actually ends up.
Which, by the way, is almost always the dump.
The Plastic Problem
A jacket made from recycled bottles sounds like a great idea—until you think about where all that plastic actually goes.
Every time you wash it, tiny fibers break off. Too small for water treatment plants to catch. They get flushed into rivers, lakes, oceans. Plankton eat them. Fish eat the plankton. And sooner or later, that plastic ends up on your plate. Inside you.
And when the jacket itself wears out? There’s no magical recycling loop waiting to turn it into another jacket. That plastic degrades. Maybe it gets chopped up and turned into insulation or low-grade stuffing as a last stop. But sooner or later, its final destination is the same as every other piece of plastic ever made: buried in the ground or drifting in the ocean.
Meanwhile, natural fibers—cotton, wool, leather, linen—don’t leave behind those ghosts. When they wear out, they go back to the earth, not into your bloodstream.
And just so we’re clear: I’m not saying plastic is evil. It has its uses. But wearing a petroleum-based fabric against your skin, sweating into it, breathing in the fiber dust every time you pull it over your head? I don’t know, man. That wasn’t the plan when humans figured out clothing.
What Are Sustainable Materials, Really?
They’re the ones that last. The ones that get better with age instead of falling apart. The ones you can fix. Pass down. Wear till they carry the shape of your life in them.
Waxed canvas. Full-grain leather. Heavy wool. Real materials with real history behind them.
A good jacket should outlive the person who bought it. That’s sustainability. Not just what it’s made from, but whether you ever need to replace it at all.
That’s what most brands don’t want you thinking about—because durability isn’t profitable. If they build things that actually last, they can’t sell you a new one every season.
So yeah, I get why people go for the recycled-poly option. It’s light, it’s functional, and the marketing makes you feel like you did something good today.
But when it wears out?
Mine will still be here.
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