Influence, Influenced, and Influencing

I think I just posted the weirdest title in my two years of blogging. It is rather vague, but you will understand it a bit more in just a moment. I promise.

Last week I put up an editorial titled “The ‘Other’ Side of Green.” Basically it took a look at some of the more eco-friendly companies, with their intentions put in perspective. Are they as ‘Green’ or ‘Eco-friendly’ as they claim? Or is this just another strange attempt to lure dollars away from a caring public?

This ‘rant’, as it has now been called, was influenced by a single paragraph I had read over at the Splitterchoss Blog, a great blog for everything to do with rock climbing.

The Influence

Here’s the paragraph that got it all started.

So much of the outdoor industry pretends to be green while at the same time their very existence is founded upon the notion that you need to buy more new stuff. Now granted, there are times when you do need new gear, and I think that is ok. But the big joke about this whole “green” movement is that people think you can save the world by buying more stuff.

Influenced

This single paragraph got me to thinking that how outdoor gear is currently marketed to our eco-friendly, green, carbon neutral mindset, yet really persuades us to take actions that are exactly opposite from this standpoint. Every time we buy something new, we throw something away. Sure, our new gear may be eco-friendly, but our old gear will just sit in a landfill for thousands of years. It really isn’t a revolutionary thought, and I am sure others have felt the same way, but it did spark some interest.

Influencing

A couple of days after my Editorial was posted on this site, I ran across this on the Vice/Virtue climbing blog:

Last week, Jason Hendricks from The Adventurist went on a rant about the so-called “greening” of outdoor gear. And how we shouldn’t rely on manufacturer’s eco-hype alternatives - like recycled polyester base-layers and such - to do it for us. I’m sure this discussion is going on everywhere at once, but for my part, I committed to writing about environmental action you can do, not just pay for. Reducing waste and reusing equipment you already have.

This happens to be from an article entitled “Reduce, Reuse, Resole,”  hence the idea for this post’s title.

Summer, who runs the Vice/Virtues climbing blog has taken this idea a step further.  She is actually influencing her readers to take a second look at their gear and decide if they really need something new, or if that old gear can be fixed or recycled so that it becomes useful once again.  She is promising a whole series of ideas that could keep a butt-load of old gear out of the trash heap.  This first article focuses on climbing shoes.  She offers up some great tips on repairs, as well as where to obtain the materials to do-it-yourself, which saves even more cash.

The way prices are moving skyward on many of our everyday items, this idea is quite exciting and intriguing in relation to outdoors gear.  I personally can’t wait to see her next article.  I know I am looking forward to learning a thing or two about saving some of my gear, as well as my cash.

I will be posting more about Summer and her ideas in the weeks ahead, as I think this could be a huge influence on how many of us think.  She is giving us a needed alternative to how things are marketed to us and what we can do to get the most out of our current gear.  Very nice, Summer.