From humble beginnings starting with a crowdfunding campaign, to recycling hundreds of thousands of post-consumer plastic bottles into its raincoats, to the threat of being sued and a consequent rebrand, Amble Outdoors has gone on an adventure to get to where it is today.
The Melbourne based label creates technical apparel from recycled bottles, with over 250,000 PET bottles recycled into its raincoats to date. Each jacket has 31 bottles recycled into its fabric and is waterproof, windproof and breathable; protecting the wearer from La Nina and the elements. It’s a brand that encourages women to get outdoors, without the pressure of performance or having to compromise on function, style or sustainability.
The outdoors brand is making strides in an industry known for being far from sustainable. And whilst there is growing consumer demand for sustainable options fast fashion has also never been growing faster, and still owns majority market share. Haul videos have transitioned from Youtube to Tik Tok, with influencers and consumers continuing to promote the latest fashion trends at the lowest prices, without any concern for quality or what kind of supply chains they’re supporting, and yet being surprised and frustrated when their clothes stretch, shrink, pill or rip after only one or two wears. Amble combats this by creating conscious collections that will stand the test of time, investing in high quality, sustainable fabrics that are made to last for years.
The brand began when Amble founder, Rhianna Knight, was frustrated with the fashion industry being responsible for creating so much negative environmental impact;, from the conventional synthetic fabrics that were used, to the ongoing ‘more is more’ consumption mentality marketed from within the industry. Combined with her love of backpacking and the outdoors she created Amble, the slow and sustainable label championing alternate fabrics to create high quality, durable products that will stand the test of time.
With Rhianna’s background in apparel design and supply chains, she had connections to innovative fabrics mills creating tough, technical fabrics from alternate materials, such as PET bottles. To recycle bottles into fabric they’re first sorted by colour, with their caps and labels removed, before being washed and sterilised. They’re then melted into chips (about the size of a Cornflake) before being melted again down into tiny chips (about Rice Bubble size) before being extruded into a thread which is then woven into a new fabric, which gets dyed or printed and finally cut and sewn like a regular fabric. As the brand grows they’ll be looking to introduce other fabrics made from alternate materials, with sustainability remaining at the forefront of their mission and a goal to recycle 1 million bottles by 2025.
Not only are all of their collections made from recycled and organic fabrics, they’ve also calculated the carbon footprint of each product and offset the impact to ensure they’re having as little impact on the environment as possible (psst, this is launching on their website next week.) In addition to this, they also plant a tree for every order, with over 10,000 trees planted so far in collaboration with Eden Reforestation projects, helping to reforest the world.
The brand (of just three) celebrates its fourth birthday next week and is looking forward to continuing to create a community for those who love to get outdoors, but don’t identify as ‘outdoorsy’, with the introduction of IRL events later this year.
About Amble Outdoors
Amble Outdoors is a Melbourne based label creating sustainable raincoats and clothes for the outdoors, for women who don’t want to compromise on style or sustainability. They’ve recycled 250,000 post-consumer bottles into their fabrics and are best known for their waterproof raincoats and artist collaborations.
