Brands Who Serve The Planet
Every aspect of nature has its place – for each cycle, we have a name: with the four seasons all living creatures go through stages of vitality, productivity, planning, and rest. On the food chain, animals live their lives knowing that they will eventually become both a hunter and a food source to sustain the habitat that supports them.
Mankind is one of the few global inhabitants that continually tries breaking the natural cycle of our planet – taking far more than we give, and in turn squandering our natural resources and negatively impacting our fellow earthly inhabitants.
Photo of @johnnyhd24 in our Performance Foundation Crew Base Layer
The clothing industry, increasingly geared towards “fast fashion,” has a huge impact on the depletion of natural resources, and is a major factor in pollution via chemicals in our water and soil, and carbon emissions in our atmosphere. In fact, the textile industry is the world’s largest polluter behind only the oil and gas industries.
In contrast to the damaging nature of many large clothing brands, MuskOx came about in an effort to carve a space for a sustainable, ethical business in the clothing industry. Our goal in sustainable fashion is to re-discover that balance between clothing manufacturing and consumption, while avoiding materials and business practices that deplete our natural resources and damage communities (both human and animal alike).
Today we’re celebrating brands just like us who are also equally focused on both serving our planet, and maintaining ethical commerce for the communities in which their products are made.
If you’re looking for socks that are both durable and fashionable, check out Conscious Step, a sustainable sock brand that boasts only products that are certified organic and fairtrade. Every purchase made from the brand supports one of their 17 non-profit partners, including Habitat for Humanity, Action Against Hunger, and Oceana.
Since we’re already talking about reliable fashion for your feet, next take a look at Saola – named after a critically endangered species living in East Asia, Saola is an eco-friendly shoe brand that donates a total of 5% of profits to the conversation efforts of the Mwalua Wildlife Trust Association, Friends of Bonobos, SeeTurtles, and Coral Guardian.
For your next day at the beach, support Sand Cloud, a beach and bath towel brand notable for their 100% Turkish cotton products, a sustainable, tough material that will last far longer than fast-fashion, cheap materials. Sand Cloud donates 10% of their profits to marine conservation nonprofits like the Coral Restoration Foundation, Marine Conservation Institute, and Ocean Connectors.
Photo of Portage Glacier Near The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center
Another brand equally dedicated to supporting ocean conservation is United by Blue, a sustainable apparel and home accessories brand that removes one pound of trash from oceans and waterways for every product purchased. Since their inception they’ve removed over 4 million pounds of trash from our planet’s blue expanses.
As the MuskOx Herd is already a huge proponent of getting outdoors, we love the Parks Project – an apparel and home brand, the Parks Project’s goal is to protect and preserve parklands for generations to come by educating, advocating, volunteering, and activating park supporters to get involved in conservation. To date, Parks Project has contributed over $2 million to help fund vital conservation projects in national parks around the US.
Lastly, if you're in the mood for something sweet, try Endangered Species Chocolates. Providing a wide variety of chocolate products for every sweet tooth, all Endangered Species Chocolates are organic and ethically sourced to benefit the communities in which they’re made. They donate 10% of their profits to the National Forest Foundation and Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Since 2016, that’s $2.6 million dollars going towards a more environmentally ethical world.
MuskOx recognizes that it is not always easy to make sustainable, ethical purchases, or choices in general. Our species has a huge impact on the world around us, and it is not too late to start making choices, little by little, that keep our environment protected from further mistreatment. We love this planet we get to explore everyday, and our brand will continue to make products that serve the natural world we hold so dear.