Black Friday, Green Friday, White Friday?

We believe that Black Friday should not just be a shopping extravaganza but also a day for brands and companies to take a stance. It's the ultimate day of consumerism and consumption with bargains galore across every industry. It's the single biggest day of Sales in the USA with the UK now following the trend.  For businesses to make this discounting strategy work they must sell products at an even greater volume and encourage consumers to keep buying, whatever the cost to the Planet.

As a start up EVERY customer and sale matters to us to keep our dream alive. But this year we are going to continue with White Friday and donate £5 of every purchase across the Black Friday weekend to POW UK.  

White Friday with Latitude

Our goal is to build a more sustainable business and so we are turning this Black Friday on it's head.  We are using the weekend as a means to raise awareness of climate change and encourage responsible and conscious shopping. We'd like you to join us.

On White Friday we will be giving £5 from every sale to Protect Our Winters. Protect Our Winters is a charity which aims to get the outdoor community to take action on climate change. As a business which loves the outdoors and skiing, we wholeheartedly support their cause. 

As Black Friday sales tend to extend through the weekend until Cyber Monday we will follow suit. So, just to be clear, we will donate £5 from every sale we make to Protect Our Winters from Friday 27th November until Midnight Monday 30th November.

You will see that we continue to have our standard sale collection available, these are a limited stock of prior season's pieces and last in the box pieces only. These are still great quality products and they are available to our customers year round. So, if you are after a bargain it's there for you. Year round. Shop our Year Round Sale Collection here.

Why White Friday?

• Inspired by the Winters we are trying to protect, for our love of snow, snow sports and time outdoors
• Our future, our planet and our children's planet is at risk and we believe we all need to take some big steps to reduce our impact on Planet Earth. 
• We all need clothes, but every purchase takes a toll on the Planet. We believe each purchase should be made with consideration to the sustainability, sourcing and the longevity of the garment. Let's shop consciously and thoughtfully and reduce our impact on our Planet.
• Credit where credit is due. Arcade got there first - they have been running their White Friday campaign for years - what an awesome idea!

Who are Protect Our Winters?

POW was founded in 2007 by Professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones in the USA to get the outdoor community to take action on climate change. The UK chapter was formed by a team of UK Outdoor Sports Enthusiasts. They work with athletes, creatives and outdoor sports groups through their Winter guardians to accelerate the transition to a carbon neutral society and reduce individual and collective carbon footprints.

POW UK have some great suggestions on how you can take action!Check out the Protect Our Winters UK website here.

What can you do to reduce your impact on our Planet?

• If you are going to shop, be conscious to the impact your purchase has on the planet. Do you need it? Will it last? Could you buy something made from a more environmentally friendly material?
• Consider repairing garments before buying something new. Check out the guys over at One Sleeve at a Time! they have recently set up a shop selling pre-loved and sample jackets from your favourite brands! 
• Recycle, a recent study showed that in the UK 73% of our wardrobes haven't been worn in the last 12 months!

Check out the POW UK Take Action Page for some more ideas 

Brands not participating in Black Friday

There is a rapidly growing list of brands who are not participating in Black Friday primarily for environmental reasons. We've collected together a short list below:

• REI will be closing all its stores on Black Friday for a 6th year in a row. Encouraging it's employees to #optoutside for the day, this year it is taking things a step further and encouraging their members and employees to "opt to act" and sign up to a 52 week programme of small steps to reduce their carbon footprint!

• Haglöfsdoubled their prices last year, turning the basic concept of Black Friday upside down and launched its own "Green Friday": Instead of offering discounts, the Swedish outdoor company sold its kit in its own brand stores for twice the price and donated additional profit to the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation "Naturskyddsföreningen".

• Arcade - the original White Friday from Arcade, the adventure belts company with their don't discount, donate campaign

That wraps up our White Friday blog, we're excited about taking a different ook at this shopping weekend and hope you can support us on our journey.