Okewa Launches Recycled Line From Plastic Bottles

Rethinking Rainwear – Okewa Launches Recycled Line From Plastic Bottles

For immediate release

The humble raincoat doesn’t usually spring to top of mind as a wardrobe favourite but emerging Wellington-based brand Okewa is out to change that. Okewa has launched a Kickstarter project for their new capsule collection made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, and is calling for the public’s support to get in behind the project to launch it.

“For the past few years we’ve been refining the craft of rainwear from our base here in Wellington, where you really do need a great raincoat or two,” says Founder and Creative Director Nevada Leckie. The brand takes fabric technology and construction usually reserved for outdoor adventure brands and repurposes it with an aesthetic more at home in the city.

“Our new Recycled Line is the culmination of our project to develop a waterproof fabric from post-consumer plastic waste,” says Nevada’s Co-Founder and husband Nick. A long coat recycles 31 plastic bottles and a shorter jacket reuses 22 bottles, and the fabric is just as soft and comfortable as previous non-recycled fabrics the brand has used. The coats are lined, seam-sealed, waterproof to a rating of 10,000mm and breathable to 10,000g/sqm/24hrs.

The project is also the start of a partnership for the brand with a high quality outerwear manufacturer outside of Bangkok, Thailand, who manufactures for some of the world’s leading luxury brands and is at the forefront of sustainable and innovative manufacturing.

“Connecting with this excellent team is a major opportunity for us, for example already their dedicated sustainability team has been very helpful on our Recycled Line project.

This partnership gears us up really well for future growth,” says Nick.

Nevada’s desire to work with recycled fibres for Okewa’s Recycled Line was triggered by a talk by sustainability expert Ellen MacArthur, whose Foundation revealed that on our current trajectory by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the sea by weight. “For us this is about taking a small step in the right direction towards a more circular model,” says Nevada. “It’s also critical to me this new fabric didn’t compromise other values of the brand like total waterproofing, durability and a luxurious handfeel, and we’re thrilled this new fabric stands up to those requirements too."

Nevada and Nick are running a crowdfunding campaign to get their Recycled Line project off the ground, and the collection is now open for pre-order. See their Kickstarter campaign for further information and to pre-order.

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