Greening My... Menswear: Redefining Everyday Style, More Responsibly

Getting dressed is one of the most routine parts of our day — but behind every tee, pair of jeans or jacket is a story of materials, energy, water and waste.

In this episode of the Seeing Green Podcast’s Greening My… series, we take a closer look at menswear — the everyday staples we reach for again and again — and explore how they can fit into a more sustainable lifestyle.

We cover:

• The real footprint behind everyday menswear, from cotton and synthetics to production and end-of-life waste
• Why buying fewer, better pieces — and wearing them longer — can be one of the most impactful shifts
• How leading brands are designing for durability, comfort and lower impact through better materials and responsible production
• The rise of circular models like repair, resale and take-back programs
• Simple, practical ways to make smarter choices without overthinking your wardrobe

Featured brands: Taylor Stitch, Marine Layer, Outerknown, Tentree, Nudie Jeans, Fair Harbor

This episode is all about progress, not perfection, showing how menswear can move from a routine habit to a meaningful opportunity for better choices.

Because the clothes we wear most often are exactly where small changes can have the biggest impact.

Transcript

Welcome back to the Seeing Green podcast. We are thrilled to be back from hiatus.

We really are and we are celebrating that with a return to our Greening My… series where we take different parts of our homes and daily lives and you know explore them through a cleaner, greener living lens.

Exactly. This is actually the 10th episode in the greening my series following Greening My… bathroom, bedroom, closet, pet care, meal kits, happy hour, sneakers, laundry, and kidswear.

Yeah, you can find these prior episodes wherever you get your podcasts or online at SeeingGreen.eco.

Today's topic was inspired by something many of us experience every day, often without really thinking much about it, which is getting dressed.

Right. The clothes we reach for in the morning, like our go-to tees, denim, sweaters, and outerwear. They're some of the most used items in our lives.

Yet, the impact behind them is, well, it's easy to overlook. So, with that, welcome to Greening My Menswear, where we explore how everyday style could be rethought through a more responsible lens.

In this episode, we'll touch on the footprint of the clothes we wear most often. From materials like cotton and synthetics to the water, energy, and labor behind production and the growing challenge of textile waste.

Today's episode is for the men out there and you know the women in their lives as well. We'll also spotlight real-world solutions like six of our favorite menswear brands that are designing with better materials, durability, and longevity in mind.

Along with circular approaches like repair, resale, and takeback programs that really help keep clothing in use longer. 

As always, this episode is about progress, not perfection. Helping make everyday choices a little more thoughtful, practical, and aligned with a lower impact lifestyle. Okay, let's get started.

Yeah, let's jump right into the sources we have today because I mean, it's a really revealing stack of information. When you open your closet, you aren't just looking at fabric.

Oh, definitely not. Okay, let's unpack this because a closet is basically a global agricultural and industrial supply chain hanging on hangers, right?

It is. I mean, if you think about a standard conventional cotton t-shirt, the kind you might literally be wearing right now. Before it ever reached your shoulders, just the cotton for that single shirt, likely required hundreds and sometimes over a thousand gallons of water to grow.

The scale of that is just wild to visualize. Like 1,000 gallons for one lightweight shirt. Which leads right into the frankly disposable mindset that has totally dominated the apparel industry for the last few decades. Make it fast. Make it cheap. Wear it a few times and throw it in the trash.

Yeah, it's a huge problem.

But wait, I have to push back on something here based on what we're seeing in the deep dive sources. When we talk about fixing this, are we just talking about swapping out standard cotton for organic cotton? Because to me, if the core behavior of the wearer doesn't change, swapping conventional for organic is like swapping a regular paper plate for a recycled paper plate.

Oh, wow. That is a brilliant way to frame it,

Right. Because you're still tossing it after one use. It doesn't solve the core issue of disposability. I feel like we need to treat our clothes like a cast iron skillet, not a paper plate.

I love that. A cast iron skillet.

Yeah, because a skillet is an investment. You season it, you care for it, you repair it, and it lasts for generations.

