Sustainable collaboration Bever,  Blue Loop and Fraenck.

Bever outdoor sports shop and sustainable label Blue LOOP and social enterprise Fraenck have joined forces and launched a collection of outdoor accessories made from recycled tents. The project, launched in 2021, is in line with the Circular Outdoor Industry Collaboration (CSO), Initiated by Bever and signed by cooperating partners at the head office in Pijnacker, including Sympany, Sheltersuit and FastFeetGrinded.

Ron van de Wiel, of Blue LOOP Originals: "The textile industry is still one of the biggest polluters; to achieve the climate objectives we must therefore pull out all the stops to make this sector more sustainable. The current members have been actively working on this for years, but there is always room for improvement and speed. As a network, we want to send out a signal to the entire outdoor industry that they should take climate protection more seriously than they have done so far and take swift and decisive action to make our industry more sustainable. We therefore invite everyone to join our network."

Collection

The collection of accessories is a concrete result of the collaboration between three partners in the outdoor chain. The raw materials for the collection are collected from the 40 Bever stores. Here, customers can hand in their used and/or broken tents, after which they are sorted out at the distribution centre and sent via Blue LOOP to Fraenck. Here, the tents are cut up and processed into a final product. Eventually, the eight different items are available in Bever branches, under the sustainable Buitenmens label.

It's great to see that a big chain like Bever is really doing something about the growing problem of post-consumer waste. We try to reuse as much as possible, even the strings for the tent pegs are processed into the puller for a zip. Do you have holes in a tent? No problem, we stitch a patch on it. These are all materials that are still good, so it's a shame to throw them away. Yes, it takes some effort to figure out how to process this waste stream most efficiently into high-quality products. But we are extremely proud of the result and the fact that we are showing in this way how we can tackle this problem." Ratna Ho, founder Fraenck.

Circular cooperation Outdoor industry

The Circular cooperation Outdoor industry is not the first sustainable action by the outdoor shop, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Besides the introduction of its own sustainable clothing collection "Buitenmens" and Our Planet seal of approval, at the end of last year parent company Yonderland (formerly A.S. Adventure Group) joined the Outdoor Retailer Climate Commitment (ORCC), an open network of European outdoor retailers. After it became clear that this European agreement was not signed by other Dutch retailers, Bever decided to start a Dutch initiative.

Albert Scholte, CEO Bever: "As the outdoor shop of the Netherlands, Bever is committed to getting as many people as possible outdoors. Because outside, you are at your best. But we know that outside is vulnerable. Our love of the outdoors motivates us to make Bever a little more sustainable every day. That is why we want to lead the way in stimulating and realising life-long and circular initiatives in the outdoor industry. Of course, we cannot do this alone, so through this partnership we want to underline even more clearly that we, as Bever, are committed to the goals of making the outdoor industry more sustainable."

It was quite a job to do this, because every tent is different. That has its advantages and disadvantages. Pascal Mulder, founder Fraenck: "The best thing: every item we make is limited edition. So you always have a unique item in your hands. Each label also states who made the product, so you can walk into our workshop and have a chat with them. It does not get much more transparent than that.

Check out the collection at the Bever website.