A big welcome to our latest school ski trip partner North47, putting sustainability at the heart of its operations – just like WhoSki.com. We were delighted to hear about the company’s suite of eco commitments, and look forward to welcoming their clients to the ever-growing WhoSki.com community.
Not only is North47 encouraging all its clients to think second hand first when buying ski clothing and equipment – using WhoSki.com, naturally. It also puts nature and the environment front of mind in all its ski business operations.
From recycling to litter picking, transport (choosing bus and coach over air travel) and gastronomy, North47 is committed to sustainability. As a business, it strives to take – and offer – the most eco-friendly choice in as many fields as possible.
SMALL STEPS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
It’s an approach that, of course, WhoSki.com is 100% in favour of. We take the view that whatever your habits, acting mindfully and positively is the best way to make the small differences that can reduce your carbon footprint and help encourage behaviour changes in other areas of your life.
WhoSki.com is popular with skiers across age and demographic groups. We find families in particular love using our marketplace to pick up quality, good value ski clothing. Our website is easy to use and offers a wide range of ski kit for adults and children from all age groups.
By looking for second hand ski clothing and equipment at WhoSki.com before you buy new, you can save money on your next wintersports trip. From an eco angle, you will also help keep durable, hard to recycle kit in active usage. This helps reduce global consumption and reduces the chance of items like ski jackets, ski pants and base layers ending up in landfill where they can take potentially 100s of years to bio-degrade.
WhoSki.com is open for business all year round, so if you are having a summer clear-out or getting ready for next ski season, register as a user for free and start greening up your wintersports habit right now.
Ski resort workers wear technical, branded ski clothing through the season – but what happens to it when the snow melts? This year, some of those ski clothes have been repaired, refreshed, refurbished and will be back in active usage – thanks to a zero carbon footprint collaboration between WhoSki.com and our Alpine eco-partner One Tree at a Time.
All logos have been obscured or removed, with the ski jackets, fleeces and tops – all little-used and good as new – washed and refurbished before making their way back to the UK from the Alps this summer with ZERO carbon footprint.
Aren’t they gorgeous? Bright, stylish, rescued and repaired. And now on sale at WhoSki.com.
a secondhand success story
A secondhand success story. But just a few months ago, they were end of season cast-offs from seasonal ski resort workers in the Alps.
You’ve probably never thought about what happens to the branded ski clothing used by saisonnaire staff when the snow melts. Barely used but no longer required, most corporate ski jackets, fleeces and mid-layers are probably headed for landfill or incineration.
It’s a story that our eco-partner One Tree at a Time is working tirelessly to re-tell. One Tree is a grassroots organisation based in the hamlet of Bozel in the French Alps, nestled between Courchevel and La Plagne. With their help, we are extending the life of these valuable textiles by enabling re-sale of their pre-loved and 100%-perfect ski clothing via our UK marketplace.
Like WhoSki.com, One Tree at a Time is among the sustainable outdoor activity organisations which belong to the Re-Action Collective, an international group of second handers, renters, repairers and individuals sharing ideas and resources to support and promote the messages of re-sale, re-purpose and re-use.
Here’s the story of how our range of One Tree at a Time refurbished eco ski wear made its way from the Alps to the WhoSki.com marketplace, where you can buy it now…
January 2023 In the Alps, One Tree starts sharing photos of the ex-ski company wear that is being donated for re-use. Good as new or unused items like ski jackets, fleeces, salopettes and woolly hats that are surplus to requirements and will never be used again.
February 2023 WhoSki.com co-founder Sally starts to wonder whether there is a sustainable way to extend the market for One Tree’s pre-loved and refurbished ski wear range to the UK. Selling it on via the WhoSki.com marketplace would help promote the re-use message, highlight the issue of winter sports sustainability and make top-quality ski clothing more affordable and accessible to a wider audience in the UK.
March 2023 Workers at One Tree are busy repairing and refreshing ski wear ready for re-sale. This entails removing all branding and logos, replacing travel company slogans with flashes of reclaimed fabric, making sure zips are in working order and that all items end up good as new.
Image: Gwilym Thomas
Image: Gwilym Thomas
Manon, Justine and the rest of the talented One Tree at a Time repair team work at their sewing machines from home. A cottage industry of passionate, creative people working to provide circularity solutions. Their motivation? To keep textiles in active usage as long as possible.
April 2023 Sally calls Gavin: “Any chance we can bring some of your ski gear to the UK? But we need to do it in as low-carbon a way as possible.” WhoSki.com and One Tree start working out how to transport the clothing back to the UK without generating emissions.
