Deuter Packs Eliminates All Harmful Perfluorocarbons in 2020

January 21, 2020

German-based backpack brand completely eliminates PFCs from its product line as part of its larger commitment to sustainability

LONGMONT, Colo. (Jan. 21, 2020) – Deuter, a global leader in backpacks and outdoor equipment, announces that it has completely eliminated perfluorocarbons (PFCs), the harmful chemicals that shed from traditional water repellents, from its product line, beginning in Spring 2020. In order to ensure the water- and soil-repellent properties of its products, Deuter has replaced these PFCs with a renewably sourced, non-fluorinated DWR (Durable Water Repellency) that is bluesign® approved.

Although the outdoor industry is beginning to come to terms with its impact on the natural landscape, few brands are taking decisive, comprehensive action to eliminate harmful elements from their products. With this move to be PFC-free, Deuter is among those early leaders to take a hard stance on the importance of running a sustainable business.

“PFCs shed into the environment from all conventional DWR treatments, and we see it as our responsibility to eliminate that from the product cycle, thereby keeping those harmful chemicals from bioaccumulating and getting into our water,” says Jonathan Degenhardt, senior marketing manager at Deuter in the USA. “Despite the rising tide of sustainability stories in the outdoor industry, the fact is that very few brands have taken steps to completely eliminate PFCs. Deuter is the first backpack brand of its size to do so.”

The bluesign® standard is the world’s strictest standard in textile products for environmental productional, occupational safety and consumer protection. Although Deuter has worked with bluesign® for years, this is the first time that each and every product across the collection will include bluesign® approved materials. Removing PFCs in this way—not only from select products, but from the entire line—has required years of developing new materials with suppliers and is the culmination of a process that has been underway since 2014.

Deuter follows through this commitment to sustainability by backing its packs with a no-questions-asked lifetime repair policy, The Deuter Promise, an initiative aimed at keeping as many packs as possible out of the landfill.

In addition to removing all PFCs from its products in 2020, Deuter is also releasing a complete range of to-be-announced daypacks constructed from recycled materials at the 2020 Outdoor Retailer Snow Show, where it will be exhibiting at booth #35039-UL.

For more information on Deuter and its approach to environmental sustainability and social responsibility, visit: https://info.deuterusa.com/responsibility#

About Deuter:  From backpacking to bike commuting, alpinism and travel, to child-carrying and family adventures, Deuter creates better and more comfortable packs for everyone and everywhere. With over 121 years of pack building experience, Deuter has played a vital role in shaping mountaineering history since its 1898 founding in Germany. Its values of sustainability, passion, family, pioneering and meisterlich—German for excellence at one’s craft—have driven Deuter to be a leading global backpack brand. From developing the first framed pack in 1930, to being the pack of choice for the first ascent of the north face of the Eiger by Anderl Heckmair in 1938, to inventing the original bike-specific backpack as well as the very first ventilated mesh back system in its Aircomfort packs, Deuter innovations have shaped the pack industry since the beginning. For more information, visit: https://www.deuterusa.com/.

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Contact: Emily Banks

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