Waste

As part of their ECONYL® Regeneration Process, our current partner, Aquafil, retrieves fishing nets and other pre- and post-consumer waste, then cleans them to recover as much nylon as possible.

A. Clean fishing nets recovered by Aquafil.

Nylon chips

Aquafil chemically recycles the recovered waste back into its original form, which allows them to create new, usable nylon.

B. The regenerated chips retain the qualities of new nylon.

ECONYL® yarn

Aquafil spins the nylon chips into premium ECONYL® yarn, which can be used to create a variety of products. This yarn can be broken down and remade into new material.

C. Aquafil’s high-quality, repeatedly recyclable ECONYL® yarn.

Fabric

We work with our third-party partners, such as Gore, to develop industry-leading fabrics made with this recycled, recyclable material.

Our first GORE-TEX fabric made from Aquafil’s ECONYL® yarn.

Lab tests

Every hardshell we make goes through a series of rigorous tests to validate durability and waterproofness. System 0™ products receive the same intensive treatment...and then some.



Beyond our typical strength and waterproof testing protocols, we subjected our first System 0™ jacket to a human sebum test, Velcro abrasion test, 24-hour wash cycle, and a cement mixer filled with rocks. All to show that gear made with recycled materials can meet the same rigorous standards as our pinnacle products.

A. Testing tensile strength, the maximum stretching stress a fabric can withstand before failing.

Field tests

Having our athletes test our products in the mountains is the Arc’teryx standard. For our first System 0™ product, we did that, outfitting our ski and climb athletes with a prototype. 



After another round of in-lab tests, we asked our friends at North Shore Search and Rescue, one of the busiest rescue teams in North America, to wear the jacket regularly on their missions. The insights they provided helped us reinforce common failure points — prime example, the zipper — and create a design that could be easily and extensively repaired.

B. The field-testing process involved dozens of prototypes across a range of activities.

Validation from our athletes and professional alpine partners help us design gear that stands up to backcountry demands. Their insights influence everything from prototype refinement to ideas for brand new products.

C. Our partners at North Shore Search and Rescue wearing the Sperro SV throughout their sometimes daylong missions.

ReBIRD™ collaboration

The insights we gather from in-field tests, together with those from our ReBIRD™ team, help us pinpoint a product’s areas of concern. From there, we can intentionally design to not only reinforce common failure points, but also make them less problematic by improving their repairability.

 That’s largely why our first System 0™ product was designed hand-in-hand with our ReBIRD™ team from the start. The ReBIRD™ team is equipped to make more than 80 unique repairs on this particular jacket, from simple ones like patching over rips, to more complex ones, such as repanelling.

A. With their extensive REPAIR service, the ReBIRD™ team can help keep gear in use season after season.

B. This repair process removes the damage, then adds a new piece of GORE-TEX fabric for a one-of-a-kind fix without seams.

Care services

Maintaining your gear is equally important to extending its lifespan. And the most crucial maintenance? Washing. 



Our free ReBIRD™ WASH offering gives your gear a technical refresh, re-proofing any GORE-TEX® and re-puffing any down, so items perform at their peak from season to season.

C. Through ReBIRD™, we service, care for, and give our gear multiple lives, so performance stays at its peak beyond a single adventure, season, or individual.

Easy disassembly

Our System 0™ products are thoughtfully designed with our ReBIRD™ team from the beginning, allowing us to plan into their end of life. Through this collaboration, we’ve been able to construct jackets that can be easily disassembled through ReBIRD™ once they’re deemed unrepairable. Currently, this means that non-nylon components — such as zippers and elastic cords — are separated from nylon parts, so that the latter can be repurposed.

A. A glimpse at a ReBIRD™ table during disassembly. Arc’teryx is working toward solutions to recover even more materials in the future.

Your role

Joining our journey toward circularity is as simple as servicing your gear through ReBIRD™. Beyond providing extensive repairs to keep your favourites in play as long as possible, our ReBIRD™ team is ready to take System 0™ products back when they’ve finally reached their end. That’s when the disassembly process begins — and you’ve done your part to keep materials in use longer.

B. We are scaling our ReBIRD™ services globally to better support the future of System 0™. Current services include WASH, REPAIR, TRADE-IN, RESALE, and UPCYCLE.

Ready to recycle

Keeping materials in use is key to reducing our impact. And that requires recycling. 



As of now, our third-party partner Aquafil — who makes the recycled ECONYL® nylon used in our first System 0™ product — receives everything that can be recovered from the jacket, straight from our ReBIRD™ team. Then Aquafil recycles the nylon materials into new ECONYL® yarn.

A. Removal of nonrecoverable parts in preparation for recycling.

For the future

This yarn can be used to create brand new products, giving the materials from your jacket a chance at another life.

B. Eventually the gear we make today could become the gear of the future.