Sustainability and watersports and/or boating. If you can find a greater juxtaposition on the planet, email me. They are two things that are rarely seen together, considering almost everything in the boating industry involves something toxic or dangerous to the environment. We use petrol to run our boats, in a lot of cases we use it to make our neoprene, which in turn makes our life jackets and wetsuits. If you have ever watched someone use fibreglass to manufacture something, you will find gas masks and limited exposed skin due to the toxins. All of this of course isn't harmful in the final product, in the process to get it there... Maybe a little more.
But (there's always the potential for a but), Follow have begun to lead the charge in an attempt to direct a more sustainable future for the vest industry. In this potential future where the world aims for sustainability and the old ways become harder to continue, Follow have always attempted to push forward with more creative ways of thinking. It's an adapt or die mentality that gives them a springboard to lead the pack over time.
What began as the S.P.R range way back in 2014 has now evolved ten years later into Project One. A completely new take on sustainability that takes what they learn't from SPR and progresses it with a decade of further knowledge to create a range of jackets that aim to one day ultimately be completely sustainable, void of toxins during production and won't be left to hard rubbish when something more shiny comes along.
From the big to the small, the parts that create the ultimate sum of the Project One expedition work from the inside out. Traditional foam used in life jackets is something that you would just as likely find in a cheap fold out mattress, except denser and while the Project One version might have similar touch feel uses no less than 81.9 and 78.6 recycled bottles in mens and womens vests respectively to provide you with the flotation to cover Australian approval standards.
While these may seem like small steps, its the sum of many small steps that make up a journey, and in Follow's case the decades worth of steps are beginning to add up, what comes next for the Project One range for 2026 and beyond, we don't yet know. But you can bet your bottom dollar that there is a plan and a pathway in place to reach ultimate sustainability out of the Queensland ideas house.