Company/Corporate Responsibility
Catch the Drift
The name Sitka derives from the mighty Sitka Spruce, a tree naturally drawn to the rugged shorelines of Western Canada; our family grew from the same endeavor. While surfing always has and will continue to be the heart of our brand, Sitka’s nexus has expanded to encompass all of the elements that inspirit the lifestyle of our family – surf, skate, music, art, culture and travel.
First and foremost, Sitka’s key values are derived from our reverence for our natural environment. As such, our business model is an extension of these values with a keen emphasis on environmental and social responsibility. While we understand these are two very loosely coined terms, we strive to consider them in all of our business decisions. We are striving for a ‘sustainable business model’ in everything we do. But, we’ll be the first to admit that we’re not there and neither is the textile industry. However, we’re committed to changing and adjusting as we learn new things and learn from our mistakes.
Do we think we’re perfect? No way. Not even close.
Do we believe that we’re doing our part to advance technologies and push the envelope of alternative textile manufacturing? Yes.
We believe that Sitka is cut from a different cloth than most other brands on the market, both metaphorically and literally. In the interest of complete transparency, the following provides a look into Sitka’s values and provides some reasons for the decisions that we have made at the core of our business.
Planting the Seed
The seed was sown in the fall of 2002 when Rene Gauthier and Andrew Paine, with their shared passion and vision for making surfboards, decided to take their hobby out of the garage and offer a new option to the local surfing population: Sitka Surfboards was born. It was not long after the iconic Sitka spruce tree design was branded onto their first custom-made surfboards that customers began requesting clothing to accompany their new board.
Since then, Sitka has grown into an innovative and cutting-edge lifestyle brand. Currently, Sitka soft goods are sold across Canada and the world in skate, surf and snow shops, fashion boutiques and other like-minded retailers. Sitka also runs two flagship stores – the original store at 538 Yates St. in Victoria and a new store in Vancouver at 1864 West 4th street.
Environmental Responsibility
We believe that by fostering a triple bottom line approach to our business, we will achieve long-term viability and relevance as a brand. With the primary goal of sustainability in mind, Sitka will consider the broader consequences of our business practices and effects on the planet. Over the long-term, Sitka strives to have a positive impact on our society through considering the social and environmental implications in everything we do.
Daily Initiatives
From a quick glance at any of our catalogues, it is obvious that Sitka reveres the natural environment - after all, our logo is an old-growth tree. What may not be as evident are the day-to-day choices we make to do our part in helping the planet.
Sitka uses efficient shipping options, heats with bio-fuels, uses biodegradable bags, encourages our customers to make use of reusable bags, prints on recycled materials, and reduces or recycles the waste we produce.
For years we’ve been building our store fixtures and tradeshow displays with reclaimed wood from the Rain Forest Alliance, who harvests wood that has been persevered underwater by the creation of dams. Our new Vancouver location also boasts one of the area’s first living ‘green walls’.
Even though we are striving towards a green way of living, we sincerely believe that there is always more that can be done. Sitka will continue to look for ways to make our daily activities more environmentally responsible.
Becoming 100% Carbon Neutral
One way that Sitka shows this commitment is by striving to become a carbon neutral company. We will work with Hungerford Wright Consulting to achieve a rigorous five-stage process in which Sitka will measure, reduce, set targets, offset, and communicate our environmental commitments. The end goal is to become a carbon neutral company.
Take a look at our Green House Gas report here.
Manufacturing Decisions
Manufacturing options are diverse and all have their inherent pros and cons. Sitka is constantly looking to improve its material quality while reducing its carbon footprint. For clothing, Sitka currently uses a combination of bamboo and organic cotton blends and aims to use other organically grown and sustainable materials as they are made available in the marketplace. In our surfboard production, Sitka is experimenting with a variety of ‘green’ resins and foam cores that are now making their way onto the market as consumer demand increases for sustainable products.