June 2023 Bingo! One of Gavin’s repairers will be driving back to the UK next month and has space in her car to bring over a batch of refurbished ski wear. It’s a journey that she will be taking anyway, so zero carbon footprint for our clothes.
July 2023 Justine arrives in Warrington with a couple of boxes of One Tree ski clothing. WhoSki.com co-founder Nicola’s sister lives nearby and is visiting the area anyway so agrees to collect the boxes and stash them at her home. So far: no extra miles.
Boxes en route
August 2023 Arrival day! Nicola’s sister travels south for a family occasion, bringing with her the two boxes brimming with One Tree’s brightly coloured, expertly refurbished ski wear. It’s fabulous: unique, sustainable, perfect. Next step: upload the pre-loved clothing – base layer fleeces, mid-layer puffers and ski jackets – to WhoSki.com ready for re-sale.
September 2023 Sustainable One Tree at a Time refurbished ski wear goes on sale at WhoSki.com. By buying one of these unique items of clothing, you are keeping an unrecyclable item in active usage, out of landfill and reducing its and your own carbon footprint. Ski wear from the Alps to the UK with zero carbon footprint: a circular economy success story.
If you live anywhere near SW London, visit the WhoSki.com stall in Wimbledon on Saturday September 16. We have a presence at the open-air Love Wimbledon Sustainable Market outside the Odeon in central SW19 – so you can get hands on with the refurbished clothing we are selling through our collaboration with One Tree. Please pop by for a chat and to find out more.
Are you a travel or sports business that would like to see end of season branded items refurbished and put to good use? Get in touch – we would love to help you normalise re-use for discarded winter sports wear. It’s good for sustainability and the environment, good for consumers, good for the industry and great for your corporate profile.
As the ski lifts close at the end of Europe’s winter sports season, at WhoSki.com we are celebrating our first full ski season of trading, with your help.
Helping stem the textiles glut and cutting the cost of skiing with our simple, safe, online marketplace for secondhand ski and snowboard clothing: what a year it has been!
Season highlights include:
A customer database that keeps on growing: thanks to all who have registered and continue to do so. It’s the best way to be among the first to know when new items go on sale. Register quickly and simply here.
A Best Business award for innovation (and a runners-up gong for sustainability).
Building partnerships with a network of businesses operating in the winter sports sector including Huski, Halsbury Ski, Club Europe, the Ski Club of GB and more.
Working alongside local, national and international players to promote circularity and the #SkiGreen message, like Sustainable Merton, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, SATI and Re-Action.
With your help, we have kept heaps of snow wear, from ski jackets to goggles, IN active usage and OUT of landfill.
We have enabled numerous WhoSki.com members to monetize their wardrobe while reducing their carbon footprint via the circular economy.
A stand at the NEC National Snow Show where we enjoyed meeting (and feeding – homemade biscuits, anyone?) so many potential customers. We look forward to seeing you at the next one.
Feedback from our many satisfied, supportive WhoSki.com users
It really feels like a distant memory since the evening Nicola suggested we set up the UK’s eBay just for ski clothes – now live and trading as WhoSki.com.
Pre-loved fashion then was a niche interest. The only way to reliably get your hands on a pair of affordable salopettes was via a friend or neighbour. And when your children grew out of their snowboots there was no real way to ensure they were passed on sustainably outside your immediate circle.
making sustainability simple
As one happy WhoSki.com customer puts it: “A very easy process to kit my children out to replace the items they had grown out of. Will certainly be using the site again.”
So, happy full first year to us – and watch out for exciting developments at the WhoSki.com marketplace during the year ahead.
Welcoming specialist wintersports travel agent Ski Line as a new WhoSki.com partner – you may have spotted their logo on our Partners Page.
We have teamed up with them because of their commitment to sustainability. As the company explains: “Ski Line promises to highlight green initiatives being undertaken by our featured ski resorts”. They also promote more eco-friendly travel options like taking the train. Bravo!
So this is a quick welcome and well done to Ski Line as our latest partner in the #SkiGreen movement, plus a shout out to the 15,000 plus skiers that will be travelling with them this winter.
If just a fraction of those skiers think pre-loved ski clothing this season, we will be keeping A LOT of extra wintersports clothing in active usage and out of landfill. Which is of course what WhoSki.com is all about.
The company is the latest to partner with us to help keep pre-loved ski clothing in active usage for longer and make skiing more affordable.
As Club Europe says: “The idea is simple: reduce the quantity of new ski clothes that are bought and old ones that are sent to landfill, by enabling families to easily buy and sell pre-loved ski wear.”
