Burton Snowboards and PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew have partnered to work on improving sustainability in apparel and outerwear. The brands will be collaborating during the 2012 and 2013 product seasons to change the way outerwear and apparel are made and searching the ways of creating sustainable fabrics out of recycled plastic bottles. The created material will feature the new Burton gear collections.

Photo: The ‘Chairway to Heaven’ tee, from www.boardistan.com

The first items were released yesterday and feature a hand-crafted line of T-shirts made from 50% recycled plastic bottles and 50% organic cotton. The tees include three styles, ‘Apparatus’, ‘Flake’, and ‘Chairway to Heaven’. Inspired by a Rube Goldberg drawing, the ‘Apparatus’ style features a drawing of an imaginary machine that is converting plastic bottles into recycled PET pellets, which are ‘snowing’ down into the shape of Burton’s classic mountain logo. The ‘Flake’ model is minimalist with a simple hand-drawn snowflake and the word ‘Burton’ etched in the center. The ‘Chairway to Heaven’ tee features a white-colored drawing of an empty chairlift with mountains on a background. T-shirt are priced at $27 each, and the series is available exclusively at Burton US Flagship stores.

Brands are intended to increase the number of line styles in future. Starting in the fall of 2012, Burton will also expand distribution of these products to Burton Authorized Dealers.

The participation in the project is a part of PepsiCo’s  ‘Performance with Purpose’ commitment aimed to reduce the producer’s impact on the environment. It’s competitor, Coca-Cola also is searching for new ways of its sustainability program. It will recycle all colourless Coke and non-Coke branded PET plastic disposed of at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Professional snowboarder Danny Davis, signed by both Burton and Mountain Dew supports the initiative and shares his point of view in a video that was specially shot to mark the launch of the project.