Very often when we come to discuss the ISARD Project, the recurring question is “Why did you start this thing”.
So why…?
The simple answer would be “we just wanted to create a fun project” but the reality is more complex. To start with, we are nature lovers, sport enthusiasts and product geeks. This should already be enough, but our relation to the environment and the incapacity to find low impact trail running products made the cut !
Originally we wanted to create shoes… but way too complex for newbies in the textile industry. We decided that a t-shirt would be much more simple… was it? What would we consider a “low impact” trail running t-shirt? Couple common sense elements came to mind.
A “Timeless Spirit”. From the conception to the production the idea is to create a garment that would evolve outside of fashion, imagine a Stan Smith for trail running.
A t-shirt produced with the highest recycled material proportion (100% if possible). Within the major brands, we could not find a t-shirt composed from 100% recycled materials. Maybe it was for a small project like ISARD to take that risk.
A trail running t-shirt we could use for training AND competition. Could we build a t-shirt 100% made from one single material and use it for training as well as competition. This means it had to be under 95 grams, be resistant and at the same time dry quickly.
A t-shirt that holds in time. We would need to find a material that holds in time, resist to abrasion and eventually to some nice falls…
Finally a t-shirt made as locally as possible!
Spoiler alert, this is how our first trail running t-shirt, the Pell Series, was born. Timeless design, 100% recycled, made in Spain.
An interesting challenge to put ourselves into… And that was the Pandora box of these challenges we just opened.