prAna’s mission is based on making eco-conscious products and our motivating our community of customers and peer businesses through sustainable clothing.
Source: Sustainable Clothing | Sustainable Clothes
The picture of a tree hugger, above, is not such a good marketing strategy. It’s kind of cheesy, but when compared with the physicality of Pro Kabbadi, juxtaposing the two is just too good to avoid. I mean, no one hugs trees when they hike, so it’s absurd; but until the quarantine, I didn’t know men hugged each other to prevent opposing men from tagging and running away. Confused yet? Watch this:
Still confused? How long did you watch? You probably finished it so you could kind of understand what’s happening, and now you know what happened to me when I ran across the sport Pro Kabbadi while trying to find… I have no idea what I was trying to find. It was during quarantine. For a year and half I’ve been watching this sport that in my opinion combines tag and tackle football, and trying to decipher the rules without looking up the rules. I don’t have a favorite team yet, but that doesn’t mean I won’t stop what I’m doing and watch it for hours when I open my HULU Live Sports app. What does the guy hugging the tree and Pro Kabbadi have in common? The tree hugger is wearing prAna, an apparel company founded in 1993 and acquired by Columbia in 2014. It took me an additional 7 years to hear about the brand.
According to the link in the paragraph above, as of 2014 sales of prAna internationally was only 5% of revenue. India is one of the largest potential consumer bases in the world. prAna, a word by definition similar to chi, is the essence of Hinduism. Now, one part of me wants to say this is terrible marketing and appropriation for the brand to be named as such, but all of these years and no one has ever complained. The only reason I ran into prAna was Pro Kabbadi. During one of the matches a commercial aired for the brand, and I took a note to remember to look it up. I couldn’t help thinking, here is a company founded in Carlsbad, California, marketing on a sport created in India, by the people who brought yoga to the world, using a term that means “life breath”.
Kinda odd, and potentially bad… just like this picture from prAna of a person hiking and walking down a road waiting for a Dodge Charger speeding for no reason other than its a Dodge Charger. Then again, if I hadn’t been watching dudes in tight spandex tackle each other after one guy steps too far across the line to touch another man… Scratch that.
Look at the picture below. prAna is the lady on the bike. I’m the black dude saying, “nope, I ain’t looking at you. I’m riding past you as fast as I can before you call the cops.” I’m just kidding. I know that’s terrible, but seriously, I had never heard of prAna and now that I have I’m learning more about their position on sustainability, it’s a brand I’m considering. This means that the marketing was effective enough to grab my attention although there was some serious targeting happening in the strategy, something resonated and I’m glad it did.
- We use 100% recycled content paper hang tags on our clothing.
- We use 100% recycled content paper shipping envelopes.
- We use 100% recycled content paper headwear clamps (the small hooks that allow us to hang hats in retail stores).
- Our size stickers all use Earth-friendly, sugar-based adhesive.
- We use FSC-certified paper bags and are working to make them 100% recycled content.
Above are only a few of the things prAna is doing to be a better clothing company. I can list an entire page of firsts for the company, but I won’t. All jokes aside, prAna is doing clothing the right way and it doesn’t matter how long it took for me to find the brand, I found them. Now I’m doing my part to introduce others. I’m also introducing you to Pro Kabbadi, because who doesn’t want to watch buff Indian dudes do splits in the most professional hood version of tag? Just kidding. Go buy some prAna apparel, get a bag of popcorn (with hot sauce), and go to HULU Live sports. I guarantee there is a game on and I guarantee two hours later you’ll wonder where the time went.
Source: Sustainable Clothing | Sustainable Clothes