Inside the Race to Get Forever Chemicals Out of Raincoats

By Zahra Hirji | Bloomberg | February 2, 2023

Read the full article by Zahra Hirji (Bloomberg)

“Patagonia, Inc. has spent nearly a decade rejiggering its supply chain, redesigning products and dumping millions of dollars into a high-stakes trial-and-error process that’s nearly complete.

This isn’t about optimizing for fashion. Patagonia, like practically every other outdoor apparel company, has long relied on per- or polyfluorinated chemicals — PFAS for short — to make its products water-resistant. The problem is that these chemicals, also known as fluorochemicals, PFC chemicals or forever chemicals, are toxic. They’ve been linked to cancer and other health problems and they don’t degrade easily: PFAS have been found in drinking water and in the human bloodstream. Despite years of warnings from scientists and environmental activists, many apparel retailers only recently started sussing out how to ditch PFAS in outdoor apparel and gear. But the stragglers may not be able to straggle much longer: Bans on the chemicals are coming.

‘We were looking for a magic chemistry that could do it all and get our performance back and keep your jacket waterproof,’ says Matt Dwyer, Patagonia’s vice president of product impact and innovation. ‘And it took a whole lot more work than that.’"

This content provided by the PFAS Project.