Vans Boots & Protect Our Winters

I’m very passionate about reducing my footprint on the environment. Neil and I compost, recycle, take our reusable shopping bags to the grocery store, turn our lights off when we’re not using them, turn our heat down when we leave the house and try to eat sustainably when possible. At work, I recently committed to not using my space heater – which uses approximately 1,300 Kilowatt hours.

But often times, when it comes to our passions (travel and action sports), it’s not as easy to reduce our footprint. Thankfully, more and more corporations are starting to realize this and are adjusting their practices accordingly.

A while ago, I wrote a blog about Protect Our Winters, an organization founded by pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones. POW lobbies for policies to help prevent climate change and partners with action sports brands to help bring awareness and raise funds to invest in sustainable initiatives.

For a number of years, I’ve been part of the Vans Snowboard Boot test team. This year, I have been lucky enough to test drive the the women’s Veil boot. The Veil features 50% recycled PET textile, 50% recycled PET synthetic and nontoxic water-based solvents. On the back of the boot is the Protect Our Winters logo to remind consumers of the partnership and their contribution to the environment.

Vans Women's Veil Snowboard Boot

Vans is a “gold sponsor” of POW, which means the company has donated over $10,000 towards the cause through their involvement in the 1% For The Planet Program. This means, 1% of proceeds from every boot sold is donated to POW. There are a host of other sponsors that participate in the same program.

It’s not just winter sports industries that are jumping on board. POW just recently partnered with the Surfrider Foundation to offer a joint membership so all board sport enthusiasts can “protect where you play.”  You can find out more about that by checking out this link.

As climate change begins to affect us more and more, we must become responsible consumers and stick with brands that are supporting this cause. I’m glad Vans is one of them!