The cast iron skillet versus the paper plate that captures the exact mindset shift required here. Because the real innovation happening in menswear right now isn't merely about substituting raw materials. It's about fundamentally engineering the garment to survive a lifetime.

Which is the perfect bridge to the first brand in our stack today, Taylor Stitch. For anyone unfamiliar, they make the kind of rugged classic men's wear staples you reach for when you just need to get things done.

Yeah, sturdy flannel button-downs, heavy duty denim.

Exactly. Thick canvas outerwear. They design for real life, like early mornings, unpredictable weather, chopping wood, or just commuting to the office.

And their whole design aesthetic is understated, but their construction is incredibly robust. Their explicit philosophy is literally “wear in not out.”

Wear in, not out. I like that.

Yeah. They are actively engineering clothes that mold to you and get better the more you wear them rather than slowly deteriorating in the wash.

But durability isn't just a marketing buzzword. You know, if I'm wearing a canvas jacket to chop wood, I need to know the seams aren't going to blow out on the first swing. I was looking at the manufacturing specs in our deep dive, and the secret to their durability seems to be entirely rooted in their labor model, which feels a bit counterintuitive. 

How so?

Well, how does the way you treat a worker change the physical strength of a shirt?

Ah, I mean it is the most critical factor. Taylor Stitch operates their own factory called Hubo, where workers are actually paid living wages and receive comprehensive benefits like healthcare and maternity leave.

Which is practically unheard of in a fast fashion landscape that relies on a raise to the bottom for labor costs.

Right. But think about the mechanical result of that ethical choice. When you pay a living wage and offer real benefits. You retain your workforce. You aren't constantly training new people.

Oh, I see.

You develop a floor of highly skilled veteran artisans who've been sewing for years rather than a high turnover sweat shop where speed is prioritized over skill. That skilled labor directly translates to higher quality construction.

So, they actually have the time and the expertise to execute complicated techniques.

Exactly. A veteran artisan knows how to properly set a double needle stitch. They know how to accurately bar tack the stress points on a pair of jeans. You know those little reinforced zigzag stitches you see on pockets?

Yeah. Yeah.

They take the time to lock the seams. Your shirt doesn't rip after three washes because the person who engineered that seam is a master of their craft who is given the time to do it right. Ethical manufacturing is a structural quality control mechanism.

That makes perfect sense.

The longevity is literally sewn into the garment by someone who cares.

And speaking of garments that are built to take a beating, we have to talk about denim… Nudie Jeans.

Oh, yes.

They are a Swedish brand renowned for classic, authentic denim. They make jeans and denim jackets that are totally built around the idea of a long-term relationship with the wearer.

And their material baseline is strict. They use 100% organic cotton for all their denim. Because tying back to our earlier point, organic farming builds up that healthy spongy soil.

It relies far more on natural rainfall.

Exactly. Which drastically cuts down that massive artificial water footprint we discussed.

But their operational model is what really caught my eye in these articles. They offer free lifetime repairs at their global repair shops. Let me ask a logistical question here because the math seems crazy.

Okay.

Fixing a blown out crotch or a torn knee on a pair of stiff, heavy, raw denim takes highly skilled labor, specialized sewing machines, and significant time. How does a clothing company actually afford to absorb that overhead forever without going bankrupt? 

On paper, it sounds like a fast track to financial ruin, doesn't it? Giving away highly skilled labor for free. But if we connect this to the bigger picture, it is actually a brilliant customer retention strategy, completely disguised as a sustainability program.

Break that down for me. How does losing money on a repair make them money?

Well, think about the physical act of getting the repair. When your jeans rip, you don't just mail them to avoid, you walk physically back into their retail store. They are bringing you back into their ecosystem. And while you're standing there, waiting for your jeans to be patched. What are you doing? You're looking at the new jackets. You're trying on a new fit. The customer acquisition cost -- the marketing money normally spent to get a buyer into a store -- is entirely bypassed. It builds immense lifelong brand loyalty.

Oh, that is incredibly smart. They've turned a repair cost into a guaranteed foot traffic generator.

