At Endura, we’re committed to reducing our impact on the world, both environmentally and socially. We’re proud to be a member of Pentland family of brands, who have an enviable reputation for corporate responsibility and ethical trading (as well as being great place to work).
We recognize that we have a long way to go before we will be satisfied that we have done all we can to eliminate our environmental impact as a brand and fully live up to our values in terms of sustainability. We are involved in many projects around end-of-life, plastic reduction and recycling to name just a few that will help us make big steps in a positive direction.
We are committed to facing up to our challenges head on and not simply tinkering around the edges. Sustainability is a value that is espoused all the way from the top of Endura and it now shapes the way we design our product and how we operate throughout our business.
Endura kit has always had a built-to-last reputation – durability was one of the Jim’s aims when he set up Endura, hence the “dura” part of our name. Our kit stands the test of time and this keeps it in use for longer – above all else, this is the key point in reducing a garment’s environmental impact. We also offer an in-house repair service to extend the life of your Endura product, reducing the need to scrap an otherwise perfectly functioning bit of kit after a crash.
We were early movers in removing PFCs from our product range and have been 100% PFC free in all of our new products since the start of 2018. Used in traditional durable water repellent treatments – a surface finish that helps water roll off fabrics, PFC is nasty stuff, persisting in the environment and negatively impacting living organisms in a number of ways. Newer, gentler water repellent treatments do require a bit more care and regular reproofing to retain their performance, so we’ve introduced our own cleaner and re-proofer that’s based on an environmentally responsible fluorocarbon-free technology and designed to work at low temperatures, Endura Cleaner and Re-proofer cleans and restores the durable water-repellent finish to your garments, leaving you fully protected.
We’re also PTFE free, another environmentally persistent chemical that’s used in many of the membranes used to makes garments waterproof but breathable. Our ExoShell family of fabrics, is PTFE free and provides superbly breathable, waterproofing that’s also kinder on the environment.
Our point of sale material – hangtags and packaging – is now 98% recyclable. We removed all of the laminate and gloss finishes from our packaging and tags to ensure that they are easily recyclable in 2015 and are now actively developing alternative solutions to the poly bag used to transport garments to stores and the plastic hangers used to display them.
Endura was founded as a manufacturing company and has always been directly involved with in-house manufacture of clothing at its own facility in Scotland. This ethos continues to this day and Endura actually manufactures more product in its own facility now than ever before with plans to further increase production in the coming year with a focus on cutting-edge cycling kit for custom clothing for cycle clubs and production of kit for the Endura sponsored teams and athletes.
Endura’s production facility incorporates the latest technology in CAD design, digital sublimation printing, laser cutting, automatic ceramic blade cutting and seamless ultrasonic welding/cutting and we continue to invest in the latest production technologies, while most other brands source all product through vendors overseas.
When it comes to production, we’ve always been a company that has UK manufacturing as its beating heart and the #EnduraCustom team make over 50,000 items in Scotland every year for clubs as well as our sponsored teams and athletes. Manufacturing close to main markets cuts down on “garment miles” (and makes us extremely proud too).
When it comes to our products that are made overseas, we’ve always strived to work with ethically run suppliers, avoiding countries with reputations for poor employee conditions and child labor and have regularly opted to pass on cheaper production options and have instead chosen less competitive production facilities purely because of concerns over worker welfare.
Endura became part of Pentland Brands in March 2018 and we are excited to be working with a company who have the same values as us with regards to the collective responsibility we have for our workforce overseas and in the UK.