Mover x SailGP

SailGP Merino TechFleece Hoodie in Stargazer / Source: Mover

CottonTextilesWool

4 MINUTE READ

Sophie Benson

WHAT WE SAY:

Plastic and sportswear appear to go hand-in-hand but roll back a few decades and athletes and adventurers were decked out entirely in natural fibres. Now, plastic-free sportswear brand Mover is looking to the past to inform the future for its new collaboration with SailGP, in partnership with PlasticFree. This is the future.

KEY FACTS:

Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Mover makes outdoor sportswear from natural fibres such as organic Cotton, Merino Wool, and Alpaca fibre.
The company has expanded the selection of sports it provides gear for with its latest collaboration with the international sailing competition Sail GP, creating the world's first plastic-free technical sportswear.
The collaboration, which was facilitated by PlasticFree's founding organisation A Plastic Planet, kicks off with an 'on-shore' six-piece collection that includes a technical fleece, a super light 130 gram Merino wool t-shirt, organic cotton t-shirts, and a pullover hoodie. The brand aims to move into more technical 'off-shore' gear down the line.
Every detail of each Mover x SailGP garment is plastic free, from cotton thread to organic cotton labels. Mover also used water-based inks for its printed logos and its zips and cord stoppers are 100% metal.
The garments will be on sale exclusively during SailGP races, on-site during the championship and on the Mover and SailGP e-commerce websites.
Prices range from EUR 50 (USD 55) for an organic cotton t-shirt to EUR 220 (USD 242) for a wool techfleece hoodie. 10% of all sales will go to A Plastic Planet.
All items are made in Portugal and the brand ships internationally from its logistical base in Spain (approximately a three-hour drive from where garments are manufactured) in order to avoid unnecessary transportation between warehouses.

SailGP x Mover merino techfleece / Source: Mover

SailGP x Mover plastic-free t-shirt / Source: Mover

DIVE DEEPER:

Sportswear is dominated by synthetics such as polyester, nylon, and elastane, and the clothes we wear to enjoy the outdoors are inadvertently polluting them. Between 200,000 and 500,000 tonnes of microplastics from textiles enter the global marine environment each year. This figure is particularly pertinent for sailing, a sport which relies so heavily upon healthy oceans.
While many sportswear companies have turned to recycled polyester as a solution, this material still releases microplastics into the environment.
Nicolas Rochat bought Mover in 2004 and initially continued to manufacture using synthetics. In 2010, the brand developed Swisswool in collaboration with Baur Vliesstoffe, an insulation material made entirely from wool that's designed to be a replacement for both polyester and down wadding. This was the beginning of the brand's plastic-free journey.
As the brand moved away from plastics, renouncing its Gore-Tex licence in 2017, it faced a number of hurdles. For instance, to source plastic-free zips the brand had to go directly to YKK and make the case for manufacturing metal zippers on cotton tape.
Mover's everyday collection includes GOTS certified cotton t-shirts, ripstop cotton shorts, cotton-wool blend overshirts, wool shorts, Swisswool vests, wool fleece vests and jackets, high density cotton windbreakers, and Ventile shirt jackets.
The company sources alpaca wool from the Simplon Pass, Switzerland, non-mulesed Merino wool from New Zealand and Australia, GOTS and upcycled cotton from Portugal, and organic cotton cords, webbings, and plastic-free zippers from Turkey.
It is currently working with next-gen biomaterial companies such as Natural Fiber Welding to improve its technical offering and widen its materials library.

"Why do we need plastics to enjoy the outdoors?"

Mover

Key Design Considerations:

Use your position to move the needle

To be 100% plastic free, Mover had to persuade suppliers to manufacture components that didn't exist. The brand leveraged its position as an early adopter to convince manufacturing giants such as YKK that other brands would follow in its footsteps. Rather than compromising on small details, can you work with industry to develop what you need, and lay the path for others to follow?

Look back to move forwards

When discussing the capabilities of natural fibres, Mover CEO Rochat references outdoor pioneers such as Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary and the gear they wore to complete world-first feats. By looking to history for inspiration, Mover has found materials such as Ventile, which was created to save the lives of pilots in wartime Britain and commercialised in 1943. Progress is vital, but don't overlook fibres and materials that have stood the test of time for a reason.

Collaborate to grow

Mover doesn't have a history of manufacturing sailing apparel, however its approach could be easily extrapolated. By collaborating with SailGP, Mover not only moves into a new market and expands its commercial reach, but grows the potential of an entirely new sport getting behind its plastic-free mission.