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From Bottles to Gloves with WasteNot™

Eureka! Success! Aha! It’s Alive!

It didn’t follow exactly like a scientist’s discovery in a lab, but we’d like to imagine that when our Product Development team discovered the right formula in making environmentally-friendly gloves, they had the same euphoric rush Einstein, Tesla and many other inventors did with their discoveries.

More than one million plastic bottles are sold every minute and it takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bottle to decompose. Now imagine this – gloves made of recycled plastic bottles that have the same quality and performance as regular gloves. Gloves that are great for the environment and your hands? Seems like a no brainer, right? Well, there has never been any in the market… until now.

Introducing WasteNot™—Watson Gloves’ aim to help the environment and your hands.

Available now in stores and online, WasteNot™ gloves are the very first gloves in the market to use post-consumer recycled plastic water bottles as the glove material, which means thousands of recycled plastic bottles being reused rather than being stuck in landfills for hundreds of years.

The Process

WasteNot™ focuses on the beginning stage of the product life cycle by taking recycled plastic bottles to reuse as material (as opposed to our biodegradable disposable gloves, which focus on the end stage of the product life cycle). The process from turning bottles to gloves starts with collecting recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, which is ground into tiny chips. After being melted and compressed into small pellets, it then sees a second life, as it’s spun into high-quality polyester yarn – this type of yarn material is called WasteNot™ yarn.

Our goal is to eliminate virgin polyester yarn from our gloves and fully transition to our eco-friendly WasteNot™ yarn. As of our launch for our WasteNot™ spring collection, we have reused 305,344 plastic bottles to make our sustainable gloves. That count will continue to rise, as we expect to see more and more WasteNot™ gloves become the glove of choice for consumers – and we can’t wait to see that happen.

The Release

We’re incredibly excited to release our WasteNot™ gloves for men, women, and kids in time for spring. Transitioning out of winter, glove wearers are looking for comfortable, breathable, and lightweight gloves for versatile spring use. WasteNot™ gloves are all that and more while reducing plastic waste in our environment.

Up to 3 whole (500mL) plastic bottles are used to make 1 pair of our sustainable gloves. Our Homegrown collection is our first garden brand that uses WasteNot™ yarn. For our fabric printed Homegrown gloves, 1-3 bottles are used to make the gloves. You Grow Girl, Sparrow, Lily all have a WasteNot™ spandex back, which is made from 96% recycled PET bottles.

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  • Dryhide™ water resistant goatskin leather palm for durability & comfort
  • Hooded fingertips and knuckle bar for protection
  • Snug-fitting shirred elastic wrist with extended 3” slip-on style cuff
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  • Microfibre palm with silicone printed palm for sure-grip in wet conditions
  • Hooded fingertips and padded knuckle bar
  • Snug-fitting shirred elastic wrist with slip-on style cuff
1 Bottle to Glove Icon
  • Dryhide™ water resistant goatskin leather palm for durability & comfort
  • Hooded fingertips and knuckle bar for protection
  • Snug-fitting shirred elastic wrist with slip-on style cuff

For our seamless knit gloves for both men and women, 1 whole plastic bottle is used to make the gloves. Stealth Hero and Karma comprise of 15g WasteNot™ polyester, which is made from 25% (+/- 2%) recycled PET bottles. They’re ergonomically formed to fit your hand and reduce hand fatigue, while the foam nitrile palm helps ensure a sure-grip in any wet situation.

Stealth Hero is the latest glove in the Stealth line. That means you can expect the glove to have the Stealth staple Slip Defence feature, which allows the glove to stand up to dry, oily and wet conditions. Stealth Hero also has tough resistance to abrasion and tears with a 4131XX rating under the EN388:2016 standard. Like other Stealth gloves, Stealth Hero provides a second skin fit and offers maximum dexterity to help you in all types of work, including construction, manufacturing, automotive, and general outdoor work.

373 Stealth Hero
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  • Foam nitrile palm with diamond embossed pattern for sure-grip in wet conditions
  • Ergonomically formed for incredible fit and comfort
  • Slip Defence protection against dry, oily and wet conditions
  • Good resistance to abrasion and tears
  • Snug-fitting seamless knit wrist that keeps dirt and debris out
375 Karma Glove
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  • Foam nitrile palm with diamond embossed pattern for sure-grip in wet conditions
  • Ergonomically formed for incredible fit and comfort
  • Snug-fitting seamless knit wrist that keeps dirt and debris out

We also didn’t forget about the little tots. We have WasteNot™ gloves fit for kids’ hands too so that they can get involved with the next spring project on the list. For our seamless knit kids’ gloves, 1 bottle is used to make the gloves. L’il Sprout and Oh, Snap use 15g WasteNot™ polyester, which is made from 23.5% (+/-2%) recycled PET bottles.

6170 L'il Sprout
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    • Sandy latex palm coating
    • Ergonomically formed to fit kids’ hands
    • Snug-fitting seamless knit wrist
    • With this glove on, any L’il Sprout will be eager to plant their own seeds and see them sprout
6171 Oh Snap
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  • Sandy latex palm coating
  • Ergonomically formed to fit kids’ hands
  • Snug-fitting seamless knit wrist
  • With this glove on, kids will be sure to help get all the gardening work done in a snap!

The Future

We’re pushing glove innovation to a new level with WasteNot™ gloves. And the great thing? WasteNot™ gloves are the same quality Watson gloves you know and love, just in eco-friendly form. No compromises in quality. No compromises in performance. And this is only the start for us and WasteNot™ gloves. Eco-friendly spring gloves is now, but a broader selection of WasteNot™ gloves is the future.

Right now, you can look at these sustainable gloves and see that the future is here. And that’s totally worthy of a “Eureka!”

WasteNot™ gloves are available now in stores and online.

For more information on WasteNot™ click here.

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