Element

Ele­ment is a brand dedi­ca­ted to people and com­mu­nity, brin­ging toget­her a diver­se gro­up of ska­te­bo­ar­ding and out­do­or ent­hu­si­as­ts from aro­und the wor­ld. The­ir wor­k­for­ce repre­sents 55% men and 45% women, and the­ir network of amba­ssa­dors has grown glo­bal­ly over the years. They part­ner with orga­ni­za­ti­ons such as ​‘Ska­te like a Girl, ​‘Sub­s­tan­ce Sta­ke­park NYC’, and ​‘Eco Ska­te­part Seat­tle’, among others, to incre­ase the­ir influ­en­ce and con­tri­bu­te to the com­mu­nity.

They ente­red into a mul­ti-year part­ner­ship with the Harold Hun­ter Foun­da­ti­on to empower young people in the inner-city of New York.

That being said, the brand does not sta­te the loca­ti­ons or names of the­ir sup­pli­ers or pro­duc­ti­on faci­li­ti­es, and does not sta­te the­ir met­hods of ensu­ring ethi­cal wor­king prac­ti­ces and living wages.

This brand has a res­pon­si­bly sour­ced col­lec­ti­on, the cri­te­ria for which is that at least 51% of the gar­ment must con­ta­in pre­fer­red fibres, and tec­h­ni­cal outerwe­ar con­ta­ining 30% pre­fer­red fibres. Pro­duc­ts con­ta­ining recy­cled cot­ton must have 20% recy­cled cot­ton, and the fibres are said to be ​“pre­fer­red” if they are label­led by an inter­na­ti­onal­ly recog­ni­zed 3^rd par­ty orga­ni­za­ti­on. In 2022, 48% of the­ir pro­duct ran­ge met the­se cri­te­ria, and they aim to incre­ase this figu­re to 60% by 2024. They have an acti­on plan with cle­ar chec­k­po­ints to reach this goal, howe­ver this is not shown on the web­si­te. Addi­ti­onal­ly, it is impor­tant to keep in mind that this num­ber does not reflect the true sus­ta­ina­bi­lity of the company’s mate­ri­ality, as only part of each gar­ment needs to be sus­ta­ina­bly sourced. 

Ele­ment uses many natu­ral mate­ri­als such as cot­ton, linen, and leat­her. A lot of the­ir cot­ton pro­duc­ts are orga­nic, or recy­cled, which are more sus­ta­ina­ble than conven­ti­onal cot­ton. They also use many syn­t­he­tic and semi-syn­t­he­tic mate­ri­als such as polyes­ter, elas­ta­ne, and polyamide. 

They work with Polya­na yarn – which is Peta appro­ved vegan, Oeko Tex Stan­dard 100 cer­ti­fi­ed which ensu­res non-toxi­city of the yarn, as well as GRS (Glo­bal Recy­cling Stan­dard) cer­ti­fi­ed. This yarn is 100% tra­ce­able and ful­ly recy­cla­ble. They also use Fila­tu­re du Parc yarn which is Eco­cert Cer­ti­fi­ed and 100% recy­cled, and Reco­ver Uno Cot­ton, which is recy­cled cot­ton, howe­ver the­se col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons are una­ble to be found or veri­fi­ed anywhe­re. They also cla­im to use recy­cled polyes­ter and recy­cled down, and recy­cled car­d­bo­ard labels. Howe­ver, the mate­ri­ality des­crip­ti­ons do not men­ti­on how much of the­se sus­ta­ina­ble yar­ns are used in which pro­duc­ts, which makes it hard to measu­re the sus­ta­ina­bi­lity of the gar­ments and the brand. 

For the­ir ska­te­bo­ar­ds, Ele­ment uses mate­ri­als such as maple wood, ste­el, uret­ha­ne, and san­d­pa­per, none of which being FSC (Forest Stewar­d­ship Coun­cil) certified.

They also use recycled/​recyclable polybags for the­ir pac­ka­ging, howe­ver haven’t sta­ted the mate­ri­al used or any fur­t­her deta­ils regar­ding this.

Ele­ment has part­ne­red with 1% for the Pla­net for sales of the­ir ska­te­bo­ard equ­ip­ment, which they use to fig­ht defo­res­ta­ti­on and pre­ser­ve biodi­ver­sity. As part of the­ir ​“Con­s­ci­ous by Natu­re” pro­gram, Ele­ment has been dona­ting sin­ce Janu­ary 2022, 1% of its ska­te­bo­ard ran­ge sales to envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­ti­ons.

The brand has set vari­ous envi­ron­men­tal and soci­al goals for them­sel­ves, which can be found on the­ir website. 

A majo­rity of the pro­duc­ts on the Ele­ment web­si­te are mono­ma­te­ri­al, which is gre­at for recy­cling. They also cla­im to use a lot of recy­cled mate­ri­al, con­tri­bu­ting to the cir­cu­la­rity of that mate­ri­al. Howe­ver, other than this, they do not men­ti­on anyt­hing regar­ding cir­cu­la­rity and the­ir steps towar­ds cir­cu­la­rity anywhe­re on the web­si­te, such as a repa­ir or take-back system. 

The brand was foun­ded in the USA, and ships wor­l­dwi­de, howe­ver they do not sta­te the loca­ti­ons of the­ir sup­pli­ers or pro­duc­ti­on faci­li­ti­es, or the met­hod of transport. 

Ele­ment uses Leat­her in the­ir pro­duc­ts, and cla­ims to have pro­duc­ts cer­ti­fi­ed by RDS (Res­pon­si­ble Down Stan­dard), howe­ver does not pro­vi­de pro­of of cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on, or any other infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding ethi­cal tre­at­ment of ani­mals, such as a code of con­duct or ani­mal wel­fa­re statement. 

Ele­ment was cre­ated revol­ving aro­und the ele­ments of the ear­th, dedi­ca­ted to natu­re and soci­ety, and sus­ta­ina­bi­lity. The­ir desig­ns are time­less and seaso­nless, desig­ned for outerwe­ar with a tough appe­aran­ce of stre­et style. Asi­de from this, the brand does not pro­vi­de any care tips, or infor­ma­ti­on regar­ding durability. 

This brand has a long way to go regar­ding tran­s­pa­ren­cy. They men­ti­on the­ir dedi­ca­ti­on to sus­ta­ina­bi­lity many times, and cla­im to inter­na­li­ze the­ir love for natu­re and soci­ety. The­ir ​‘res­pon­si­ble’ line of clot­hing is easy to access on the web­si­te, howe­ver besi­des this the­re is no tran­s­pa­ren­cy regar­ding the sup­ply cha­in, tra­ce­abi­lity, cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons, mate­ri­ality, the­ir acti­on plan to impro­ve mate­ri­ality, pac­ka­ging, tran­s­por­ta­ti­on, water/​chemical usage/​pollution, CO2 emi­ssi­ons, and much more.