| Current supported environmental charity Heal Rewilding. |
“Clothes need not just one but multiple lives.”
Jordan MacInnis - Circular Economies
Messing about on bikes, running through the forests, slashing turns down the mountain or simply hiking and camping, we love playing outside. We also, as is the nature of growing up, need to work and do responsible adult things. Often these don’t go together, certainly where clothing is concerned, but we’re changing that. The Overland is designed to cross over seamlessly between work, life and play, removing the need for multiple and excessive outfits thereby reducing the amount of clothing you own. The combination of technical fabrics and old skool, retro aesthetic means that The Overland apparel is highly versatile, able to withstand the rigours of adventure sports while also styling perfectly into your streetwear look. Exhaustive research, development and testing as well as keeping a close eye on fashion trends, result in products that are designed for the multiple lives we lead.
“Increasing the average number of times clothes are worn is the most direct lever to capture value and design out waste and pollution in the textiles system.”
Ellen MacArthur Foundation - A New Textiles Economy
Simply put, if we make more per sale we can make less clothing. We're a small company of six people so our overheads are low but our ambitions to create a sustainable business are high. By limiting discounts and restricting seasonal collections, we are able to reduce waste and manufacturing excess. The clothing industry is awash with regular high discounting and consumers eagerly await the end of season (and mid season) sales. We've not above hunting for a bargain but with Overland we wanted to try a different approach. If we sell at full retail, or close to, then that enables us to make less clothing and gives us extra margin to donate to environmental and social organisations. During Black Friday and other traditional sales periods we will, instead of greatly reducing the retail price, instead donate more to environmental organisations. The Overland aims to show that small brands such as ourselves can still be an instrument for change for the adventure sports clothing industry with a hope that other smaller (and larger companies) follow suit. So you may not get that absolute bargain you were hoping for but you can be sure that your hard earned will be put to good use in helping protect the planet.
The Overland is a member of 1% for the Planet, where we commit to donating 1% of our gross sales to environmental charities. You can read more about this here. We also donate 10% of your first order if you sign-up to our newsletter, and will donate further amounts during sale and promotional periods.
The charities we support will change but will be only ones certified by 1% for the Planet. The charity we are currently supporting is One Tree Planted.
If the clothing industry is one of the worst polluters, why did we start The Overland?
Well, we were in a position of already operating a sports clothing brand, Morvélo, so rather than throw our hands up in despair and admit defeat, we were inspired to create an alternative brand, that combined the technical knowledge we gained in manufacturing high performance cycle clothing and combine it with high street fashion, with a specific objective to create truly versatile adventure sport clothing that also can we worn at home and in the cities.
The sustainability and environmental lessons we are learning with Overland then feedback into Morvélo. Our mission with Overland is to use it as a force for change, creating a brand that addresses these startling issues:
• 80 billion items of new clothing are produced each year
“Everyone of us needs to step-up to do what you can according to what your resources are.”
Yvon Chouinard
The resources we have are experience and knowledge of how to make high performance sports clothing. We could shut Movélo and The Overland down and cease to manufacture clothing but people we always continue to be consumers. It is our curse. The central idea with The Overland is to provide clothing for people who love the outdoors, who care about the environment in which they choose to spend their free time and would like to use their consumer power as a force for good.
Currently we plant a tree for every order but we want to go much further. Our goal is to become Climate Neutral, achieve B Corp status and donate an ever increasing percentage of our sales to environmental and social organisations. We are on an incredible and challenging journey to become part of The Circular Economy. We hope you follow our progress and support us in making a difference.
