Compass: Charting the Evolution of Outdoor Gear

Ecotrek Profile

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Ecotrek were one of the first US pack companies to offer a full line of product made from highly recycled content. Some models were said to contain up

to 95% recycled content. Recycled polyester fabrics and webbings, recycled aluminium frame staves, recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE) milk jug

plastic for the framesheets and reground nylon buckles. This was all about a decade before the likes of Mountainsmith, Osprey and Voltaic would make

their packs from recycled materials. The Ecotrek packs were also made in the USA, and were designed for disassembly so the materials could be further

recycled.

The company launched a year or two after Patagonia had garnered much press coverage for their Synchilla flece made of recycled drink PET bottles, so

there was some buzz about green outdoor products. However Ecotrek apparently struggled to get its product into the market with any significant traction.

The company founders put this down to several factors, putting too much stress on the environmental benefits and not enough on the technical features;

and trying to sell by mail order (people like to try on packs before buying them). By the time they had revised their marketing strategy and moved to

retail distribution they had had used up their venture capital funding and did not have sufficient funds to keep production going, even though orders were

increasing steadily.

After winding up Ecotrek founder John Fabel licensed the BioSpan technology to Marmot to help them relaunch a line of packs worked for Marmot as a

product consultant. Apparently originally trained as a climate scientist John Fabel has, since Ecotrek, gone on to co-found several companies involved in

emerging green technologies, and especially in biofuels. He has also lectured in design and entrepreneurship.