Meet Norrona, the Nordic brand trying to do right by the planet

It’s no secret that the outdoor industry is cleaning itself up in an effort to become more environmentally friendly. For some outdoor brands, this is a relatively new endeavor brought on in the past decade — but not Norrona. This Norwegian brand has focused on its environmental impact since its inception in 1929, beginning with the original founder. Then, Norrona repaired damaged or worn products — keeping them out of the landfills longer — and paired them with an immediate emphasis on high-quality, long-lasting gear. “In 1929, this wasn’t done because of sustainability reasons,” says J?rgen J?rgensen, the fourth-generation owner and CEO of the brand. “It was common sense.”

Under J?rgensen’s watch, Norrona still repairs damaged gear and focuses on durability. But as the world learned more about green initiatives, so did Norrona. We sat down with J?rgensen to learn more about the brand’s sustainability initiatives, its plans for the future and the best products on offer for outdoor enthusiasts.

Long-lasting gear is common sense

With the modern trend of flashy colors and a revolving door of styles, it’s nice to see a brand stick to its roots for the betterment of the planet — and not just because public opinion or policy is suggesting they do so. “By continuing the work to always make better-quality products, we get very satisfied customers that are willing to pay more because the investment is good [when] looking at the total lifetime of the program,” explains J?rgensen.

Basically, it’s a “buy once, cry once” mentality. Norrona products are not cheap, but the brand is banking on your keeping them out of the landfill and has built them to last that long. But durability was just Norrona’s starting point. With nearly 100 years under its belt, the brand has also enacted a slew of environmentally friendly practices as it continues to do right by Mother Nature.

The next phase began in the early 2000s when Brad Boren, the chief sustainability officer and director of innovation for Norrona, began reading about the impact of pesticides on the planet. “We began exploring the use of less-damaging input materials in our products around 2003,” he says, noting the swap to organic cotton in place of conventional cotton.

This is also the time when Norrona began testing its use of recycled polyester and nylon in place of virgin fibers in fleece products. It added traceable wool to its supply chain (to ensure better animal welfare) and eliminated all long-chain fluorocarbons, and requested durable water repellent (DWR) without any per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) whenever possible. Again, this was in the mid-2000s — nearly 20 years before the recent American ban on PFAS even crossed into the consciousness on this side of the pond.

All of these are good-for-the-planet changes, but it is difficult to evaluate the impact when looking at a checklist of initiatives. Norrona thought so too, and that’s when it realized it needed a more comprehensive and transparent guide to enact tangible change. So, the brand began creating a sustainability roadmap in 2013 (published in 2015) with ambitious goals to hit by 2021. This first road map included lofty objectives such as a complete elimination of PFAS and usage of less than 1% of air freight.

Admittedly, the first attempt at a road map was bold and the brand wasn’t able to hit all of the goals (like the elimination of PFAS). But Norrona learned a lot — and wrapped that knowledge into a new, 2029 road map, designed to mark the brand’s 100th anniversary.

Tackling sustainability with the 2029 road map

“Our 2029 road map is much more ambitious and holistic, covering many of the possible environmental and social challenges,” says Boren. “Part of the challenge [now] is that we know the issues, but there aren’t available agreed-upon measurements yet.”

There are 10 transparent and clearly defined goals that Norrona is working hard to meet in the next five years. These range from carbon neutrality and 100% responsible (recycled, organically grown or sustainable bio-synthetics) materials to zero waste, 100% traceable materials and zero hazardous chemicals. But Norrona is the first to admit that some of these goals may be tougher to reach than others.

According to Boren, Norrona is set to reach a milestone regarding zero hazardous chemicals when the brand removes PFAS from its active collection. This will be finalized with the spring/fall 2025 lines that launch in one year. But other goals — such as 100% of products will respect proper land use and biodiversity (goal 4) — will be more difficult to achieve due to an industry-wide complication: There are often no baselines or standards for brands to be measured against, making it difficult to establish what improvement looks like. In this instance, Norrona is working toward baseline measurements to help them plan land and water use, along with water quality. “Goal 4 will be further developed to include new biodiversity initiatives that international organizations are working on quantifying,” says Boren.

If the snow disappears, so does our business.

There are a lot of nitty-gritty details and minute complications that go into calling a brand “environmentally friendly,” and certainly more can than be conveyed with a quick look. Of course, all brands also have to balance their business goals with their eco-friendly aspirations — and it can be a tenuous mix. As the fourth member of his family to sit at the helm of Norrona, it’s a tightrope that J?rgensen walks daily, but he is clear on his priorities.

“Without nature, there is no us,” he says. “If the snow disappears, so does a lot of our business. I sleep better at night knowing we do a lot to reduce the footprint of our products.”

Our Norrona favorites

It’s only been five years since Norrona expanded stateside in 2019, so chances are good you haven’t yet tried any of its products. We’ve spent the last few months testing out a slew of items ranging from ski kits to hiking shorts and everything in between, with a special focus on durability and sustainability. These are our favorites, and we’ll bet you love them too.