About Our Products

All of our items are hand-washed or gently machine washed with scent-free and dye-free Seventh Generation or home-made detergents. They are then air-dried.

There's no way around it- it is the nature of rain suit material to hold odors. When you are using gentle detergents to care for the environment and these fabrics, it is sometimes just not possible to remove all traces of odor (even by hanging in the sun).

What kinds of odors are we referring to? Well, some garments hold perfume from detergents of previous owners. And some have a faint musty smell from being damp a bit too long. Any time we come across a garment with a notable odor, we make a note of it in the condition description. We believe that with wear, time, and proper care, these odors can fade.

Some of our items are "next to skin" garments. These include swim suits, UV suits, merino and synthetic base layers, and socks. We wash each item before we add them to our site. We recommend that you wash them again at home if you have any hygienic concerns. Again, our detergents are as chemical free as possible and offer a gentle but thorough cleaning.

Please keep in mind that our outdoor gear is used. Many of these items are affectionately called "mud suits." We take care to hand wash every nook and cranny of these suits to make them as new-to-you as possible. That said, we are human- please don't be surprised if you find some little bits of debris hiding in a seam here or there.

Our refresh policy

We're careful about chemistry. The DWR (durable water repellent) finish on outdoor gear is one of the most environmentally fraught parts of the industry, and it's one we think about with every piece that comes through.

Our approach:

• We don't reproof everything. Most items that come through us still have intact factory water repellency. We test before treating, and we leave things alone when they're working.
• We try cleaning first. If a piece is wetting out, we run it through a PFAS-free technical cleaner and retest. In a lot of cases this alone restores the bead - because the issue was residue from previous detergents, body oils, or dirt masking still-good factory DWR, not the DWR itself. No retreatment needed.
• When refresh is actually called for, we use a PFAS-free, water-based wash-in waterproofer. We choose products from a company that has been PFC-free for decades, long before PFAS chemistry came under wide scrutiny. It's an approach we trust, and one that's effective without compromising on chemistry.
• We follow each garment's care label. Wash temperatures, drying instructions, and any heat allowance vary by piece, and the label on the garment is the final word. We never tumble dry a piece that says not to, and we use low heat only when the care label explicitly allows it.
• We disclose every refresh. Any piece we've treated carries the suffix "Refreshed" in its title, and the treatment is noted in its quality notes. If you'd prefer an untreated piece, you can filter them out.
• Why this matters. Many of the brands we love already use fluorocarbon-free DWR at the factory. When we refresh one of their pieces with a PFAS-free product, we're using the same chemistry family that's already there - and we're keeping a beautiful garment in use rather than retiring it. For us, that's the more circular choice.

If you have any questions about a specific piece, or about exactly what we use, please reach out and we'll happily talk you through it.