Sustainability

Good products are made of good stuff. When choosing materials, we look for high quality, abrasion resistant materials that will hold up over time and serve their purpose well. We choose materials with function in mind for each product use case, resulting in pieces that will be loved for the long haul. See “Material Impact” under “Production” for more insight into material sourcing decisions.

In addition to choosing durable materials, we reinforce common failure points in all garments with thoughtful stitching and double layering. Our recently-made Product Standards Manual ensures these reinforcements are never forgotten and stay consistent across the line.

We don’t think your clothes should ever hold you back from doing the stuff you love. We design our garments to move with you wherever you go, integrating stretch and articulation where needed.

In addition to physical durability, we prioritize emotional durability: a product’s ability to be loved for a long time. We avoid trendy silhouettes and take a lot of inspiration from vintage styles that have lasted the test of time.

It’s important to us that our products perform well outdoors but can also blend in indoors. By integrating technical features subtly, we create products that are highly versatile and more likely to be worn over and over. Our hope is that this means you can do more with less stuff.

We believe that a product's function should be at least proportional to the impact its production has on the world. In practice, this means that throughout our design practice we strive to minimize impact while maximizing function.

In addition to designing new styles, we are constantly iterating old ones to make them the best they can be. We make edits to existing products each season based on our own experiences and yours. We welcome your feedback and ideas in our Product Feedback Form.

In addition to considering a material’s performance, we also consider where it came from. When possible, we use Preferred Materials which are majority certified recycled, certified organic, or otherwise innovative and lower impact. When this is not possible, it is usually due to minimum order quantities. In these cases, we lay paths to converting to Preferred Materials once our volume allows it. 93% of current LIVSN products use primarily Preferred Materials.

We recently completed an analysis of the environmental impact of our fall products. Using industry standard averages, we assessed them according to global warming, eutrophication, water scarcity, resource depletion, and chemistry. You can find the full breakdown below.

All DWR finishes are PFAS-free and we are working to implement the Bluesign® Restricted Substances List across our supply chain.

We seek out suppliers who prioritize minimizing their own environmental impact. Our primary and tertiary Tier 1 factories are progressing through the Higg Facility Environmental Module, and our secondary Tier 1 factory is LEED v4 Gold certified.

We use plastic-free packaging made primarily of recycled and recyclable materials.

We recognize that we are nothing without the people who make LIVSN - literally. We seek out factories with certifications that ensure fair labor practices and living wages. We have developed a rigorous Code of Conduct which we are currently working to roll out across our supply chain.

At present, we work with three Tier 1 factories. Our primary factory has completed the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module Step 1 and we are working together to progress through the module.

Our secondary Tier 1 factory was WRAP certified through 2023, ensuring that it complied with the 12 WRAP Principles that promote safe, legal, and ethical manufacturing processes. As certification demands have evolved, they are now working toward zero critical non-comformity in a Fairwear Foundation audit in fall of 2024.

We recevie SMETA audits from our tertiary factory, check for any non-conformity, and work to bring any minor issues back into compliance.

We are working with all suppliers to raise the bar for labor standards and accredidation through collaborative efforts.

We believe that transparency is key to consumer empowerment, collective action, and accountability. As we grow we are working closely with our suppliers and with industry standard data to gather the information needed to create our first impact report and to set goals for the future. We’re excited about the opportunity to scale our efforts in sustainability along with our business.

It is our hope that each garment we create finds a home where emotional durability can build. This means we create products that maximize function so that you can own less, live more, and care for each of your belongings more intentionally.

We believe in our products and, in alignment with our mission, we are committed to making sure they serve their purpose well. If our clothing fails due to a manufacturer defect, we will repair, refund, or replace the product at no charge.

We love seeing the users of our products wear them day after day in the toughest conditions. We’ve made a name for ourselves by making durable apparel, but we admit that nothing lasts forever...unless you repair it. In an effort to make our products last even longer we offer at-cost repairs for any wear-and-tear damages accrued.

We hope that our customers hold onto their gear for as long as they can, but we understand that sometimes a garment may no longer be a good fit for you (literally or figuratively). Our resale marketplace allows customers to easily list and sell their used garments to keep them in use.

Although the bulk of our environmental impact happens outside of our walls, we also prioritize tracking and improvements within our walls.

It is our policy to seek continual improvement throughout our business operations to lessen our impact on the local and global environment by conserving energy, water and other natural resources; reducing waste generation; recycling and; reducing our use of toxic materials.

Our business has an impact on many people around the world. We have a variety of ways to engage with stakeholders - from garment worker greivance resolution mechanisms to our customer feedback form - to gauge the impact we have on them. We are continuously working to identify coventionally overlooked stakeholders and build systems to take them into account. We're working to formalize this intention by refiling as a Public Benefit Corporation and pursuing B Corp certification.

Internally, we have a robust employee handbook which includes a code of ethics, a whistlebower policy, financial support for continuing education, an anti-harassment policy, greivance resolution processes, and many other policies that support employees' rights and opportunities in and out of the workplace. We require all full-time employees to complete DEI training and we conduct analyses of our job description language and requirements to ensure they are inclusive and equitable.