Purposeful activewear

Why aren’t all clothes made this way?

The next generation of activewear.

One day all clothes will be made this way.

  • 69% of ALL textiles are virgin synthetics made from crude oil. 
  • 73% of all clothing ends up in landfill or incinerated.
  • One in eight workers is involved in the fashion and textile industry and we don't know if they are paid a living wage. 

It doesn’t need to be this way.  Bam was set up in 2006 with this specific goal:  To demonstrate that you can have success doing things ‘the right way’.

To build a business without debt, without investment, in a way your mother would be proud of, treating our suppliers, our customers and ourselves the way everyone would like, at the same time as helping to turn around a polluting industry.

And to have fun while we’re doing it 😊

What if we all did it like this?

We’ve proved you don’t need virgin polyester with our 73 Zero fleeces made from 100% recycled polyester. They’re certified 100% recyclable so they never need to end up in landfill. And we’re creating next gen nature-based fabrics such as Mallea and Novea that use modern techniques to give you all the performance with minimal elastane.

Bam Sewing Made Your Clothes Bamboo Clothing
Bam 73 Zero Range Success Bamboo Clothing

This isn’t just sustainability, it’s our responsibility.

Impact positive by 2030 is ambitious. We can’t dance about the edges, we have to completely rethink our business. These three goals ensure we focus on our three major impacts.

People

Living wages and fair treatment for every person who makes our clothes, right back to the grower.

Discover more

Nature

A fully circular range which conserves natural resources, protects biodiversity, eliminates harmful pollution and closes the loop at the end of use.

Discover more

Climate

We are re-crafting our Climate story. Read our blog to find out more in the meantime.

Discover more

People

Living wages and fair treatment for every person who makes our clothes, right back to the grower.

Discover more

Nature

A fully circular range which conserves natural resources, protects biodiversity, eliminates harmful pollution and closes the loop at the end of use.

Discover more

Climate

We are re-crafting our Climate story. Read our blog to find out more in the meantime.

Discover more

“There are few – if any – companies in the outdoor industry with the environmentally friendly credentials of Britain’s BAM”

Base Magazine

Who makes your clothes?

Why BAM is climate positive

How we measure our footprint

What is circularity and why it’s so important

Is bamboo really better?

Who makes your clothes?

Why BAM is climate positive

How we measure our footprint

What is circularity and why it’s so important

Is bamboo really better?

Follow our Impact Positive by 2030 journey

“If ‘going green’ is hiking to the top of a hill, Impact Positive is scaling Everest. But it’s where every business needs to be headed.”
 
Transparency is key. Each year we publish a report on how well we’ve done, our hits and misses, and the plan for the next year so we hit our 2030 goal.
Follow our story

Sustainability & Ethics FAQs

73% of clothing ends up in landfill or incinerated. To get that to zero we need to make it easy not just to recycle but to recycle in a meaningful way

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Sharewear, a charity dedicated to ending clothing poverty who distribute second-hand clothes to the people who need them most. 

How our partnership with Sharewear works

When you shop with BAM, you can choose to receive a free postage-paid Sharewear recycling bag so you can send them any clothes you’re finished with. You don’t have to restrict yourself to BAM clothes, you can send any useable item.

Sharewear accept clothing items in all sizes:

  • Women’s clothing, coats and shoes
  • Men’s clothing, coats and shoes
  • Children’s (Girls & Boys) clothing, coats and shoes
  • Infants/Toddlers (Girls & Boys) clothing, coats and shoes
  • Bedding, sheets and bath towels
  • New or nearly new unstained duvets and pillows

They can also take pre-loved clothes as well as new ones, however they will only use clothes which are of a very high quality. Please be aware that Sharewear can only accept brand new knickers and pants.

Please note they DO NOT accept food, toiletries, household goods, furniture, toys or anything not listed above.

When you do, we’ll send you £5 off your next BAM purchase.

If you want to recycle more clothes, you can visit Sharewear’s drop off points or email us ([email protected]) to arrange delivery. These larger donations are at your own cost but as a thank you, we’ll give you £10 off your next BAM purchase.

INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS

Please note, we are unable to cover the cost of international postage for the Sharewear recycling bag. If you wish to take part in this scheme, you will need to cover the cost of your own shipping.

Only 1.4%* of carbon emissions from producing our clothes is generated by transport from China. It’s surprisingly small.  

To put that in context, washing our clothes contributes 14.8%* of the carbon emissions of clothing throughout its life cycle.

We’ve looked at all the emissions generated throughout our product life cycle from the moment the bamboo leaves the soil right through to laundry and recycling. This means we can plan how we reduce those emissions. 

What this has clearly highlighted is that using a sustainable crop like bamboo far outweighs the impact of importing it.

*Based on BAM’s measurement of our total footprint in 2019

You’ll notice that whenever we describe the fabric our clothes are made of, we call it bamboo viscose. The viscose process is the way the bamboo pulp is turned into a fabric and this uses chemicals.

Bamboo is one of the most sustainable crops on the planet but one of the criticisms of bamboo viscose is that it’s not as eco-friendly as it might first appear because of this chemical process.  

Every clothing business has a chemical footprint but we believe all clothing manufacturers should ensure safe chemistry and zero water pollution to protect the local population as well as wildlife and its habitat.

As part of our goal to be impact positive, we are reducing any remaining pollution from our textile processing to zero. To do that we’ve traced back through our entire supply chain to ensure we know exactly who is making our fibre and dyeing and finishing our fabrics. When it comes to the viscose process, we have visited both of the viscose producers used by our suppliers. We know for ourselves exactly how our bamboo viscose is made and we have made a commitment to  only work with textile manufacturers who have responsible chemical management systems and waste treatment practices and who invest in the technology needed to make things better.

We don’t shy away from the realities of bamboo viscose because – despite these chemicals – it is still one of the most sustainable fibres available and it’s a planet-friendly alternative to conventional viscose, cotton & polyester. 

Read more FAQS

Our Partners

To discover how our partners are helping us on our journey click here

Latest news

We’re B-corp certified.

If you’ve heard the term before but are not sure what it’s about, here’s what...

Read more
Going all in on reducing our emissions.

There are some exciting changes afoot! Like all the best ambitions, when we set our...

Read more
Stepping up for the Forests of the World

Every year, three billion trees are cut down to produce paper packaging. Three billion trees...

Read more
How we’re ensuring safe viscose production.

At BAM, we believe that working with bamboo is good for the planet, and better...

Read more
The difference between recycled and recyclable and why it matters

This AW21, we’re launching our fully circular 73 Zero insulated jacket. That means it’s both...

Read more
Why isn’t every jacket like our 73 Zero insulated jacket? A circularity story.

Our 73 Zero insulated jacket is completely circular: it’s made from recycled materials; it’s 100%...

Read more
What is circularity and why is it so important to us?

A circular economy in very simple terms means a less wasteful one, but of course,...

Read more
No Wear to Run, by Louise Cooke; CEO of Sharewear Clothing Scheme

#noWeartorun If there’s one feeling that has bound everyone together in the last year it’s...

Read more

Learn the lingo!

Know your climate positives from your carbon neutrals? Zero waste from your regenerations? The terminology used when going green can be confusing. Fear not, clarity is a click away with our handy glossary.

View Glossary