And it goes deeper. Nudie has a comprehensive reuse program. If your jeans are totally beyond repair or if you've just outgrown them and don't want them anymore, you can drop them off at the shop.

And what do they do with them?

Nudie will either professionally refurbish them and resell them as curated premium vintage jeans or they will mechanically recycle that raw denim into completely new garments.

Wait, they are effectively farming their own customers’ closets for raw materials.

That is exactly what they're doing. They've created a closed loop where the customer is also their primary material supplier.

Okay, so we solved for rugged canvas and stiff raw denim. But let's be honest, that kind of armor isn't for every occasion. Sometimes you just want unparalleled soft comfort. But softness usually equals fragility. How do you engineer a garment that feels like a cloud without it disintegrating in the washing machine?

Which brings us to the fascinating material science of Marine Layer.

Yes, Marine Layer. They are a San Francisco based lifestyle brand making laid-back vintage inspired teas, knits, and everyday casual wear. The origin story of in our sources is incredibly relatable.

It really is.

The founder's girlfriend threw away his perfectly broken in threadbare vintage tea because it was practically dissolving. So, he set out to recreate that day one lived in softness without having to wait a decade to break the shirt in.

But to achieve that, they couldn't just buy off the rack standard cotton. They have custom-developed over a 100 proprietary fabrics. And one of the foundational fibers they utilize to engineer that specific softness is called Tencel.

Here's where it gets really interesting. The chemistry behind Tencel blew my mind. mind. Walk us through how this works.

It's a marvel of modern material science. Tencel is actually made from sustainably harvested wood pulp, usually eucalyptus or beach trees.

Wait, wood pulp?

Yeah, wood. They take that raw wood pulp and dissolve it in a specialized organic solvent. This breaks the wood down into a viscous honeylike liquid. Then they push that liquid through tiny microscopic holes, a process called spinning, to create incredibly fine exceptionally soft fibers.

But doesn't dissolving wood require a massive amount of harsh chemicals? Like how is that better for the environment?

That is the genius of the Tencel process. It utilizes what is called a closed loop production system. The solvent they use isn't toxic. And more importantly, over 99% of that solvent and the water used in the process is captured, recovered, and reused for the next batch of wood pulp.

So the chemical is just constantly cycling in a loop rather than being dumped into a river somewhere.

Exactly. It's a nearly zero-waste chemical process. That results in a highly breathable fabric that is actually softer and more durable than standard conventional cotton.

But the crown jewel of Marine Layer isn't just how they make their shirts. It's how they handle their end of life through their Re-Spun program.

Oh, this program is amazing.

The economics of this program sound completely inverted. You buy a takeback bag from them for $20. You stuff it with up to 15 pounds of old unwanted textiles. And it can be from any brand, not just Marine Layer.

Right. Literally any old stretched out t-shirt from college, any brand.

You send it in and they give you a $40 store credit. You are giving them literal trash and they are paying you $40. What is the business logic there?

It is a master class in circular economics, right?

First, by offering you that $40 credit, they guarantee your next purchase. They lock you into their retail ecosystem. But second, and more importantly, they are securing their own future supply chain against global market shocks

Because they don't have to buy Virgin cotton.

Exactly. When they get your bag of old clothes, those textiles go through a rigorous mechanical shredding process. They sort the garments by color, strip out the zippers and buttons, and then massive machines physically tear the fabric apart, shredding it all the way back down to the raw fiber level.

That material is called Shoddy, right?

Yeah. Shoddy. They then take that recycled fiber and spin it into brand new yarn. They are offsetting the fluctuating global cost of buying virgin cotton by paying you a flat rate to send them your old clothes.

And it keeps an astronomical amount of waste out of the ground. The sources estimate this specific program will divert 650,000 lbs of textile waste from landfills by 2025.

Which is a monumental achievement for a single brand.

And speaking of monumental waste diversion, let's look at our next brand, Fair Harbor. They are a brand deeply rooted in coastal living. They make relaxed beach to everyday style clothing, swim trunks, board shorts, lightweight casual apparel.

