How to:
Dress Ethically for Spring Break
Panic shopping for spring break?
Read this first.
It’s that time of year again—- midterms have us by the chokehold, Syracuse is still freezing, and the semester’s halfway mark is quickly approaching.
On the bright side, that also means spring break season is upon us! With the sneaky timing of spring break, shopping for this long-awaited departure often means scrambling to Amazon for last-minute fits. And with the temptation of fast fashion fixes, it’s easier than ever to succumb to the allure of free two-day shipping.
Still, shopping for a trip isn’t an excuse to ditch your sustainable shopping resolutions. ZIPPED has you covered with sustainable, ethical small businesses to support as you check off all your spring break needs.
Vitamin A
Founder Amahila’s mission for her eco-friendly swimwear company, Vitamin A , was inspired by work done by Patagonia’s founder and fellow environmentalist Yvon Chouinard. Despite being told by fabric suppliers that this same business plan would not be possible in the swimwear space, Amalia took the leap anyway and decided to design her premium swimwear with recycled nylon fabrics, maintaining her commitment to sustainability and brand ethics.
XODORNE
Amp up your beach look with XODORNE, an emerging bikini jewelry brand. XODORNE believes in “honoring the elements” and seeks to honor water, minerals, salts, and stones through the materials they use and the causes they support. Their pieces are the perfect way to spice up plain swimwear and make the perfect spring break accessories.
Little Hands Hawaii
Little Hands Hawaii is a clean, effective, and widely trusted sunscreen brand that uses simple and natural ingredients you can read and understand. Unlike mainstream sunscreen brands, their products do not harm or irritate marine life and are formulated for sensitive skin.
Summersalt
Swimwear brand Summersalt utilizes a unique 3D design process to create swimwear pieces from recycled materials for every body type. Their innovative process seeks to reduce waste and improve the fit of their suits.
Fill Your Tank
Bored waiting at the gate between connecting flights or need a fun way to burn mindless hours on a long road trip? Fill Your Tank is the perfect card game to fill a few empty hours with friends and family.
The brand was born in the car and inspired by summer road trips taken by founder Miranda McKeon and her high school friend group to upstate New York, New York City, and the Jersey Shore. The perfect card game to bring friends, families, partners, and strangers closer together!
Oddli
Oddli is a “community-based” brand started by best friends and Stanford University grads Jensen Neff and Ellie Chen. Disappointed by the millions of deadstock fabric wasted by the retail industry each year, the pair decided to found a brand that utilized that wasted fabric and committed itself to sourcing transparency.
Even though cotton boxer shorts were last summer’s trend, spring break marks the perfect time to invest in a new, sustainable pair to throw on after a long beach day.
We get it— avoiding fast fashion is hard.
But while it’s easy to rely on the comfort of quick-shipping retailers, there are plenty of small and sustainable businesses that deserve your shopping dollars this spring break.