Going beyond just Canadian made

This Bamboo Cotton YYC Zip-Up Hoodie represents the next generation of Local Laundry and where we really want to take our Canadian made brand. 

Deciding to make the switch to Canadian made was only the first step in what we wanted to take our community-building initiatives to the next level. We wanted to make garments that were top quality, that would last and you would cherish for years and even generations to come. The higher the quality of garment you support and purchase, the longer it will last, meaning that you will spend less in the long run of buying other clothes and the longer we can keep garments from filling up our landfills. 

Going completely Canadian made, helped achieve this. Switching to manufacturers here in Canada that employed highly skilled workers, paying them a living wage with benefits, meaning that the quality of the garment went up. Now that our quality in producing the garment has gone up, we want to explore improving the quality of the materials that the garment is made up of to move them in a direction that is more sustainable. 

Enter Bamboo Cotton

Up until now, all of our garments were produced with a 50/50 cotton and polyester blend. With this YYC zip-up hoodies, we introduced what is called Bamboo Cotton. Bamboo is a fast-growing, high yield, low input crop. It is the most sustainable natural fibres. The type of bamboo used for making fabric, commonly known as Moso, can reach a mature height of 75 feet in just 45 to 60 days. It needs no pesticides and, if there is sufficient rainfall, no additional irrigation is required. It regenerates naturally through an extensive root system that sends out an average of four to six new shoots per year. It can be harvested numerous times without any detriment to the soil in which it grows. 

How Bamboo Cotton is made

To turn bamboo into fabric it is first harvested and then the leaves and soft inner pith are mechanically crushed. Thereafter, the crushed pieces are soaked in a solution for a few hours to turn them into cellulose. 

The cellulose is then dried, pressed, crushed and left out for evaporation to remove some of the residues from the solution. The remainder is added again to a solution and forced through a spinnerette, like a showerhead or a nozzle. On the other side, it is rapidly cured to form a material similar to cotton wool that can be knit into a fabric. 

The bamboo fibre is then transported to an established manufacturing facility where it is mixed with a small percentage of certified organic cotton. It is essential to add cotton for durability. The finished yarn is then shipped directly to our Canadian manufacturers where it is knit, dyed, cut and sewn. This process, where Bamboo is reduced down to basic cellulose then reformed is why it is classed as a regenerated fabric and known sometimes as bamboo viscose or viscose rayon. 

The Result - A More Sustainable and Functional Garment

Bamboo does not require fertilizers or pesticides for cultivation and it grows rapidly and profusely without depleting the soil. Bamboo has a lower environmental impact than pesticide-laden conventional cotton and petroleum-derived nylon and polyester fabrics.

If you never felt bamboo cotton, it is one of the softest materials you will ever touch and you will never want to take it off!  Bamboo cotton is inherently moisture wicking and anti-bacterial, meaning you can go longer in between washes saving water! 

The YYC Zip-Up Hoodie

We are listening to your thoughts and feedback. Since we started Local Laundry in 2014, people like you have been asking and asking for a zip-up hoodie with our flagship YYC design. We’ve been waiting for months and years because we didn’t just want to come out with any YYC zip-up hoodie for you, we wanted to come out with THE BEST YYC zip-up for YOU!

Coupled with the soft feel of the bamboo cotton we decided to take the same high quality of embroidery that is used on our Canadian made hats and apply it to a garment for the first time ever. The fine craftsmanship of the embroidery and the stitching on the garment itself will make this one of the best hoodies you have ever felt and we guarantee you will never want to take it off. 

This is only the first step in what we hope to be many Canadian made garments made from sustainable fabrics. 

Let us know what you think or what you want to see next from Local Laundry!