RESPONSIBLE REIMA
Products
We make durable, ethically produced, sustainable products with timeless design. From the materials we innovate to our recycling initiatives we think of every last detail – because it’s the small details that make a big difference.
Long-lasting products
Our long-lasting products can be passed on and reused – multiple times.
The best way to reduce the environmental impact of clothing is to lengthen the time each product is in use. That’s why durability, quality and timeless design are our top priorities in product sustainability. We want to create products that can be used by several happy kids.
Kids’ clothes, especially outdoor wear, is fit for purpose when it supports play. Often this means quite rough treatment as well, when kids crawl around and climb, and yes, sometimes trip. To ensure our products can take it, we have very strict quality standards for products and materials. The physical properties of fabrics – such as water resistance, wash durability, and rub count – are tested in our laboratory in Shanghai.
We use the Martindale test – mechanically rubbing the fabrics against abrasive surfaces – to ensure the durability of our fabrics. Our minimum Martindale value requirements vary by age group, product type and price point.
Product safety
Our products are always non-toxic, clean enough to chew, and made to improve kids’ safety in everyday life.
Safety has always been an integral part of our product development, design, and manufacturing processes. In 2019, we were awarded the EU Product Safety Award as a company that not only makes safe and non-toxic products, but also improves children’s safety through ranges of protective clothing.
Our products are designed to ensure the best mechanical and physical safety features. This means, for example, appropriate and safely designed cords and drawstrings, detachable hoods, and reflecting details.
Regarding chemical safety, we follow European Union and other relevant legislation on chemicals, but we have set even stricter limits for various substances. Our Restricted Substances List (RSL) specifies which chemical substances are banned or restricted in the product and material manufacturing process. It also defines the limits for chemical substances in the finished products.
To further improve the chemical safety and reduce the environmental impacts of textile manufacturing, we became a bluesign® system partner in 2020. All bluesign® partners must meet strict criteria for chemical management to protect the water, air, and soil, as well as the people working with textiles. As bluesign® acts as an independent verifier, the system ensures transparency and traceability of all textile processing steps, down to the raw materials.
Our clothing has been 100% PFC-free since 2017. To ensure water repellency and waterproofing, we use nominated, fluorine free treatments such as BIONIC FINISH® ECO and Teflon Ecoelite®.
Care, repair and reuse
We encourage the repair and re-use of our easy-care products.
We have developed our products to be practical and easy to care for: one of the key objectives of our product development is improving dirt and water resistance. This reduces the need for washing: most of the time, Reima clothes can just be wiped clean, or the dirt can be sprayed off with a splash of water.
Having to wash less saves energy, water, and detergent – thus reducing the overall environmental impact of a product’s lifecycle. For the sake of our planet, the dirt- and water-repellent finish in our clothing is always fluorocarbon free.
Even though our products are developed to be extra durable, accidents can happen when kids really put their outerwear to a test. We encourage customers to take good care of our products, and to repair any damage if possible. Our Reima Repair Kit comes with tools and instructions for fixing the most common wear and tear. For repairing any Reima product which is less than one year old, we are happy to send a waterproof patch or new foot loops free of charge.
Our goal is to create products that withstand rough play and are still in good condition for next kid. To promote the reuse and resale of Reima clothing, we’ve partnered up with Emmy, Finland’s largest online second-hand store. Our Reima Rescue Service (currently only in Finland) makes buying and selling second-hand Reima gear easier than ever.
Innovating for circularity
Our monomaterial outerwear is designed for easy recycling.
We are strongly committed to improving circularity in fashion. When our products finally reach the end of their life, we hope they can be recycled and become raw material for something new.
Clothes are, however, often hard to recycle because they are made from many different materials. Even a simple t-shirt might contain too many mixed fibers or prints to be recyclable as a whole – and performance wear is even more difficult thanks to the different fibers in the lining, shell, and coating. Fiber blends can’t be easily separated for recycling, and they’re less valuable as raw material.
The key in designing easily recyclable clothing is reducing the number of different materials in a product. That’s why we have invested in research and development of monomaterial performance wear. Our first monomaterial jacket was introduced in spring 2020, and since then our monomaterial collection has grown to include more jackets and pants – all made of one material all the way down to the waterproofing.
Each monomaterial product comes with a unique ID, so the buyer can register it at myreima.com to follow its journey onward to new owners. When the products are no longer usable, Reima takes them back and makes sure they’re properly recycled – back into polymers, and ultimately into new products.