Swobo - Real - Green - Attitude

July 26th, 2010 5:01pm

I've been watching Swobo since 2005, not quite sure what to make of them. Using words like "urban", "bike commuting" and other such futuristic dribble, Swobo was a self proclaimed green company before it was a hollow marketing ploy.

That was Tim Parr's dream when he created Swobo back in 1991 before joining Santa Cruz Bicycles owner Robb Roskopp at the turn of the centrury to continue it's meandering way. While they could have pushed hard to leverage the Santa Cruz connection Swobo kept it on the DL rejecting todays hyper marketing model. Every year they kept showing up at Interbike. Each year sporting a slightly larger offering, a few more feet of floor space and a little more confidence in their purpose. I liked what they stood for, but still wasn't convinced that their cool exterior wasn't a secret ploy to pry hard earned cash from my velcro state. Could they really care about the impact they would leave on this planet? Could clothes that were socially responsible last in my washer? Time warp forward 12 months... Now comfortable enough with my own sense of carbon being I spent thirty bucks for a t-shirt sporting a rainbow warrior design (also known as the world championship stripes but i digress- "The Championship T"). Yeah I spent more for this than I did on a weeks groceries but it made me feel that everything would be alright. It must have been all that organic cotton or water based inks absorbing through my skin because wearing that shirt actually made be feel cool, in a responsible sort of way. The transformation had begun. Paying a few buck more for clothing that actually supports farmers and printers who also care about the planet is cool. But getting a super soft and super stylish shirt was more than I could have bargained for. New found confidence in check, I bought the limited edition waxed cotton jacket for a couple more bills. Definitely the coolest, warm thing I own. Again more good feelings. And now, as if i couldn't be more enamored with the Swobo, they go and pull this "Message in a Bottle" stint. A project to raise awareness of the vast amounts of platic bottle waste we produce consuming water in bottles and the impact bottle water has on our natural resources. The company is not against bottled water, but the fact that we continue to produce such huge quatities of bottles that end up in landfills is, too much. In a perfect, put your money where your mouth is fashion, Tim Parr and the Swobo team developed a program whose goal is to flood Nestle Waters North America with bottles so that they might get the message that they might want to get on board with the the thinking that the planet needs a little love from the multinationals that make billions exploiting it. A little responsible thinking. How it works is equally genius. Simply purchase a biodegradable, reusable Swobo bottle for six dollars and when you are done, you can mail it - as is - by simply affixing a stamp to the bottle. The self addressed bottle will go to Nestle with the very clear message that we care what happens to the planet and so should they.

Wanna get involved? Simply go to Swobo and Buy a bottle. Enjoy the refreshing taste of good old H2O and then slap a stamp on the bottle and drop it in the mail - you'll finally be heard. And if you start getting that warm tingly feeling just like I did several years ago, don't say I didn't warn you.