California Apparel News

Sustainable-apparel brand Tentree brought its reforestation mission to California to provide relief to the region following the devastation caused by years of destructive wildfires in the state. On Aug. 15, the Vancouver, Canada-based company hosted an intimate dinner to introduce its new Wildfire Releaf collection and reforestation initiative. Held at Saddlerock Gardens in Malibu, Calif., the dinner's location in a region affected by the Woolsey Fire of 2018 set the mood to take action toward healing areas ravaged by wildfires.

"The dinner allowed us to tell this story of the collection and the brand," said Tentree's Chief Executive Officer Derrick Emsley. "As you’re driving up to the venue, you can see the impact the wildfires had through these burned-down blackened trees. You see this devastation and, at the top, we had this conversation regarding why what we’re doing is so important."

The 11-piece collection includes men's and women's loungewear, such as hoodies, sweatpants, crew-neck shirts, bandanas and baseball caps. Promoting reforestation through replanting trees is a message that has been included in the designs, particularly through a T-shirt created with a woodblock print of a ring from an actual tree that fell during a wildfire.

"To be able to take a cutting from a tree that had burned down in that wildfire was a jarring image, but it’s also a conversation starter," Emsley said. "It’s taking the tree that burned down as a vehicle to reforest the area."

Through the campaign, Tentree will help reforest Plumas National Park in the northern Sierra Nevada region, which was affected by the 2007 Antelope Fire. For every item sold from the capsule collection, Tentree will plant 10 trees with its planting partner One Tree Planted. Despite the company's Canadian foundation, Emsley believes the forests belong to all citizens, regardless of whether they are from the United States or Canada and views this campaign as a starting point for an initiative that will span across North America.

"We are a West Coast brand. Whether it’s Canadian or U.S., we are sharing the same forest, whether they have different names or not," he explained. "Through the West Coast lifestyle, we share very similar values in sustainability and our company wanted to create a project that spanned the entire community across the West Coast."

Leading up to the Aug. 20 collection release, on Aug. 19, Tentree unveiled an interactive social-media post, through which the company will donate $.10 to the California Fire Foundation for every comment made before Aug. 23, up to approximately $10,000 USD.

Priced from $25-$70 retail, the collection will be available at tentree.com beginning Aug. 20.