Black Algae Sweatpants

Built from the new black that grows in giant ponds.

$395.00 $197.00
Size

Model is 6ft 1 / 185cm with a 29 inch / 74cm waist, and wears size Small.

  • Printed with black algae ink
  • Built with 55% hemp
  • Hemp combined with organic cotton for softness

The colour black is everywhere. From our phones to our cars to the ink in our pens. But black has a dark side. Every black thing you own is likely to contain carbon black – a pigment derived from petroleum. The way carbon black is made isn’t sustainable. Vast tracts of land called tar sands are stripped of all life and vegetation to extract the heavy petroleum, while the production process creates significant greenhouse gases.

So we’re on a search for the new black. And our aim is to reinvent the way in which the colour itself is made using black algae. You don’t have to dig up the Earth to find black algae. It grows in ponds using sunlight and carbon dioxide. Not only does algae generate more than half the oxygen on Earth, but once it becomes part of these sweatpants, it captures and stores the carbon it used as its fuel for the next 100 years.

Technical Details

Material grown in the Heilongjiang mountains, China: 55% organic hemp, 45% organic cotton
Printed with 100% black algae ink
Black algae ink made in the US by Living Ink
Two side pockets
Jersey-lined underside
Highly breathable
Natural stretch
Elasticated rope-tied waistband finished with macramé knots
Material weighs 440g/m2
Pants weigh 700 grams
Machine wash 40°C
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Built with carbon capture technology

Once the sweatpants have been built and printed, the black algae ink continues to lock in the carbon dioxide that it absorbed when it was alive. And it will do this for over 100 years. So the sweatpants you’re wearing is storing carbon emissions. This is known as carbon capture technology and it means that rather than producing emissions, the Black Algae Sweatpants do the exact opposite.

Making clothes like our ancestors made them

While most industries can be improved by heading forwards as fast as possible, one of the biggest advances clothing can make is by heading backwards a few thousand years to when our ancestors were making clothes from grass, tree bark, animal skins and plants. Today we’re trying to get back to using nature to make clothes that require as little energy as possible and leave almost no trace of their existence at the end of their lives. And this means breaking apart many of the standard processes used in the industry today.

Size + Fit

The Black Algae Sweatpants are designed with a regular fit.

Size XS S M L XL XXL
Fits waist 71 - 76 76 - 81 81 - 86 86 - 91 91 - 96 96 - 101
Outside leg 98 99.5 101 102.5 104 105.5
Size XS S M L XL XXL
Fits waist 28 - 30 30 - 32 32 - 34 34 - 36 36 - 38 38 - 40
Outside leg 38.5 39.1 39.7 40.3 40.9 41.5