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Reflo founder Rory McFadyen is aware of the situation the environment is in, and he believes that apparel brands can be a harbinger of change. That's part of why he founded the company and why it has such a commitment to sustainability and to making a difference.
McFadyen said via Golf Monthly:
"Our aim is simply to be the most sustainable apparel brand in the world."
He continued, saying that they had looked "deeper into what an apparel brand is and how it functions," and saw what he described as "horrendous practices." McFadyen said:
"Fabric dyeing techniques, cutting techniques, raw materials, shipping Italian fabrics to a Chinese factory then back to Europe and exploitation of cheap labour - this was the fast fashion race to the bottom. With that, 20% of clothing makes it into landfill before its even worn and it's not biodegradable, so it's going to be there forever. We thought there had to be a better way to do this, so we spent about three years researching how to do that."
He said that they built Reflo from the ground up "with the North Star metric of sustainability." The company didn't want to use sustainability as a marketing ploy. For Reflo, it had to be the driving factor behind everything they did.
Reflo has incredible commitment to sustainability
To their credit, Reflo's best-selling products are made with upwards of 90% recycled polyester. They also have a new line of 100% recyclable products that are made entirely of recycled materials.
Rory McFadyen said via Golf Monthly:
"The clothes literally go through the same process as you would take a plastic bottle to be recycled. It goes through a machine that strips it down, heats it and turns it into pellets. Those pellets can be extracted and turned into a fabric again. So it's a fully closed-loop system, it's the first in golf and it's something we're incredibly proud of."
The brand also plants a tree for every product they sell. They have no single use plastics in any of their supply chains. Even the bags the clothes come in are completely biodegradable. They also carbon-offset the workforce and only work with factories that have good conditions and wages for their employees.
McFadyen shared a story of something that further drove him towards his goal:
"The other day, I won't mention a brand, I saw a polo shirt in a pro shop and it had a label on saying 'this is made from recycled material' then it turned out the polo shirt wasn't - it was made from virgin polyester - but it was only the swing tag that was the recycled product."
McFadyen said the label had no other purpose other than to green signal. From his perspective, many of them have a very small percentage of their products that contain sustainable or recycled materials. He has personally seen products with as low as 10% recycled content labeled as such. That's not what he wants for Reflo, and he's backing it up with actions.