Club Europe will be helping hundreds of youngsters take a school ski trip this season. If even a fraction of those young skiers and their families buy and sell their ski clothing via WhoSki.com, they will potentially help keep a mountain of clothing out of landfill and reduce its carbon footprint by extending its active life.
WhoSki.com co-founder Nicola Davenport says: “We are delighted to be working with Club Europe, a school ski trip provider that is committed to sustainable business.
“Raising awareness of WhoSki.com as a secondhand marketplace for good quality ski clothing helps not only keep textiles in circulation but also raises the profile of sustainability in the wintersports sector generally. The more we all do to think #SkiGreen, the brighter the future for our mountains.”
Club Europe is recommending WhoSki.com as a first stop for buying specialist kit for a school ski trip, as well as the best place to sell on unwanted but good quality ski clothes that no longer fit.
Club Europe: Committed to sustAinability
Alison Wareham, Club Europe’s sustainability lead, adds: “As a responsible travel provider, we are committed to sustainability in our development, operations and marketing. Partnering with WhoSki.com not only helps the environment but gives families a small financial boost – saving money on ski wear and perhaps by selling their own unwanted ski fit, making a few pennies too.”
The annual YMHD campaign from WhoSki.com’s charity partner stem4 aims to get young people talking and taking part in activities to improve their mental health, and to support others to do likewise. Taking place on September 22nd, Youth Mental Health Day 2022 is focusing on sharing stories to enable young people to connect.
stem4 is an award-winning organisation which specialises in developing and distributing free apps (backed by the NHS) to help young people cope with mental health issues. Of the 2,007 young people the charity surveyed ahead of Youth Mental Health Day, nearly half (46%) said they were currently experiencing mental health difficulties.
Here at WhoSki.com we donate 10% of our commission from every sale to stem4. So, by selling through our peer-to-peer marketplace, you are directly helping support teenage mental health.
CONNECT MEANINGFULLY
Over the past few years, young people have been forced to experience many of their most formative experiences virtually—from joining a new school, college, university or workplace, to celebrating milestones such as exams and big birthdays.
By focusing on the importance of meaningful connections and having a solid support system, this year’s YMHD is inviting young people across the UK to reflect on how their relationships (with family, friends, teachers etc.) have changed over the past few years.
stem4 is inviting them to share ideas and set goals on how they can #ConnectMeaningfully to foster relationships that will support and positively impact their mental health.
The Wimbledon-based charity is best known for its four, award-winning, NHS-approved, free mental health apps, including Calm Harm and Combined Minds, which have been downloaded by more than 3.2 million people globally.
WHOSKI AND STEM4
Partnering with stem4 is our way of supporting a charity which helps teenagers access positive mental health support easily, and through their phones. Every item you buy or sell through WhoSki.com directs a charitable donation to this important cause.
We chose stem4 as our charity partner in recognition of the mental health benefits of taking part in wintersports activities like skiing and snowboarding. Being active outdoors, in the mountains and the fresh air brings benefits for both mental and physical health.
BACK TO THE SLOPES
Season 2022/23 looks likely to be the first academic year since 2018/19 when school / college timetables go ahead as normal. We know that our school ski trips partner Halsbury Ski will be running a full schedule of ski trips. Likewise, UK universities are gearing up to get back to the slopes – in many cases, for the first time in three years.
Here’s hoping that all who are planning a ski trip to the slopes in the coming months find it beneficial for their mental and physical health – in particular the young people who have so suffered so much from isolation and limited opportunities in their formative years.
We are throwing WhoSki.com’s support behind the #ReAction10000repairs challenge, which launches today.
Reckon your sewing is up to mending a simple repair, extending the life of a garment, supporting the sustainable economy? Even if you don’t think you can manage it yourself, try finding a local repair shop – maybe your local dry cleaner? – that can help out.
The Re-Action Collective aims to log 10,000 repairs by the end of 2022. The goal is to normalize the practice of bringing clothing and equipment back to use through repair, rather than throwing them away.
Reduce waste, cut emissions
Why? Because as a planet we have finite resources: we simply must make our stuff last longer. It’s a way to reduce waste, cut carbon emissions and limit the effects of climate change.
It’s another step, like selling on your ski clothing once you no longer want / need it, thinking about buying secondhand before you buy new, or renting an item rather than purchasing it. A means of extending the life of an existing item.
log your repairs
What are you waiting for? It’s time to get handy and start fixing the planet one item at a time. Find out how to get involved at ReAction’s 10,000 repairs page here.
