The RECYCLED WADERS Story

I asked Patrick Jenkins of Recycled Waders for a few lines of copy for the blog post and received an attached document back that was just to interesting to edit or shorten.


Recycled Materials
Repurposed Products
Responsible Consumers

Background

Who would have guessed an errant back cast lodging a 1-0 lead-eye bunny leech in a scraggly black spruce tree on the high bank side of a river mouth full of Alaskan king salmon would have been responsible for the development of a small business?

But as luck would have it I scampered up the bank to retrieve my fly from the black spruce, stepped up on a downed tree to reach my fly, the tree rolled out from under my footing and a branch on the tree gauged an enormous hole in my first pair of breathable waders.

After finishing the rest of the fishing trip with leaky waders and soggy feet I drummed up the idea of using the wader material to fashion a new fishing bag specifically for my annual king salmon trip. After sketching the pack I handed the drawings to my mom and talk her through details. A few weeks later and the sewing skills that kept my dad’s sled dog team in harnesses and my brother, dad and I in beaver fur hats & moose hide mittens during the cold Alaskan winter months, had completed the first Recycled Waders bag.


It wasn’t until three or four years later after many fishing trips and many more inquiries about the recycled fishing satchel from my friends and fishing partners that Recycled Waders, LLC was created.

Early stages of Recycled Waders production involved cutting out hand drawn patterns on splayed out pieces of waders donated by my Alaskan fishing partners; clumsy sewing on a donated home sewing machine; and hand drawn logos with permanent markers. After fine tuning a few patterns we felt would resonate within the angling community I approached a few trusted industry friends, Dave McCoy of Emerald Water Anglers, Eric Rathbun of Reel Pure and Brian Bennett of Patagonia, for their honest opinions on the idea, the products and next steps and here we are today.


The Grit

Recycled Waders uses reclaimed breathable wader material to create repurposed products. This material comes from individuals, fishing guides, fishing lodges, wader manufacturers and local fishing clubs.

Once waders are received they are “deconstructed” by removing shoulder straps, waist belts, neoprene feet, manufacturer logos and any other straps, buckles or pockets that might get in the way. Next the material is washed at a local laundry shop. Those of you who have spent all day in your waders know what goes on in there – they need to be and do get laundered!

After their “de-fumigation” the waders are stacked in like sizes, shapes, and colors and prepared for cutting and sewing. As much as possible the components from each pair of waders are reclaimed with intent to be used in products as buckles, clasps, pockets, sliders, etc.

The minimalist attitude at Recycled Waders keeps all the “extras” and gadgets out of our packs. You won’t find tons of extra padding, added clasps, snaps or buckles, no extra elastic or fancy fold out fly trays, just simple, straight forward lines, with utility in mind.



Recycled Waders products are “deconstructed”, “de-fumigated”, cut and sewn within a 15-mile radius in Seattle, WA. Each product is unique to each pair of waders: whether it be aqua seal splotches, patches, stains, sun bleached sections, self imposed monograms, nicknames or color patterns, each pair of waders brings their own character to the shop and we try to capture this with our products.

Angler-to-Angler Program

The Angler-to-Angler Program is fairly self-explanatory: angler donates or recycles waders, waders are repurposed into new items, same angler or another lucky angler receives Recycled Waders products.

When you’ve decided your waders are better off hanging on a nail in your garage or leaking on a fishing buddy (been there) that forgot his waders they are ready to be recycled and we are here to help.