What your gear could teach you about yourself and beyond
For the outdoors enjoyers, waste matters. But it hasn't always been this way. In fact, the arrival of synthetic outdoor clothing coincided with a rush to the mountains, and things went downhill. From then on, plastic was in everything we put in the backpack, from hardware to disposable packaging. Only, we didn’t realize how hard a time it would give us. It took decades of education to combat wild littering, but we now know how to care for our mountains and forests. How to leave no trace. Or do we really?
We have the visible part — our food wrappers and bottles — under control. But the same materials are hidden in our clothing. Our synthetic T-shirts, trousers and protective jackets don't just appear out of thin air – and they certainly don't disappear into the mist. However, we're about to tell a different story. It starts with any Mover piece (the Merino Fleece, for example). Beyond the lines, colours and textures lie fibres made of proteins and sugars. They are here to teach us about a more comprehensive form of textile circularity. Close your eyes and zip up. We're starting now.
Imagine that you’re running down a hill. You feel a tree scratch your shoulder and hear the friction of air around you. You wear a cotton windbreaker. It protects you. It also sheds fibres as you move. You breathe in, while the wind carries these microfibres away to the ground. There, fungi and bacteria are ready to get to work. Using their enzymes, they cut the fibres into smaller and smaller pieces until only one molecule remains: Glucose. Our most common food. The source of all movement. This process is made possible by carbon dioxide, sunlight, and a large amount of chance.
So much energy flows around these microscopic facilities. It's difficult to imagine. Why don't we take a break? Let's sit on a lichen-covered rock where your wool shorts touch ancient organisms. Suddenly, the bag of nuts in the backpack beckons. Proteins, fibres, lipids, amino-acids. Inside our bodies, another fauna is waking up: our microbiota. We chew and swallow, and the process is no different to what happens to the stray fibres we leave behind.
As we talk, parts of our natural fibres gear are being digested by the gigantic body of worms and microorganisms all around us, absorbing and emitting gases and fluids. All the processes that keep us alive are mirrored at every level. Our cells breathe, as do our lungs and skin. And so does the biosphere.
Mover is here to help you reconnect with all that. To embed yourself. The clothes we wear don’t exist in a vacuum. Yet conventional sportswear isolates us in an impermeable bubble. Ultimately, they are unable to do what we really want them to. Plastic membranes shield us, but they prevent exchanges between our skin and the air. Synthetics promise to enhance human performance, but they poison nature and our shared health. It’s the opposite of symbiosis.
Who doesn't enjoy going outdoors, touching grass, and filling their lungs with fresh air? It provides a much-needed energy boost in the hectic everyday rush. It grounds us. And while we never forget to pack a snack, or to clean behind, we could also bring some for the soil simply by moving there.