Yeah, their whole vibe is sunfaded, saltwashed comfort that transitions from the ocean right to a restaurant.

And their core mission is directly tied to protecting those coastal waters. Since their founding, they have intercepted and repurposed over 37 million plastic bottles, turning them into soft, high performance fabrics for their swimwear.

Which is fantastic. But the thing in their portfolio that completely broke my brain is their proprietary material called Seawool.

I demand to know the mechanics of this because it sounds like magic. How on earth do you take a sharp, rigid, discarded oyster shell from a seafood restaurant and turn it into a soft sweater?

I know it sounds impossible, but it is pure cutting edge material engineering. They take discarded oyster shells from the restaurant food industry, which is organic waste that would normally just sit rotting in a landfill. They thoroughly clean those shells and then crush and pulverize them into a nanoscale powder.

So, we talking about a microscopic ultrafine dust.

Exactly. Then they take that microscopic shell powder and mix it with recycled PET plastic pellets, which are derived from those recycled plastic water bottles we mentioned. They melt that entire mixture down and extrude it into a brand new yarn.

But why add the oyster shell at all? Why not just use the recycled plastic?

Because of the microscopic physical structure of the pulverized shell. The tiny jagged edges of the shell powder create microscopic thermal pockets within the yarn. Those pockets trap heat, providing natural thermal regulation. 

Wow.

Furthermore, the composition of the shell makes the fabric naturally anti-static and it actively blocks odor causing bacteria from bonding to the fabric.

Let me make sure I'm understanding this. By physically embedding oyster dust into the yarn, they don't have to spray the finished garment with weird synthetic chemical coatings to get those performance features.

You've got it. The high-tech performance isn't a chemical finish that washes off in the laundry. It is physically baked into the DNA of the yarn itself, utilizing literal restaurant waste. and oceanbound plastics.

That is unbelievable. Okay, so we've seen how brands can physically engineer clothes to last and we've explored how they can invent entirely new material sciences. But if we're going to truly change the massive global apparel industry, brands have to zoom out. They have to wire radical transparency into their entire global operation.

Which perfectly introduces Outerknown.

Outerknown was founded by professional surfer Kelly Slater and designer John Moore. They make elevated coastal basics, you know, casual wear, thick flannels, and outerwear with a very clean, versatile adult look. You can wear it on the beach or to a nice dinner.

What really stands out about Outerknown in these sources is their systemic, uncompromising approach to operational transparency. They are one of the very first brands to achieve full Fair Labor Accreditation or FLA accreditation.

Now, I want to clarify this for the listener because every brand claims to be ethical. As I understand it, FLA accreditation is very different from just slapping a green leaf graphic on your about us page. 

Oh, it is the absolute gold standard of labor auditing. FLA accreditation means independent third-party auditors are physically traveling to the manufacturing facilities. And they aren't just sitting in an office taking the factory manager's word for it. They are forensically auditing the operation.

What does that actually look like on the ground?

It means the auditors are pulling workers aside for confidential interviews away from management to ensure they aren't being coached. They are cross-referencing payroll records against actual time cards to check for double bookkeeping or forced unpaid overtime.

Wow, they really dig in.

Yeah, they are physically inspecting the factory floor for safety hazards and verifying that the workers have the unencumbered right to organize. It is a massive, expensive operational hurdle for a brand to open its books and its supply chain to that level of invasive scrutiny.

It's an incredible commitment. And they are pushing hard on the environmental front, too. According to our notes, eight of their global facilities run on one 100% renewable energy.

They refuse to separate the human footprint from the environmental footprint. They view it as one interconnected system.

Our final brand spotlight today is Tentree. They make highly accessible outdoor inspired basics like comfortable hoodies, graphic tees, sweatpants and light jackets. Yeah, it's very casual everyday daily wear. And they have managed to gamify climate action in the best way possible. The name says it all. For every single item sold, they plant 10 trees.

It makes the impact of the purchase incredibly immediate and tangible for the buyer.

Right. You buy a hoodie, you plant 10 trees. It's a simple transaction. But the sources detail a much larger corporate strategy behind this that they call their restorative agenda.