Environmental Organizations
Sitka is proud to be involved with numerous organizations that aim to protect the environment and bring awareness to issues affecting the health of our ecosystems. Two major organizations that Sitka supports are the Surfrider Foundation and the Ocean Gybe Expedition. Ocean Gybe is a global sailing and surfing expedition designed to promote ocean conservation and protection during a circumnavigation of the globe over a three-year period. The expedition involves a long-standing Sitka Surf Team Rider and BC-based activist, Bryson Robertson, alongside his brother, Ryan Robertson and their friend, Hugh Patterson. While on their journey, these three licensed engineers will give presentations to bring general awareness to the pollution of the world’s oceans and coastlines.
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers in Malibu, California, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 50,000 members and 90 chapters worldwide.
We’ve also collaborated on projects with the Pacific Wild Foundation, a non-Profit conservation organization that is committed to defending wildlife and their habitat on Canada’s Pacific coast by developing and implementing solution-based conservation strategies. Almost every season, we aim try to collaborate with an organization like this and donate proceeds of a specific project to their cause.
Social Initiatives
We realize that the choices we make affect more than just our business. Our decisions have an impact on the employees who work for Sitka, our customers and society as a whole. The social implications of our choices are considered whenever we make a decision, no matter how big or small.
Overseas Office
The majority of clothing brands source their clothing through a large network of trading companies. This means that many companies are unaware of who is producing their wares or the working conditions where their goods are produced. Unlike these brands, Sitka has chosen to establish a team and office in China. This is the only way that Sitka can ensure that the workplace standards of the people producing their goods are just and fair. The China team is also involved in the millwork of Sitka’s custom fabrics and the selection of market-bought fabrics that perform well and have a lower impact on the planet, such as organic cotton and bamboo.
This allows us peace-of-mind in knowing that the factories we work with uphold the highest workplace standards and can ensure that quality issues are identified early in the process.
Charity Support
We all feel very fortunate to have a roof overhead and clothing on our backs. Millions around the world are not this lucky and we feel it is our duty as a clothing producer to offer something to the global community. Sitka donates clothing to diverse organizations, including World Vision & UNICEF. We also aim to encourage the charity of our retail customers by offering discounts in exchange for donations to the food banks.
Sitka is involved with other social initiatives as well. One such initiative is Power to Be, who’s mission is to enrich the health, education and quality of life for vulnerable youth, adults, families. We contribute to Power to Be and other charitable organizations, by donating product, participating in various events and by adding a charitable aspect to many of our events.
We also keep clothing on the backs of our peers who are doing great things. This specific initiatives change on a monthly bases, so be sure to check out our blog, to find out all the impressive things our friends are doing.
Supporting the Sitka Family
With the growth of our surfboard, skateboard and clothing lines, an ever-expanding family of employees, athletes and artists extend concurrently.
Sitka does not sponsor ‘names’; it sponsors people. The Sitka team consists of individuals that are role models in their respective communities – no matter how big or small. These role models set positive examples of how to live and enjoy life.
The Sitka family likes to go outside and play - we work hard and play hard. We skateboard, surf, bike, make music, listen to music, make art, ski, snowboard, climb mountains (and mole hills) and we happily acknowledge that if you are checking out our website, you are inspired by these pursuits as well. And that is where our clothing comes in – a stylish, comfortable, thoughtful solution to your closet’s needs.
Check out our team page for more information on our contributing artists, musicians and athletes.
China 101
Sitka has not chosen to make policy decisions based not only on the bottom line – but rather the triple bottom line. Most Sitka clothing is manufactured in China for the main reason that it gives us access to the Chinese fabric markets, which allow us to mill our own fabric blends and mixes. We do not consider manufacturing in China a bad thing. If we didn’t manufacture our clothing in China, we would still need to mill our fabrics there, and ship them to Canada as raw fabric. We aim to have our production facilities as close as possible to where our fabric, hardware and fixtures originate in order to reduce the environmental impact of shipping. The truth remains that other countries simply do not have the infrastructure to produce cutting-edge custom fabrics. China is the best place in the world to produce our garments – the skill, quality and workmanship is unmatched by any other country in the world.
