Clown skateboards have just dropped the final release of decks in their ‘Manifesto’ series. In their words, via an Instagram announcement, they put out the following statement:
‘We love our manifesto and what it meant to us. However, this drop of manifestos will be the end of the “here to finish what we started” run… We decided upfront that this will be the final run of manifesto’s as we have been back for a minute now and have new goals we want to fulfil.’
This marks the close of another chapter in the Clown story, but for anyone following along so far, you know that it’s far from over. One of the key goals for Clown when they decided on their return, around 15 years after they shut down their doors back in the early noughties, was that they were aiming for a carbon neutral operation. They aren’t quite up to speed yet, but this is the main focus of the next act, as they explain below:
‘It was obvious we weren’t going to be a fast fashion, why the fuck would you want to! Waste of ink, cloth and packaging brands that don’t understand all the various steps of the value chain and more importantly the side effects of production is a place we do not want to be in. So, we picked makers that had a lower impact, we deliberately picked printing methods that used lower discharge and packaging that was compostable at least. To date on all our apparel we can honestly say that:
78% (“So not 100% perfect, but 100% on the way there”) of it is made using renewable energy
100% is made using organic or recycled fibers
100% comes from places that do look after the people that make it and pay them properly (that shit matters).
All our clothing packing is FSC, locally manufactured, recyclable or compostable and none of it has the characteristics of a plastic bag as when that shit hits the ocean and yes 10% of all bags do – who knows why. It does break down after 2 years but in the process, it chokes marine life, we have all seen the photos…
We don’t just leave it there as we also carry this over in our boards with all wood coming from forest conservations areas that maintain biodiversity in nature, all waste 100% recycled and glues that are not going to make those pressing our boards to be ill in a few years and then dump all that into our waterways. We don’t shrink wrap and all the bags we do use are made from recyclable material and can be recycled again.
Obviously, these things have a cost attached to them but better than costing the earth, right? But that cost is on us, your agreement when buying Clown stuff is to wear the fuck out of it then up-cycle it or hand it on. If you buy to waste, please don’t buy from us.
Two new tee drops include a triple pack of tees, and the ‘Mr Ed’ tee joins the Clown OG design, which returns for a ‘Flashlite’ special. Based around the idea of the funk band Parliament, who used to shine flashlites (aka torches, if you’re British) into the crown to shine a light on people who had found the funk. Flipping the idea into the 21st century, Clown are shining the light back on the people who support them – without you, they say, ‘we’re in the dark’.
Both tee drops are part of the Clown “one of 120 products”, which means they will make 120 of these bad boys, with 20 going out to clown team members and the rest up for grabs. Fully vegan, organic, and made by people that don’t work in a sweatshop and get paid properly. Happy days.
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Source: StreetArt - streetartnews.net