And once it’s repaired, perhaps that ski garment might even be good enough to sell on at WhoSki.com when season 2022/23 comes around…
The importance of climate change to the younger generation is among the reasons why school ski trip operator Halsbury Ski is now working with WhoSki.com to manage and reduce the carbon footprint of its activities.
When your young clients are among the most enthusiastic supporters of the sustainability movement – and those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change – acting on their concerns makes good business sense. Call it the Greta Thunberg effect.
“Working together is a sustainability gain”
Halsbury’s Managing Director Hugues Raulet says: “Working with WhoSki.com is an instant sustainability gain. Encouraging our clients to purchase and dispose responsibly of the clothing they need for an enjoyable trip to the slopes with Halsbury is an important step on the way to reducing the carbon footprint of our activities.”
WhoSki.com Co-Founder Nicola Davenport explains: “Halsbury approached us with a view to working together. Lockdown delayed active collaboration, but we are so pleased that Halsbury will be recommending WhoSki.com as a source of good-as-new clothing for parents when they sign up their children for a Halsbury ski trip.
“By buying and selling through WhoSki.com, you are helping keep hard-to-recycle wintersports clothing in circulation and out of landfill.”
Halsbury: thinking green
Halsbury has sustainability strongly on its radar. It has installed solar panels and electric vehicle charging points at its offices. Electric bikes are provided for staff who want to use them to get to work.
MD Hugues Raulet is an eco-pioneer whose ventures outside Halsbury have included establishing a B Corp-certified recycling business in Argentina, researching and raising awareness about alternative sustainable fuels. He has ambitions for Halsbury to continually reduce its carbon footprint.
Hugues explains: “Our partnership with WhoSki.com is a proactive way to progress our sustainability journey. This is a positive step towards a greener business. We are doing the things that we can with a vision and an ambition to extend and expand our sustainability agenda.”
Student ski clothing: perfect for re-sale
Halsbury will include information about WhoSki.com to parents and students via the schools packs it provides for clients.
Children’s ski clothing is among the best sellers at the WhoSki.com online marketplace – remember – we donate 10% of our commission on every sale to the teen mental health charity stem4.
SATI is the Sustainable Alpine Tourism Initiative which promotes knowledge sharing and collaboration on sustainability in alpine tourism. The circular economy was a focus for this conference. It’s exactly what we are trying to promote in the wintersports clothing sector by enabling you to buy and sell preloved items from your ski and snowboard wardrobe, extend their lifecycle and keep them out of landfill. Find out more about our eco-motivations.
Our SATI webinar back in December discussed the impact of mountain tourism and how to make the right choice for the environment when enjoying snowsports. Here are some of the tips we picked up from the event:
1 Booking your ski holiday
Look for a smaller, specialist company which works with specific resorts and can book you into accommodation providers with established sustainability plans to reduce their carbon impact. For example, bookdifferent.com will give you a “staygreencheck” rate, public reviews and carbon footprints as well as clear top tips for responsible holidays. The platform is simple and easy to use. If you book though a major ski company, ask what they are doing to reduce environmental impact, how they are working with resorts and why they don’t do more to help consumers understand how to #SkiGreen.
2 Travel to your ski resort
Flight costs look likely to rise in the wake of last year’s enforced shutdown, plus we all know the environmental damage air travel causes. Driving might be tempting from a Covid-secure point of view, but the train is your most eco-friendly alternative. Visit snowcarbon.co.uk for timetable information and travel options to your chosen resort. They’ve done the hard work to make booking easier for you. Or follow theskipodcast.com where host and creator Ian Martin touches on many snowsports-related topics, including vehicle-free resorts.
3 Do your research
Attend the www.NationalSnowShow.com this autumn. The #SkiGreen agenda will be a big part of their offering at the show at the NEC in October 2021 with input from a number of emerging green companies across the whole snowsports sector. Come along and find out more. PS: bring your preloved ski clothing – WhoSki.com will be present to help keep your ski jackets and pants out of landfill and in circulation. We’ll be providing more info closer to the date.
4 Dress green
No longer wanted wintersports clothing is notoriously difficult to recycle with its mixed fabrics, coatings, zips and fastenings. That’s why so many brands are now using sustainable materials in their collections. But however eco your clothing’s credentials, re-use always beats recycle. Ensuring every item of clothing gets the maximum number of wears should be your goal. That’s why we created WhoSki.com as the online marketplacewhere you can buy and sell good quality secondhand ski and snowboard clothing. Perfect for families and students on a budget. It’s also the ideal solution for Instagrammers wanting to snap a different look every day for their channel.
