We wanted to send you some love, warm wishes, and the hope that you’re getting a little more time offline with family and friends this holiday season. If you’re reading this today, Monday, we know you may be online for at least one reason: it’s Cyber Monday, baby! This is an interesting unofficial holiday that has become a celebrated part of many of our holiday seasons – and for good reason, we can stretch our dollars to get bigger, better, and more stuff as gifts or personal necessities. The shopping holidays – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday – are important days as the majority of U.S. shoppers are paying attention to what businesses are offering and are ready and willing to spend their hard-earned dollars! The thing is, we also recognize these holidays were created by corporations and marketing firms to incentivize and celebrate consumerism, which has some rather unsavory negative consequences for our environment and society. We’re feeling the effects of this already, whether that’s climate change-fueled extreme weather, plastic-choked oceans, or polluted freshwater bodies around the world. Not only are the negative effects of unconscious and rampant consumption here and now, we’re leaving a very challenging future for our kids and grandkids. Ok, we’ll stop there and save you the sermon on consumerism for another day (you’re welcome). However, in the spirit of the holiday season, we wanted to offer you something that we feel is more aligned with our mission and could give you something to get excited about or allow you to give a great gift to that special person in your life.
Starting today through January 1st we are opening up refundable season ticket deposits for our inaugural season next year!
LET’S GOOOO!
We are beyond excited to be building a club that offers our community a platform to connect, share experiences, watch the highest level of men’s soccer in the state, and participate in the movement to make our world a better place. For us, that’s what it’s all about – building community, building relationships, making memories, having a local outlet to share our passion for the beautiful game, and coming together around values that move us all forward towards a better future.
We are still working on a suite of ticket offerings – from family packages to bundles that give you the ability to support our mission-driven initiatives. We are also considering equity and accessibility in our ticket pricing and will ensure no one is left out of being able to come to our games because of income constraints. Your deposits will be applied to your total purchase once tickets go on sale. If you purchase deposits for multiple members of your family, those will all count towards a family package.
Along with your deposit, you will also receive three Vermont Green FC patches, which we hope you’ll sew onto an article of clothing, bag, or other items that could use a little life breathed into it. As you may be aware, we’ve put a lot of time and thought into developing a sustainable merchandise program, and offering patches that can add life to existing clothing is another element of it. In fact, a report coming out of the UK showed that if UK citizens continued the active life of a garment by 9 additional months they could reduce the annual carbon, water, and waste footprints by as much as 20-30%!
Taking our accouterment into account isn’t a trivial decision. So we aim to give our supporters choices that are practical and that support sustainability. Repurposing our old clothing (and repairing our stuff in general) is a practical step towards a more sustainable lifestyle that also benefits our wallets. Repurposing our clothing is an important element of the bigger picture for our merchandise (spoiler alert: it’s circularity, which we talk about on our blog).
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating experiences and practicing a more environmentally and socially conscious holiday season. Don’t discount the impact small changes in our lifestyle choices can make in the world and the influence those choices might have on others. You never know who’s watching! No, we’re not talking about Big Brother. Your kids, friends, and other family will certainly be curious why you’re changing up your game this holiday season. And if you wish to go deeper into changing your garment game this holiday season, below are a few more tips to make the season a bit more sustainable.
Dude, Nice Duds!
Here are some tips for a more sustainable holiday season:
- Get curious. Have you ever thought about the carbon footprint of your closet? Knowledge is power and we recommend using Fashion Footprint Calculator to know if it’s time to start cutting that clothing carbon footprint.
- Before you buy that new piece of clothing, review your own wardrobe and see what you actually need, what could be repaired, what could be gifted, and what could be repurposed into something unique and new.
- If you’re needing some new threads, check out the Good On You website or download the app to find details on the most ethical and environmentally responsible brands and ratings of your favorite brands.
- If you’re looking for places to help you repair your well-loved clothes, a quick online search should point you to some local shops. You can also ask the Transition Town Vermont community for suggestions as they may have some pointers for people in your area who do repairs.
- If you’re not in the mood for repairing or repurposing your old duds, you have plenty of options to keep them out of the landfill. Here are just a few ideas to get you going:
- ForDays will take all your old clothes (from any brand, in any condition) and make sure they never end up in landfills. You get guaranteed credits for your old clothes – no matter the condition. They close the loop by turning your old fabrics into brand new clothes. Aka they will pay you to help eliminate clothing waste.
- ThredUP is an online consignment & thrift store, where you can constantly refresh your style while creating less waste.
- Drop your stuff off at a local consignment and thrift store.
- Donate your old clothes to a local non-profit.
P.S.
Sometimes you just need a new t-shirt or hoodie, we get it. We know if you’re reading this you agree it’s important to select clothing that is designed with the highest environmental and ethical standards in mind. That’s what we’ve aimed to do with our merchandise, and guess what? We’ve got some leftover inventory that we’re putting up in our shop today.
As we’ve discussed in our blog, we’ve selected vendors who meet stringent sustainability criteria that accomplishes several things: reduces the garment’s carbon footprint; ensures fair and ethical labor practices for workers; reduces plastic, pesticide, and other toxic chemical pollution; and allows our club and supporters to take one more step towards living a more circular lifestyle. So, if you missed the pre-sale and want to get your hands on some Vermont Green FC merchandise, by all means, help yourself!