Revolutionising outdoor gear with microalgae

The biotech-empowered garments bring high performance without the high carbon footprint

Spotted: As of January this year, the US had 132 operating oil refineries, up from 124 in 2023. While crude oil often attracts the bulk of media attention, there are countless other petroleum-derived products that also feed into our dependence on fossil fuels, including outdoor equipment. Addressing this head-on, WNDR Alpine leverages biotechnology and microalgae to create high-performance, eco-friendly alternative products.

WNDR Alpine is a subdivision of biotech company Checkerspot, set up in 2019 specifically to integrate its microalgae oil-derived materials into outdoor gear. Its innovative AlgalTech has enabled the production of skis and snowboards, and now with the release of the company’s latest product range Phase Series, WNDR is expanding into all-season apparel. The materials use bio-based and recycled fabrics and each one is equipped with miDori bioWick, a 100 per cent petroleum-free wicking technology developed with Beyond Surface Technologies.

The business WNDR Alpine runs is unique not only because of the materials used, but also due to its highly collaborative approach. As one example, WNDR Alpine’s hardgoods incorporate SpiralMade material, a bio-based composite created from post-production waste, and manufactured in partnership with Origen Manufacturing. This enhances the retention strength of ski binding screws and snowboard insert packs while reducing material thickness and waste.

WNDR aims to innovate continuously across the supply chain to reduce its environmental impact, and looking to the future WNDR has revealed to Springwise its plans to unveil bio-based and PFAS-free textile solutions for water-repellent features, as well as more strategic partnerships to de-risk adoption of its newly developed materials.

“We are fundamentally working to replace petroleum with a novel material that is infinitely renewable, requires less resources to create, possesses a wide-ranging variety of chemical properties that can benefit a multitude of industries, all while outperforming the physical properties of the materials we seek to replace.” explains Pep Fujas, Vice President of Marketing & Product Development at Checkerspot. “Having material scientists on the payroll, which is very unique, also allows us to identify ways we can reuse our waste materials for other productive inputs into our products, thus creating new materials from what would otherwise be considered waste.”

WNDR Alpine is in the process of scaling its product range, with its new 2025 hardgoods and 2024 summer/autumn softgoods collections now available. The company is also working on developing partnerships with manufacturers like SWS (Sideways Sports Industries) and HO Sports, upholding Checkerspot’s goal of sharing its newly developed materials more broadly across the outdoor industry.

Written By: Oscar Williams