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Rapanui is an Eco-Fashion company from the Isle of Wight, that makes Organic, Ethical clothing using Renewable Energy with award-winning traceability. Rapanui is about making eco-fashion cool.

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Clothes Pin

Category: Information

What a pic.

Mehmet Ali Uysal - Clothes Pin, Belgium.

The Apprentice...

Category: Good Causes

The Apprentice. An intense programme to watch (if you've just got in from work) but it has to be said, great entertainment.

On the Isle of Wight we have an enterprise college which is basically a normal secondary school but with a special move - business and entrepreneurship. As part of enterprise week we were asked by the school to go in and help out with what we think is an incredibly cool initiative by the staff there - a real-life version of The Apprentice for students, who get to have a go with real businesses.

The students broke up into four teams, and we gave each team a whole load of store credit to do what they wanted with - they had to get the best return for our investment and they had a week to do it.

Some went knocking on doors in Cowes, some made flyers, videos and Facebook campaigns, and some got family to help out: The thing was, not one of them bunked off or couldn't be bothered: Every one of them gave up extra time and threw themselves into the tasks. That says a lot about this bunch. Solid.

Rod Gilbert from Cowes business association was Lord Sugar, and brutally fired Team One who came in last place overall, but by the finest of margins: Infact they had one of the best campaigns and made the 2nd highest number of transactions, but the value of those was so small that they showed no profit. A tough way to learn a good lesson.

Well done dudes.

 

World Responsible Economic Forum

Category: Inside Rapanui

The World Responsible Economic Forum, Lille, France, Nov 2011: A place where the world gathers to share ideas about sustainable economies.

This year Rapanui was invited to talk about their story by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a leading voice for advocates of the circular economy, and alongside Vestas, the world's top wind turbine manufacturer.

Ellen MacArthur set up her foundation to raise awareness and help accelerate the integration of Circular Economies amongst consumers, businesses and governments. Current economies are based on a "Take, Make and Dispose" model, or linear economy, where at each stage of the process there is waste. Current environmental thinking is based on reducing the impact of this model - of recycling some of this waste, or trying to encourage people to 'use less' - this doesn't change the outcome it just buys us time. If the system doesn't work, trying to optimise it is a waste. What if we just changed the system?

This is the focus of the work by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and they promote ideas based on a new economic model - the circular economy - where materials and resources in the economy perform a loop: Imagine that Waste is Food - and that products are designed to be easily taken apart and reformed into new products, and that this whole system is powered by renewable energy? This is a circular economy.

As the principle was provided by the EMF, the renewable energy was provided by Vestas, who make arguably the world's best wind turbines, install them globally and who save us all 40 million tonnes of CO2(e) each year. We've had a bit of a struggle trying to get a wind turbine installed locally - Vestas showed us all that whilst that's been going on, they have been developing a new turbine that's taller than the London Gherkin and has a rotor diameter bigger than Wembley. It really hit home how important the race for green energy is and how easy it is to slip behind and let other countries benefit from a clean and secure energy future.

And then there was Rapanui. We were invited to try to put the ideas and system into a practical context and talk about how we've been putting Ellen MacArthur Foundations ideas into practise, designing a sustainable business model based on the circular economy, and putting some of the principles into practise, such as using Vestas turbines in our supply chain. Basically a case study of the type of new innovation-based companies which will need to be created to turn the market around by making business-as-usual obsolete.

 

We came home both proud to have been invited to such an event, a bit humbled to meet and be questioned by some household-name brands, businesses and people. It was a bit surreal at first but looking back it felt like a bit of a milestone. It's clear that sustainability is a hot topic, it's not going away and we're stoked to be involved.

Here's a little more on the Circular Economy for your viewing pleasure...

 

Luke Young on Board

Category: Ambassadors

This year we've had the opportunity to team up with Luke Young, one-time winner of Carve magazine's Best Young Surfboard Shaper of the Year Prize

Too often surfshop racks are stocked with one-size-fits-all, mass produced models designed and made on computers on the otherside of the world, flown here, used, then thrown in the bin.

There was a time when it was different though - when a surfer would get his boards made locally, by a shaper who knows the conditions and the way you surf - probably because he was out there with you at the weekend. Your boards would be made by hand, would work the way you wanted them to and were designed to last - when you're done, they'd go to some grom down the beach who's just starting up.

Sustainable Surfboards

Luke's been shaping boards  from his Plymouth lockup since his uni days and in 15 years he's managed to rack up a long list of accolades including winning the Carve Best Young Shaper of the Year prize - and he's just teamed up with Rapanui to work on a joint project over the next two years to look at sustainability and surfboards.

His shapes work well, there's no doubt: What we want to do is shed some light on the new technologies that are emerging in the surfboard industry to respond to sustainability, and compare biofoam vs. synthetic foams, bio resin vs. normal resin, epoxy boards and bamboo boards plus some other materials that are being developed. Also we want to think about airmiles and surfboard's carbon footprint - plus the thing that really matters: If boards are made with eco materials, will they still work just as well?

