2020 Sustainaibility Report

Our design ethos is to make gear you’ll love for longer – gear you’ll come back to year after year. Every Alpkit product has a specific purpose, which means there’s limited cross-over in our range and ultimately fewer garments in your wardrobe. And to make sure we’re making the best products, our design team actively listens to customers, gets feedback and reads every one of our customer reviews. We’ve offered repairs since we started and in 2017 we launched the Continuum Project, which finds old kit a new home, irrespective of brand.

We know that some materials, processes and chemicals used in our products and production processes are harmful to the environment – when you think about it, most outdoor gear is made from plastic or made from things that are dug up from the ground (we’re talking metals, not potatoes!). We seek to minimise that harm without compromise to performance or quality.

Wherever we use animal products we do it as conscientiously as possible. There are three animal materials in our products: goose and duck down, merino wool and goat- skin leather. We have a policy of sourcing these materials using the most humane methods available to us.

We work with the best factories in the world, mainly in China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the UK. Our senior team (CEO, MD, Head of Design, Sonder Product Manager) regularly spends time at our factories and personally review conditions. We only work with factories who are as committed as we are to eradicating modern slavery from every part of the supply chain.

We are investing in the UK and making sure we are responsible and fair in the way we set up our business.

I’m an Accounts Apprentice and started in October 2017 as my first proper job. I started doing book-keeping, then moved onto looking after management accounts and assisting senior members of the team. After just over two years I’m now training people on how to do the job that I used to do when I first started!

Alpkit has paid for my formal training as well as what I’m doing on-the-job. I’m in college one day a week, training for my AAT qualification, which will be finished this year. The next step for me is to get the CIMA qualification, which will take three years and mean that I’ll be a qualified accountant, which is amazing.

I love working at Alpkit, it’s relaxed, positive and everyone here is supportive. It’s also been interesting to go on Adventure Training with the team, which totally took me out of my comfort zone! Hiking up hills, mountain-biking and running along trails in the dark learning about head torches is very different to reconciliations and posting prepayments and accruals. Apparently the mountain biking was a beginners route but seriously, I could barely walk some bits, let alone ride them – great fun!

Josh Soar, Accountancy Apprentice

We’re committed to giving back to the communities that we’re lucky enough to be a part of, whether that’s the broad community of people who love the outside, people who need support or the local areas where we have our stores. Ultimately, we want to help more people Go Nice Places Do, Good Things.

Spending time outdoors is good for the mind, body and soul. But generally people are spending less time outdoors. That is a problem we’re helping to tackle. 1% of Alpkit sales go to individuals and direct-action projects. From ti-spoons to titanium tandems, every penny adds up to a huge amount – more than £200,000 so far.

We support ordinary people doing extraordinary things to make the world a better place. We’re incredibly proud that the Foundation has now been involved in over 600 projects. That’s over 10,000 people that have directly benefited from the support that Alpkit customers have given through the Foundation.

It’s humbling to see the effect that these small steps can make to so many people. Our hope is that everyone gets the chance to Go Nice Places Do Good Things, even just sometimes. The Foundation is a thank you from us to all our customers as we know we would not be here without you.

If you know of a deserving project or think you’re someone that only needs a bit of backing to make a big difference, it’s simple to apply, or donate. Just head to alpkit.com/foundation.