Recover’s mission is to create the best, most environmentally friendly and socially responsible products possible and to educate and inspire those around us to live and work for a sustainable tomorrow.  

2020 will be our 10 year anniversary, and while looking back we never could have imagined being where we are now, every step of the way our mission has been at the heart of what we do, how we do it, and what we’re pushing to do next.

At Recover, we work every day for positive impact. And every year, things add up. Since 2010, we have diverted 10,978,592 plastic bottles from the landfill, saved 16,646,290 lbs of CO2 emissions, saved 40,895,255 KWH of energy, and saved 2.86 billion gallons of water due to our unique process used to create the highest quality and most sustainable apparel and accessories out of 100% recycled plastic bottles and upcycled cotton.

In closing out another year, we always feel it’s important to take a look back before driving forward. In 2019 alone, Recover diverted 2,962,800 plastic bottles from the landfill, saved 4,492,346 lbs of CO2 emissions, saved 11,036,430 KWH of energy, and saved 771.6 million gallons of water, and none of this would be possible without our customers, partners, families, friends, and all the good people out there working for a similar mission.

In January 2019, we kicked off the year by launching the Recover Clean Water Initiative, in which we donate one day of clean drinking water to a person in need for every product sold. Globally, billions of people lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation. This widespread challenge is a result of increases in pollution, population, changing weather patterns due to climate change, deforestation, and lack of sanitation infrastructure throughout the world. We launched the Recover Clean Water initiative to bring attention to this global problem, and to contribute to the efforts that are implementing solutions in partnership with World Vision. In this first year of the initiative alone, we donated 370,350 days of clean drinking water to those in need.

This year, we also launched the Recover Closed Loop program, in which you can recycle your old Recover tees with us and exchange them for new Recover tees, so the shirt lives on forever and has infinite life. We continued to grow our Recover Artist Development (RAD) and Protect Our Parks programs. RAD was created in 2016 to showcase and support up-and-coming artists and simultaneously promote sustainability through music. Through sales of environmentally friendly and socially responsible merchandise on the road, and more RAD concerts than ever at our flagship store in Charlotte with artists such as Parker Gispert, Twain, and Floating Action, we’re working to keep the music playing, and to give musicians the opportunity to promote sustainability along the way. 

Protect Our Parks was established in 2017 to protect the places we love. Through partnerships and special collections such as the Recover National Parks Artist Collection and I Heart Pisgah tee, we continued to engage, educate, and take action to protect the places we love. 

Fall of this year, our long-time R&D to design and make a high performance layer as technical as it is environmentally friendly paid off. We released Recover’s Local Layer, designed to keep you warm, dry, and comfortable from your Monday morning meeting to your after work ride. This new layer is designed, sourced, and sewn in North Carolina, USA, made ENTIRELY in NC within a 150 mile radius of our headquarters, from the recycling center to the finished product, and made out of 100% recycled PET (22 recycled plastic bottles per Local Layer to be exact) and recycled YKK zippers. The waffle fleece, chest pocket, flat seams & athletic fit, and 2-piece raglan sleeve were designed for Recover’s high standard of maximum comfort and movement.

Our Co-Brand program continues to grow with our ever-expanding work with local, regional, national, and global partners, and we give a big shout out to our Co-Brand partners and the fun of seeing it all thrive together. 

Meanwhile, the Recover team’s volunteer work and engagement with local Waterkeepers and other environmental and social impact organizations is in full force. And through engagement at our store, on our hang-tags, and in our online Readers and Sustainability Tips, we’re spreading information and inspiration about why and how you can engage in action for a sustainable tomorrow. 

It’s been a great year, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming up in 2020 and our 10 year anniversary in the beginning of the new year!