Product | Designing More Responsible Products
Our 2025 highlights.
global brands and retailers collaborated on the Material Facts Collective.
products washed and repaired at our global Service Centres.
of AW25 Rab products are PFAS-compliant.
We’re on a journey to becoming a more circular business, striving to reduce the impact of our products at every stage of their lifecycle.
Our Service Centre is global.
In the last year, we repaired and washed over 22,000 items.
We have always made products you’d rather repair than replace. With our Rab Service Centre on hand to keep it in action, your kit is built for a lifetime of use. This way, all our adventures have a lower carbon footprint, giving products a second chance and keeping valuable resources out of landfill.
We’ve always made gear that lasts, but it’s not indestructible. Repairing an item reduces the overall impact on the planet, by keeping valuable resources in use, rather than sending them to landfill.
You can currently access our Rab Service Centre in the UK, Netherlands, Canada and USA.
Reducing ‘single-use’ with Rab Rental.
Since 2022, we’ve been changing the narrative around single-use specialist gear purchases by offering our Rab Rental scheme.
No need to compromise on cheaper, poor-quality products. No more one-trip gear gathering dust in the back of a cupboard or dumped in landfill.
We clean, re-proof and repair all rented gear as necessary, so it’s in peak condition for the next adventure. And, at the end of its rental life, products are either cleaned, serviced and upcycled or stripped for parts which can be recycled.
Our rental service is currently available in the UK only, but we hope to roll this out to other regions in the future.
The Material Facts table
Created as an unbranded, standardised tool for providing consumers with clear and concise product sustainability information.
Material Facts tables can be found on each product’s page on our website, or by scanning a QR code on the product’s hangtag. The tables break down the product’s sustainability credentials by component, presented in a concise, easy-to-understand format.
We now have Material Facts tables for all of our products, including equipment and packs.
In its current version, the Material Facts table provides consumers with information on a product’s recycled content, PFAS usage, country of manufacture, and renewable energy use in the supply chain.
The table is purposely built to allow for the addition of further data criteria in the future, and the Material Facts Collective are already gathering feedback to find the priorities.
As an industry we must be clear about the data, the claims, and the complexities of our product composition. It’s the right thing to do.
Recycle, reuse, repeat.
We’re still working hard to keep valuable resources in the loop and out of landfill.
When an item finally needs to be retired from the field, we look at it afresh and either upcycle it for a second use, repair it and donate it to one of the charities we partner with, or strip it for spare parts to give other garments a new lease of life.
Recycling down.
Since 2021, we’ve been operating a down recycling scheme in the UK, expanding to Europe in 2023 in our Leusden Service Centre.
We recycle:
Down Jackets.
Down Sleeping Bags.
Down Pillows.
Down Duvets.
254kg of down has been repurposed and recycled to date.
Parts of the recovered down will find their way into other Rab recycled down products.
Our Material Facts tables show which products use recycled down.
So, before you look at throwing that old gear away, please consider sending it back to us for a repair, wash or simply for recycling. And if you’ve got old down products you want to send us, you can find out more about recycling it online here.
We’ve hit our target to phase-out all intentionally added PFAS from our product by AW25.
Our DNA has always been to develop technical, high-performing durable products that are fit for purpose. For over 40 years, we’ve been keeping people warm and dry so they can safely spend more time in the outdoors.
Driven by values, and not legislation, for the last 10 years we’ve looked for other ways of maintaining water repellency, breathability, and durability from lower-impact alternatives to PFAS.
Through strategic approaches with material sourcing, strict internal due diligence testing, and collaboration with our ingredients partners, we have met our target to phase-out all intentionally added PFAS for AW25. You can read more about our journey to phase-out PFAS use here.
Material choices.
We buy more recycled fabric and down than virgin.
In 2024, 68% of purchased fabric was recycled.
In 2024, 62% of purchased down was recycled.
There are times when natural materials such as animal by-products offer performance, weight, or insulation benefits that exceed their synthetic alternatives.
All animal by-products are sourced from partners with strict adherence to animal welfare standards.
All leather is a by-product from animals bred for meat production. And suppliers must be certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG).
All wool comes from farms or suppliers that are certified as mulesing-free.
We only use animal products for technical and performance reasons, never for an aesthetic purpose.
We will not accept exotic skins or skins from wild animals and never use real fur.
We stopped sourcing silk in 2021.
While down products have revolutionised the way we dress for outdoor activities, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the raw material is farmed from animals on a large scale. As the popularity of down garments grows, we have an increased responsibility to ensure that our insulation is produced in environments where animal welfare standards are being maintained.
That’s why all down sourced from farms into our supply chain is Responsible Down Standard certified, certified by Control Union CB-CUC-839597. The RDS independently certifies down against animal welfare requirements and tracks it from the source to the final product. The purchase of Responsible Down Standard (RDS) certified products demonstrates demand for better animal welfare practices in the down and feather supply chain.
You can find more information about the Responsible Down Standard here.
Understanding microfibres.
Tiny fibres released from natural and synthetic textiles throughout the product lifecycle are widely referred to as microfibres, microplastics, or fibre fragments.
Microfibres are not new, but awareness and evidence-based research is growing.
Microfibres have the potential to harm the environment, wildlife and people through their presence in ecosystems from marine and freshwater environments to air and soil. All types of fibres have a tendency to shed, and understanding the full impacts of their source, presence and impact is a growing area of research.
The Microfibre Consortium (TMC) 2030 Commitment.
By signing The Microfibre 2030 Commitment we have committed to put the research and understanding of fibre fragmentation on our agenda and contribute towards the development of knowledge and the identification of solutions.
We share test results from all new base and mid-layer fabrics with The Microfibre Consortium, to contribute to a greater understanding of fibre fragmentation.