And this raises an important question about how businesses view their responsibility. For years, the ultimate lofty goal in sustainable fashion was becoming carbon neutral.

Which basically means balancing the scales, right? Emitting carbon, but buying enough carbon offset somewhere else so your net impact m mathematically equals zero. Doing zero harm.

Exactly. Doing no harm. But Tentree, which is a fully certified BCorp, operates on a net positive model. A net positive business fundamentally believes that doing zero harm isn't enough anymore. Their model ensures that the business actively leaves the environment, nature, and local communities in a measurably better state than they found it.

I'm going back to the financial analogies here. It's like investing in an index fund for the environment. You aren't just paying off a debt or balancing a checkbook. Every single purchase actively builds ecological wealth and biodiversity that compounds over time.

That is a perfect analogy. Their operations actively restore degraded ecosystems rather than just trying to minimize damage.

So what does this all mean? We've covered a massive amount of ground today. We've talked about supply chain auditing, nanoscale oyster shells, closed loop chemistry, and global restorative agendas. But if you, the listener, are just standing in your room trying to get dressed in the morning, how do you actually apply this mountain of information. Let's distill this into three highly actionable tips you can use right now.

Tip number one, read the tag. It sounds so basic, but actively checking the inner clothing tags for preferred fibers makes a huge difference. Look for things like organic cotton, recycled polyester, hemp, or Tencel. Every single time you choose these materials over conventional, resource heavy, virgin synthetics, you are sending a massive measurable demand signal up the supply chain. You are voting with your wallet for a cleaner industry.

Tip number two, calculate the true cost per wear. Remember our cast iron skillet analogy. Stop looking solely at the initial sticker price on the rack. If you buy a $40 fast fashion jacket that loses its shape and falls apart in a year, you're just going to have to buy it again next year and the year after that.

And that adds up fast.

It really does. That actually costs you significantly more in the long run than investing in a $150 jacket from Taylor Stitch or Nudie Jeans that is engineered to last a decade, gets better with age and comes with free repairs. Invest in durability upfront.

Tip number three, circulate. Don't trash. When you are finally done with a garment, no matter how ripped or stained it is, never ever put textiles in your household trash bin. Utilize the brand takeback programs we discussed.

Like the Marine Layer program.

Yeah. Grab a Marine Layer Re-Spun bag, clear out 15 lbs of old shirts from your closet, and get store credit while keeping it out of a landfill. Or drop off your old denim at a Nudie repair shop. Your unwanted, worn out clothes still hold immense value as raw materials for the next generation of apparel. Give them a second life.

I think what this entire deep dive proves is that incredible versatile style, high tech everyday comfort, and deep environmental responsibility can all be woven into the exact same garment. You really don't have to sacrifice looking good to do good.

That is the ultimate takeaway. And I want to leave you with one final provocative thought to ponder today. We started by talking about the hidden impacts of getting dressed. Going forward, I challenge you to think of your closet not just as a piece of furniture where you store fabric, but as your own personal warehouse of global resources.

Well, I like that.

Every morning, you aren't just getting dressed. You are acting as a supply chain manager, deciding what to do with a vast inventory of water, agriculture, and human labor. What kind of ecosystem do you want your inventory to support?

You are the supply chain manager of your own closet. I love that perspective. Interested in learning more about creating a greener, more sustainable home and daily life? Check out the other episodes of the Seeing Green podcast, both the Spotlight Series and the Greening My series. And please subscribe while you are at it.

You also can join the Seeing Green community by signing up on the Seeing Green website, where you can see more trailblazers making significant strides in promoting eco-friendly living through innovative products, solutions, and practices online at www.seeinggreen.eco

And follow us @SeeingGreenEco across social media channels. for all the latest tips and solutions. Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, BlueSky, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest with more than 1,600 pins now.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Greening My Series on the Seeing Green podcast.

Until next time, keep seeing green.

=== END OF TRANSCRIPT ===  

Explore more at: www.seeinggreen.eco 

Follow us: @SeeingGreenEco on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, BlueSky, LinkedIn