Text: Brad Boren, Director of Innovation and Sustainability
Since 1929 Norrøna has been making products of the highest quality. This sentence has tremendous importance on our environmental impact, but it often gets lost in the multimedia marketing messages found everywhere. So what makes this message different?
Possibly it is the pride and feeling of responsibility that comes from four generations of active family ownership. This caretaker mentality requires viewing the world through long term lenses and customers as important people rather than sales statistics. This close-knit environment creates an atmosphere where employees take pride in their work and stay for a long time allowing for the experience to grow which directly enhances our products.
Norrøna constructs approximately 90% of its product development in-house. We have always invested in both machinery to construct the products and to test the materials. Products go through 15 quality checkpoints in order to ensure both the materials and construction will meet or exceed our customer’s expectations for quality and performance. If anything should go wrong we have been continuously repairing products for over 90 years. Our designs are developed to be timeless allowing for use to go beyond one generation. We see this in action through letters and other communication, and greatly appreciate when people are connected enough to our products to write us their stories.
Long term use of products and repair when necessary is the most sustainable way to produce clothing. Rejecting inferior quality with the throwaway mentality helps reduce exploitation of resources and excess waste
Norrøna products are created to be proudly worn for years to come in all types of weather. We have always controlled the materials that went into each product, and today in addition to ensuring the quality, function and design are as good as we can make them, we also look for and test the sustainable aspects of every material we use.
We believe that continuing the legacy of quality, function, and design allows us to make products that are appreciated and desired over many years. The longer a product is in use, the more environmentally positive that the product becomes.
With over 90 years of learning from our customers through repairing their products, field testing over the weekends and always brainstorming to make better solutions, Norrøna has strived to provide you with the best and most sustainable products available.