That said, we are constantly searching for alternatives to our current systems. If there’s a better way, we’re committed to finding it. Recently, we’ve teamed up with Granted Knitwear in Vancouver to produce special edition knit wool sweaters. We are also exploring moving our denim manufacturing to Los Angeles where everything from pattern making to final stitching can be completed within North America. We are always striving to find the best solutions for our clothing manufacturing. We’re learning as we go and striving for constant improvement.
Fabrics
Fabric is the medium that we create with. It's at the heart of everything we do. And, we take huge pride in this - our sweatshirts and other fabric blends are some of the most comfortable and softest fabrics in the industry.
Most companies buy their fabrics 'off the shelf' choosing from the array of what's already on the market. Not us. We need fabrics that go beyond the norm, in multiple areas. Our designers work closely with our fabric suppliers to push the design envelope forward and create new sustainably produced fabrics that can deliver the highest levels of technical performance as well as the finest texture and drape. And, we're not even close to being done yet.
Currently, we are using unique blends of cotton, organic cotton, rayon, polyester and bamboo in our lines. We continue to look for ways to drive the development of sustainable fabrics into the future, for our own use and industry-wide. We’ll happily share our progress in the field of fabric development with other companies – even our competitors. We believe sharing is key to a sustainable future in clothing manufacturing. We also understand that we alone cannot create the type of shift that garment manufacturing requires; however, we hope that by being a leader, we can influence it.
Organic Cotton
Conventional cotton is the most pesticide-intensive crop grown in the world today. Roughly 1/3 of a pound of agricultural chemicals goes into producing one conventional cotton t-shirt. More than 10 percent of the world's pesticides and almost 25 percent of the world's insecticides are used to grow conventional cotton.
We strive to employ organic cotton whenever it is feasible. Currently, most of our t-shirts are 100% organic cotton and cotton/bamboo blends.
Bamboo
Bamboo is used extensively throughout our line in many of our t-shirt and top blends. Bamboo is naturally grown, without assistance from man. It also thrives naturally without using pesticides or fertilizers.
As the fastest growing plant in the world, bamboo grows to its maximum height in about 3 months and reaches maturity in 3-4 years. It spreads rapidly across large areas. Because of this, bamboo is known to improve soil quality in degraded and eroded areas of land. Bamboo is also cut, not uprooted, so it helps with soil stability and can grow on hillsides where other crops are not viable. In addition to this, bamboo has minimal water requirements – mostly just precipitation. Its yield is 10 times that of cotton per acre. Bamboo also provides more carbon dioxide to oxygen conversion than the same square footage of trees would. This is because Bamboo grows so fast and densly that it is a resilient crop.
Bamboo also has numerous functional benefits as a fabric, including an excellent ability to absorb and evaporate sweat, thermal control abilities, breathability, a 98% reduction in UV activity reaching your skin and anti-static properties unmatched by any other fabrics.
Pricing Implications
Our prices reflect our commitment to producing the best quality of aesthetically pleasing clothing in a conscientious manner. Experimenting and manufacturing with these leading edge fabrics has it’s inherent pro’s and con’s. Premium materials like bamboo and organic cotton are much more expensive than traditional cottons and polyester, but their potential towards creating a more sustainable textile industry is revolutionary.
We also do not drive our production choices based on cost alone. We use a complex matrix of costs and benefits in order to make what we believe are the best and most sustainable production decisions. Thus, this ‘true cost’ needs to be reflected in the price of the garment.
Do we think it’s worthwhile to experiment with sustainable materials at the expense of a few dollars a t-shirt? Of course! We hope that our consumer does as well.
New Developments
Just when we think we know what we're talking about with regards to fabric development, the landscape changes. The process of creating fabrics that cause less environmental harm and meet our high standards is always evolving. Moving forward, we'll continue to examine our decisions around fabric production, evaluate new and emerging options, and evolve our practices in ways that can further our efforts to reduce the impact of our products and methods. We are committed to building a company that keeps environmentally conscious decision making a cornerstone of our business.
The Designers
Co-founder Rene Gauthier and his sister Janelle Gauthier currently design the clothing line with contribution from numerous Canadian artists. Rene has a natural ability for seeking the latest in fashion trends and adapting trends to appeal to the Sitka customer. Janelle has years of experience working in the Canadian fashion industry and was trained at Instituto Marangoni in Milan, Italy.
