Solitude Unveils Eco-Friendly Boardshorts

Solitude is taking the water out of boardshorts—or, at least, the surf- and beachinspired company is taking the water out of the printing process used to make them.

The Carpinteria, Calif.- based company unveiled a new collection of boardshorts that are made using a water-conserving printing technique that produces crisp designs with clear, strong colors.

Dutch firm Stork licensed the digital-printing process to the men’s and women’s apparel label for the Summer season.

The process applies inkjet printing directly to the cut pieces without creating water waste. Screen and flatbed printing, in comparison, create 1 liter of waste water for each pair of boardshorts made, said Carla Tomson, designer and co-owner of Solitude.

“Boardshorts take about a yard of fabric, and, if you think of the wastage, a liter of water is a lot,” said Tomson.

Digital printing uses water- based inks, and the printing process creates fewer waste chemicals than other printing methods and does not waste any water, according to the company. Patterns can be printed directly from the desktop, and there are no color limitations or minimum run lengths for each design.

The process costs more than other printing methods, but the environmental benefit is important to Tomson and her husband and business partner, pro-surfer Shaun Tomson, who received the Environmentalist of the Year award from the Surfer Industry Manufacturers Association last year.

Carla Tomson said that despite the added costs of digital printing, the company has not increased the price of the digitally printed boardshorts.

Solitude holds a six-month exclusive license for Stork’s technology, which Carla Tomson hopes will give the small company an edge over larger competitors.

“To compete with bigger companies and have something exclusive is very hard,” she said. “We teamed with a European company and are the first to bring digital printing to boardshorts. We think it’s going to be a whole new direction for the industry.” —Alison A. Nieder