Luke's hand-shaped two boards for us at Rapanui to field test this winter, spiced up by local spray artist Al Manning ... keep your eye on the blog for more soon

Photos: James Ioannou, Spray  by Al Manning

Wind Turbine Base Jump

Category: Ambassadors

Dan Witchalls and friends: Wind Turbine Base Jump

Rapanui's  Dan Witchalls: first he's jumping off buildings in London, next minute we're off to Switzerland to do some wingsuit base jumping and now this: Dan Witchalls and friends, eco base jump...

Makes us want to get up and jump off our desks.

DTM

Surfdome Artist Search

Category: Inside Rapanui

If you're not linked up with Rapanui on facebook, you'll have missed the mother of all t-shirt art battles - the Surfdome / Rapanui artist search.

Entrants had a month or so to come up with a maximum of three designs for a limited edition t-shirt, sold by Surfdome (the UK's top action sports store) and made by Rapanui on our sustainable t-shirts. There was only one winners slot and the competition was fierce. Surfdome and Rapanui judges picked the winner after a long and difficult session.

 

Surfdome/Rapanui Artist search Finalists...

 

Winner - The Best T-shirt design

Stephen Nelson - landscape

 

Runner Up 

Benjamin Dabell - Wind turbine bottle

* The best idea and a great illustration. Was pipped at the post; it didn't quite work out as well on the t-shirt canvas as it does on paper. Tough decision!

 

 

Why the Name? 7 Billion reasons...

Category: Environment

The collapse of the civilisation on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui in the native language, became very popular story after the film “Rapa Nui” (1994) and the book of the American biologist Jared Diamond “Collapse – How societies choose to fail or survive” (2005). In many ways, it has been generalised into a fable, but nonetheless one that is entirely relevant not least this week, when the world’s population reached 7 Billion...

In the scenario shown in both film and book (albeit a little hollywood-ised), the human population of the native Rapa Nui people grew too large for the Easter Island habitat to sustain. A fierce overexploitation of the limited natural resources of the island occurred during construction work for the Moai – the large statues that still remain on the island in vigil. These statues became a symbol of power and prestige on the small island and required a great deal of natural resources to build, specifically large quantities of timber to transport and erect the structures.

Trees are needed to hold soil in place and vice versa - it's part of their job in nature. So after clearing the forest of large grown palm-trees, the soil started to dissapear quickly, eroded by the heavy rain falls and strong Pacific winds. The barren volcanic rocks could no longer sustain the topsoil which supported all life on Easter Island– from bugs and insects, to mammals and birds - all flora and fauna in some way were connected to a habitat which had eroded away. On a young volcanic island, life is more precarious – deforestation can become an irreversible process, as young trees have neither the soil nor the protection of larger neighbours that is needed to establish this environment and restart the system.

The statues and structures that are now one of the Seven Wonders of the World may have come at the expense of the environment. This in effect meant that it became increasingly difficult, then near impossible, for farmers to grow crops and feed the population – and with the forest habitats gone, hunting options were slim.

In the resulting famine, chaos and civil war gripped one of the most developed cultures in the Pacific Ocean - with their own scripture and astonishing construction skill – the Rapa Nui civilisation rapidly collapsed.

Sir David Attenborough Explains...

This scenario is based primarily on the discovery during an archaeology expedition prior to 1961 of unknown palm-like pollen in sediments, plus comparisons with ecosystems of similar geography without human populations. The layer with pollen was found in various cores recovered from swamps, also root imprints in fossil soils and subfossil nuts, found in the lava caves, prove that Easter Island once supported large grown trees. Today the landscape of Rapa Nui is dominated by meadows instead and looks much like the moorland in the west country (which was created in the same way – deforestation, although to build ships to fight the Armada, rather than statues)  and this land now covers 90% of the island. The rest is shrub lands and planted forests of Eucalyptus trees, which host almost no native species, only invasive plant species and urban vegetation.

The metaphor is pretty clear. The society of Easter Island, either ignoring or unaware of the destruction of their environment, was finally doomed to extinction – valuing symbols of status over common sense and sustainability, their way of life could not be sustained by the small ecosystem at their disposal.

We should not be too harsh on the humankind and definitely not critical of the Rapa Nui people - modern civilisations have conveniently avoided this fate by moving around or trading once shortages become serious. The world is much larger than Easter Island and their culture would have had a better chance should their island have been four times the size, or less remote. But they couldn't move on once they'd used up their island's resources and life began to struggle.

This trait of overexploiting ecosystems is not exclusive to mankind. Humans have studied populations and population collapse for centuries – we even make use of it when we make beer (the yeast population booms until the barrel runs low on sugar, or the alcohol produced from their waste makes their habitat (the beer) impossible to survive in). In these processes, the system can’t be restarted; the changed environment is permanent.