Design
Surfing and surfboard manufacturing have been the core of Sitka since the seed was sown back in 2002. We are extremely blessed to live where we do, not only for the natural beauty, but also for the diversity in the surf setups and consistent waves that we enjoy through the better part of the year. This also makes for a great place to refine surfboard shapes since they can be tested on everything from racing points, slabbing reefs, mushy beach breaks and everything in between, all in relatively close proximity. This coast is a constant inspiration, evidenced by our surfboard and clothing design.
Over the years, Sitka has developed an all-encompassing line up of boards that have been refined to cover the spectrum of surfboards to match any surfer, with the right equipment for the conditions they wish to challenge. With new technologies and trends constantly evolving, the design team must stay on top of what is happening in the industry and apply the latest design techniques to allow the surfboard line up to continue to evolve. The core designs are constantly refined through team rider testing and customer feedback with computer-aided design. Computer software allows for changes in the shape or dimensions to customize any shape to match the needs of the customer.
Shaping
Over time, the hand planer has slowly been replaced by the shaping machine and computer-aided design. This new technology means that proven designs can be replicated with incredible accuracy and small adjustments can be made to further refine the shape. The shaping machine has not limited the customization process either. Any shape can be either designed from scratch or small adjustments can be made to design files to match the needs of the surfer.
When Clark Foam closed in December 2005, it became apparent that the surfboard industry was changing dramatically due to a decrease in the supply of raw surfboard materials available in North America. This forced the larger surfboard manufacturers to resort to offshore production, which lowered wholesale prices for surfboards. While this is great for the consumer in terms of price, it changed the way that average surfboard was made from a custom piece by a local craftsman, to a mass produced item coming off of the newest surfboard shaping machine. Sitka chose to maintain the ability to offer custom surfboards and partnered with UB Surfboards in Brazil, which has over 30 years of experience building high quality surfboards in the competitive Brazilian industry for surfers on the World Championship Tour and amateurs alike. UB Surfboards uses the latest in shaping machines but maintains high quality and attention to detail.
The majority of Sitka Surfboards are now outsourced to UB Surfboards. Using a computer aided shaping machine, Sitka has the ability to produce custom boards built to specification.
Materials
As with every aspect of surfboard production, the materials used are constantly changing to increase performance, durability and sustainability. The surfboard blanks used by Sitka are of the highest quality and range from lightweight performance blanks to solid triple-stringer longboard blanks. Sitka experiments with many different materials. As with surfboard design, different materials suit the needs of different surfers. Some require a board that is light and snappy for high flying aerials, while others want a board that will be durable, and others still, want a board to have a little bit of extra weight for glide. The wooden stringer that gives strength and flex properties to the board is another area for experimentation that can completely change the way that a board will perform. The most common material combinations that we use are the traditional, polyurethane/polyester and the more modern Keahana Epoxy System.
Skateboard Production
Sitka skateboards are produced in collaboration with Woodchuck Skateboards, right here in the Great White North. In Canada, we are lucky to be so close to the largest and purest source of hard rock Canadian maple wood – the recipe for the very best skateboards. Woodchuck has been around for almost a decade and has earned the respect of its customers, the industry and even its competitors. Using only the best wood, glue and equipment, the company has consistently met our needs of producing the highest quality skateboards.
Sitka uses our skate team for feedback in developing a line-up of shapes and concaves to match different types of skating. The dimensions are constantly changing as trends come and go and different aspects of the sport change in popularity. For graphics, we produce limited edition runs to ensure that there are always fresh designs on the shelves and in the skate park.
Now that you understand what we’re all about, we encourage you - our consumer - to critique us, question us and challenge the decisions we are making. We’re not perfect – we know. We’ve made mistakes in the past; we’ll admit it. But we’re committed to learn from our screw-ups. We’re always striving to better our business practices and you can help us do so. We encourage our consumers to get involved. With your help, we can all do our part to truly make a difference.