Marmot’s re-purposed sleeping bags are the first of their kind – good for you and good for the planet!
Torpedo7 is #HereForGood. We are Carbon Zero Certified, and on a journey to reduce our emissions.
We love to highlight our suppliers who manufacture goods with our outdoor playground in mind.
Today, we want to talk about Marmot.
Marmot crafts quality outdoor gear, born from working mountain guides and instructors.
Its new 2019 Treadlight (TL) sleeping bags have a totally unique and friendly proposition. The Treadlight bags is a philosophy centred on protecting the earth we play on.
Made with recycled product and eco-conscious processes to reduce environmental impact, the durable Treadlight sleeping bags are made from sterilised reclaimed cushions, old down duvets, used down jackets and other items that can be up-cycled post production.
After sterilising and rejuvenating, the upcycled insulation offers identical performance to new materials in areas of insulation and warmth.
This reduces the number of items in landfills and also saves energy.
So, what are Marmot’s Sustainability Goals?
By improving their products and practices, Marmot minimise their environmental impact without ever sacrificing the performance of our products.
It is focused on three goals for 2019:
-Reducing the use of PFCs (Perfluorinated Chemicals)
-Using more responsibly sourced down
-Increasing the amount of recycled content in its product
What are PFC’s?
PFCs are a large group of manufactured compounds that are widely used to make everyday products more resistant to stains, grease, and water. For example, PFCs may be used in non-stick cookware.
PFCs break down very slowly in the environment and are often characterized as persistent. Read more here.
How did Marmot come about?
Marmot came to be in 1971. University of California Santa Cruz students Eric Reynolds and Dave Huntley were in Alaska’s Juneau Icefield on a school Glaciology project. It was there on a glacier that the idea of a Marmot Club began. The name ‘Marmot’ refers to a group of highly social, large ground squirrels that live in mountainous areas.
To become a Marmot, you had to climb a glaciated peak with another Marmot. One of the rules of the club was that everyone was President.
Over the next two years, Eric and Dave also began making prototypes of down products in their dorm room. Their first products were a down vest, a sweater, a parka, and down sleeping bags. The warmest bag, the PIKA (now known as the CWM) was rated at -45 degrees F.
1974, Eric and Dave opened a rental and retail shop under the name of Marmot Mountain Works in Colorado. They taught cross-country skiing in the winter to get by.
That fall, Tom was climbing in Peru where he met famed adventure filmmaker Mike Hoover. After his return, Mike on behalf of 20th Century Fox who were filming a movie called The Eiger Sanction, and needed 108 very puffy jackets. Within a week, the Marmots had designed the Golden Mantle.
Marmot was now in the movies. It also had its biggest order to date.
In 1976, Eric was one of the first in the U.S. to see a new concept in outdoor performance fabrication called Gore-Tex. Within a couple weeks had sewn prototype sleeping bags using the new Gore-Tex fabric for field testing.
He and Dave proceeded to spend seven nights in a commercial frozen meat locker comparing bags with and without the Gore-Tex fabric as well as testing the bags under fire sprinklers. They immediately changed everything in the line to Gore-Tex fabrications.
Marmot has grown quite a bit since its humble beginnings in 1974, but one thing has never changed; their commitment to designing the highest quality performance product.
Treadlight sleeping bags shows Marmot’s next step of innovation, and Torpedo7 is all for it.
Nice one, Marmot!
