I Dared to Wear Longer with BAM
Who is BAM Clothing?
BAM Clothing is a UK-based clothing company that passionately believes in the difference bamboo clothing can make to our planet. Bamboo absorbs five times more carbon than hardwood trees. It requires half the land cotton needs to produce the same amount of fibre and it doesn’t need irrigation or pesticides. All of their products are vegan too, so you can shop safely in the knowledge that no animals have been harmed to produce their clothing! They sell a fantastic range of clothes from workout gear to everyday basics like leggings, underwear and socks.
What is the Dare to Wear Longer campaign?
In August 2020, in line with BAM’s goal to be Impact Positive by 2030, they dared their customers to wear their bamboo clothing for longer to spread awareness of the environmental effects of laundering habits.
BAM Clothing calculated that 26% of the carbon emissions generated by our clothes throughout their lifecycle are created when we put them in the washing machine. Did you know that for each single wash, approximately 50 litres of water is used and 600g of carbon emissions are generated.
BAM Clothing wants us to try wearing their clothes twice or more before washing in order to reduce those emissions so they’re setting the challenge again for 2021!
If you’re worried about hygiene, it can help to know why conventional clothes start to smell in the first place. A T-Shirt will start to smell when air reacts with the moisture of your sweat, creating odour causing bacteria. With a synthetic top, this moisture sits on the top of the fabric, letting the air get to it more easily. That’s why it feels damp and gets smelly quickly.
Bamboo has a fibre structure that absorbs the moisture in your sweat really effectively, so the air can't get to it as easily and the smelly bacteria can't form. It’s 40% more absorbent than organic cotton. The fabric stays dry and the air can’t do its thing, so your T-shirt stays fresher for longer, making it the perfect choice for workout clothes.
Putting BAM Clothing to the Test
I was excited to try out the challenge and see how long I could go without needing to wash the products I had been sent. I usually wash my sports gear as soon as I’ve worn them once, sometimes leaving leggings for two uses before a wash. A lot of the sportswear I own is old fast fashion and mostly made of unsustainable materials like polyamide and polyester, and they don’t do a good job of wicking sweat away or staying fresh.
BAM clothing kindly gifted me the following items:
Unity Bamboo Crop Top in blue fossil (sold out in this print!)
I usually try to do a workout every other day but for the purpose of this experiment, I planned to do some form of exercise each day and wear the gifted bamboo clothing to test how long it could stay fresh!
My Dare to Wear Longer Diary
Day 1:
The first day I wore my BAM clothing was just for walking around in and a yoga flow. I drove to see my parents and then came home to chill for the rest of the day. I felt the need to stretch so I did a “Yoga with Adriene” YouTube flow. The Balance vest was perfect for this as it allowed me to stretch and be flexible without getting in my way, but it wasn’t too tight that it felt uncomfortable. I love the colour so much, especially as we’re heading into autumn so I’m going to be wearing more earthy tones. I also wore the Enduro leggings for this yoga session and I think because they’re so new the waistband was a bit too tight for the yoga poses where I needed to bend at the waist, such as child’s pose or high lunge. I checked at the end of the day and the leggings and vest still smelled brand new!
Day 2:
For day two I put on the leggings, the Unity crop top and a tank top from Organic Basics, and headed out for an early morning run. I hadn’t run in over a week so I was looking forward to getting out there again and getting prepared for my upcoming 10k (my first one ever!). I did a quick 3k just around my local park and got my heartrate up by seeing how fast I could go in this short distance. The thick waistband of the leggings hugged my stomach and didn’t slide down, making me feel secure in my run. And the crop top worked perfectly in lieu of a sports bra, again making me feel secure and powerful as I ran around. The leggings are pitch black and not see-through at all, this is a major factor when picking workout leggings so I would highly recommend these ones if that’s an issue that bothers you. Both items were still smelling fine by this point!
Day 3:
Day three and it was time for my weekly boxing class at my gym! I wore my leggings and crop top again and wore a baggy tank top over the top. I was keen to see how they would feel during this session as it’s an intense 60 minutes of boxing, with running, squat jumps and kickboxing included too! The leggings helped my legs actually feel stronger somehow, and I felt extra confident during the session, and the crop top did its job too. This is the workout that makes me sweat the most, but the bamboo leggings and crop top helped keep the sweat off my skin so I didn’t get too uncomfortable. After the third day of wearing the Enduro leggings I decided they were ready to be washed, but they had held up much longer than my synthetic leggings usually do so I was impressed! The Unity crop top was also ready for a wash but the Balance vest had only been worn once so I held off on adding it to the laundry load.
Overall I would say the bamboo workout clothing had not only performed just as well during my workouts, but they had stayed fresh much longer than my usual gear. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they dried just from me leaving them hung up with room to air-dry, this is something I will definitely keep doing to prolong the washes of my sportswear.
Do You Dare to Wear Longer?
Why not join the challenge of washing your clothes less and reducing your carbon footprint? Do you dare to wear your clothes longer between washes? Could you go for two days? Three days? Longer? If you try it out, share your experience on social media by tagging @bamboo_clothing and using the hashtag #DareToWearLonger - I’d love to see how you get on!
Other Ways of Making Your Laundry Eco-Friendly
Wearing your clothes for longer between washes is a brilliant way of reducing your laundry carbon footprint, saving water and even saving you money on energy bills! Here are some other ways you can reduce the impact your washing has on the environment:
Line dry your laundry - this saves the energy used in tumble-drying your clothes and is actually better for your clothes making them last longer. Just be careful with knitwear as it may need to dry flat.
Wash at 30ºC - if you’re not already doing this, why not? Washing at 30°C rather than 40°C uses 38% less energy.
Use a Guppyfriend - or similar bag to catch microfibres when you wash your synthetic clothes. Microfibres and microplastics are released in our washing and make their way to the ocean where they pollute the water and can kill marine life.
Use vegan, eco-friendly laundry detergent and softener - choose a product that lists all ingredients, is 100% plant and mineral-based, and has enough ingredients that will actually get the laundry clean. Remember to check that it hasn’t been tested on animals either!