EcoZeal

Versatile bamboo is used to make a huge variety of beautiful and functional products.

Bamboo is taking the eco-fashion industry by storm. Its amazing productivity (many species can grow two feet or more a day), its hardiness and ability to thrive without pesticides or fertilizers, and its no-till harvesting methods make it an extremely attractive option for those seeking an Earth-friendly alternative to cotton or synthetics. And those who wear bamboo fabric rave about its comfort, breathability, odor-controlling properties and beauty.

But as with any new item, bamboo is subject to speculation and rumors. Recently Ecozeal had the opportunity to speak about this amazing plant with a pioneer in the U.S. bamboo industry, Dan Keesey. Dan owns and operates the bamboo furniture company EcoDesignz and its sister store, BambooClothes.com (home of the Spun Bamboo® brand of clothes.)

ECOZEAL: What got you into bamboo?

DAN KEESEY: My wife and I were looking for a bamboo table top. You couldn’t find one anywhere. So we ended up making one. And then we thought, well this is really great, there’s got to be other people who would want this.

EZ: So you started your company.

KEESEY: Well, somebody wanted a bamboo loudspeaker, so I did that. We started visiting China and got it going with furniture. And then it morphed into clothing. Now we do more of that (clothing) than anything else.

EZ: How involved are you with production?

KEESEY: Bamboo fiber comes from just a few factories in China – they have the patent on the fiber-making process. Well, there are two processes you can use to make fiber. One is a major process, where they break it down chemically. That’s what they have the patent on, and most bamboo fiber is made that way. They take the chemicals and circulate them back to use again.
The other is a mechanical process. You can pretty much do that anywhere. It gives you a more linen-like fabric. We’ve just started looking into making garments from that linen-like fabric. It’s very wrinkly, just like linen, so right now we’re just thinking about it for the future.
We have a spinner we’ve worked with from the beginning, and then we take the yarn to a knitting facility we’ve also worked with from the beginning.

EZ: But you design and manufacture your own garments?

KEESEY: Oh, yes, we’ve always done that.

EZ: Earlier you mentioned going to China. Would you care to comment on that?

KEESEY: Yes, I go over there. I want to make sure the companies I deal with are good ones. We spent time learning about who we were dealing with, what factories are over there and what it was like over there.
In China there’s a lot of good stuff. People are worried about sweatshop labor. There’s that happening over there, but it’s happening here in L.A. right near where I live, too. There’s some bad apples in China but there’s good stuff happening too.

To be continued tomorrow, with Dan Keesey’s insights on the future of bamboo in the U.S. and whether bamboo fiber is really antimicrobial.