Look out too for brands like Planks, Picture, Surfdome and EcoSki which offer transparency in manufacturing and sustainability credentials. Some brands will repair damaged clothing including Patagonia and Norrøna. In Scotland, try Scottish Mountain Gear. Even skis are going green, with some marques using wood and other natural materials to make them increasingly recyclable.
5 Get your voice heard!
Finally, we recommend you sign up to protectourwinters.uk which is lobbying government and business to act on the environmental impacts of wintersports. Follow us on twitter @wewhoski for more eco-ski inspo, and spread the word: it might just be the best thing you do this winter while ski and snowboarding is off limits.
Want to see your brand’s clothing feature on WhoSki? We’d love to hear from you: please get in touch! Here’s why we should be working together:
1 Improve your carbon footprint:
There’s a lot of disapproval of established clothing industry practices. Headlines about unsold or end of range items being incinerated or dumped has put fashion sustainability under the microscope. Politicians are starting to mutter about taxation of throw-away fashion brands as a “vice” industry. Partnering with WhoSki to encourage customers to recycle rather than throw away unwanted ski clothing helps boost your eco profile.
2 Tick the CSR box:
Let us help you raise your‘goodness’ quotient. Why not encourage customers to do something sustainable with no-longer-wanted clothing items? We will help #passiton to a new owner. Plus: We give a proportion of our commission on every sale to charity. Get in touch to discuss how we can help boost your brand’s efforts in the circular economy.
3 Help skiers look good on the slopes every year, guilt-free:
Just over a million Brits enjoy at least one ski trip every year; who wants to be on Instagram wearing the same jacket as last season? Whose ski kids fit the same snowsuit and snowboots as last year? We help skiers re-sell their nearly-new clothing, leaving space in the wardobe for a new look. Work with us to liberate used ski gear, build the ski fashion sector while ensuring sustainability.
We are actively looking for retail partners to help us grow the circular economy in ski wear. Read on to find out why it is in everyone’s interest to get involved.
Retailers in France have been warned to make sure that unsold clothing is sent for re-use or recycling in a bid to curb wasteful practices in the fashion industry. The ban on destroying clothing and other items comes after it emerged that more than £576m of new consumer products were discarded in France EVERY YEAR by the businesses selling them.
How long until similar legislation making stores responsible for their unsold or discarded stock is adopted in the UK?
Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee recently reported on the British fashion industry, and it wasn’t pretty. The Government is already thinking about taxing clothing companies that fail to adopt the circularity model.
They want to see less fashion waste, more recycling, and retailers taking responsibility both for the provenance of the materials they use AND what happens to their clothing after it is sold or comes off the rack.
As far as ski and wintersports clothing is concerned, that’s where WhoSki.com comes in. (You can thank us later, retailers)
Re-use beats recycle
Re-use is always going to be more eco than recycle, as less energy and fewer materials are involved. Think bottle returns: washing out and reusing a glass pop bottle is more environmentally friendly than having to dispose of a plastic one.
Back in the day, kids used to supplement their pocket money by collecting bottles and returning them to the corner shop for coppers. We didn’t call it the ‘circular economy’ but that is exactly what it was.
A circular economy for ski wear
The same principle applies to ski clothing. There are piles of it in warehouses, stores, discount shops that our online marketplace WhoSki.com can help sell on, thus cutting its carbon footprint by ensuring that the raw materials and energy that went into its creation do not go to waste.
We aim to work with ski shops and manufacturers around the UK, taking pre-loved, unwanted ski gear and making sure it gets re-used rather than dumped. Wake up to the change that is coming: do the right thing now or there will be legislation to make you do it. It is simply a matter of time.
Recycling facilities drive footfall
Does encouraging people to pass on their used but serviceable ski wear mean retailers will suffer? Think about it: by establishing a used-clothing drop-off facility and promoting it as a green initiative you will in fact be encouraging people to visit your store.
Some 25% of people are likely to buy something at a shop when dropping off items for re-use or recycling, so joining us in the circular economy actually drives footfall. You collect the pre-loved ski clothing then we will take it off your hands, and ensure it is recommerced on WhoSki.com.
Result? The clothing item enjoys an extended life, the owner gets to refresh their ski look, guilt-free, and the retailer ticks the CSR-box and gains valuable PR.
Sounds good? We are actively looking for retail partners to help us grow the circular economy in ski wear, so get in touch and let’s get together help make ski fashion circular.