The story of Rapanui is a grim fable, and entirely relevant to sustainability in the modern age – Earth cannot support 7 Billion people forever, yet this population is increasing and like the Rapanui, we are an island in space. It is likely the Rapanui did not know the error until it was too late, but for us there has been a clear early warning on climate change and sustainability, reaching out from the 9th century AD all along - it's hard to find an excuse why we wouldnt do anything about it. So we can’t choose to just ignore sustainability once we know.

And this is our challenge - a lot of people aren’t aware of why it’s so important. 

So why the name? Well, for a brand on a mission to raise awareness of sustainability, Rapanui is possibly the best real life example of what happens if you dont act, once you know.

 

Bibliography: (Climate, Overpopulation & Environment – Scientific American - The Rapa Nui debate By David Bressan, October 31, 2011)

Rapanui Wingsuit Base Jump

Category: Ambassadors

Dan Witchalls, base jump world champion, has been throwing Rapanui t-shirts off cliffs ... with himself inside them.

Check out this vid just in from his latest trip to Switzerland, about 10 days ago.

"A good trip, 27 jumps on the wingsuit including one off of the mushroom. Also competed in the 'world pro base' wingsuit race competition- came 13th out of 25 which for my experience level on the wingsuit is pretty good - put it down the the eco karma I've been banking with you guys.

Hope you like the videos,

DTM"

Shambles Shenanigans

Category: Ambassadors

A message from our friend Shambles....

Its been a year now since i’ve been working with Rapanui and as their Irish ambassador I would like to tell you about my year.

Mostly, it looked like this....

The arrival of my first Rapanui stuff to the Emerald Isle coincided with the arrival of Aussie filmmaker Ryan Mattick and his Zion wetsuits team riders, last Autumn. Together we scored some epic surf on Irelands West coast – big wave spots like Rileys and Aileens – which Ryan included in his film covering the trip entitled 'The Viking'. Any surfers out there who own that video, spot the Rapnui tee!

Next a secret solo mission with filmmaker Peter Martin spawned the video that did the rounds 'Shambles - Day in the life' Vimeo. I suppose, me doing my things. It ended up catching the attention of Vodafone, who put my face on all their Irish mobile ads. Pretty funny, I havent stopped getting abuse from the lads yet. December was one of the coldest on record - the snow held back the surf a bit, but the first three months of the new year really was just a blur: it’s safe to say that January, February, and March 2011 were the best three months of surf I have ever seen in Ireland, full stop.

We had massive swell after swell combined with offshore winds and fair weather. All those fickle west coast spots came to life. During that time I became the first bodyboarder to tow into big wave spots Prowlers and Mullaghmore.

February saw a spectacular Billabong tow-in contest at Mullaghmore. I was invited to enter but lacked the required jetski. The day before the competition myself and number one Irish bodyboarder Shane Meehan did manage to whip into a few monsters. We both got a couple of warm-up ones but got smashed on the big ones and the session ended when the board we were using was lost. Shane actually got the worst wipeout i've ever seen a bodyboarder get in Ireland; He got whipped into a scary set wave behind the peak and as the beast reared up on the heaviest part of the reef the unthinkable happened, he nosed dived at top speed, bodysurfed to the bottom, got sucked up in the tube, got smashed and wore the rest of the set on the head.

Later on that day I got to surf PMPA point on 'The Day of Days' with Tom Lowe, Fergal Smith, and Greg Long with Mickey Smith shooting from the channel.

April and May were spent squeezing the last sessions out the big swell season before retiring to my local beach to teach beginners how to surf and perfect my longboarding all summer long.

I have just arrived back from Eurosurf 2011 where I spent two weeks as one of the team Ireland contest judges. The competition was amazing and the surf gods delivered the goods: contestable waves and good weather throughout with a couple of classic days at Bundoran's crown Jewel – the Peak – thrown in for good measure. Congratulations to team Ireland and their sixth place finish and Irish bodyboarder Ashleigh Smith for her second place: Ireland's best result in a Eurosurf for over 15 years.

Now the winter is here again and I am kept snug and warm in by doubling up on Rapanui t-shirts (pro tip).

I am geniunely stoked to have got involved with Rapanui, simply because I am quite eco-minded but it’s hard to do anything meaningful about the environment these days - so good on you lads, it's more than just the t-shirt. Right now I'm focusing on getting back to doing what I do best preparing for another winter of huge waves out in the warm and sunny Irish winter.

Hope you've enjoyed reading what's been going on over here,

back to you in the studio,

Shambles.

Deal or No deal

Category: Customer Care

Last week Gary stopped by the shop. With his partner he owns an award-winning Ice Cream business, The Plaza Ices in Cowes, and they have some great ideas, like using solar panels to power their chillers.

Gary bought a load of t-shirts including our Met Office British Summer tee. He briefly mentioned he was busy - something to do with TV next week - but wasnt giving anything away.

A few days later we get a load of emails saying Rapanui products have been spotted on TV again. Turns out that he's on Deal or No Deal, all week, and he'd come in to get a different t-shirt to wear each day. All out of his own pocket.

Just Legendary.

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