PFAS elimination project complete, Vaude says
After extensive, post-release testing of its spring-summer 2025 collection, outdoor brand Vaude has confirmed that its transformation to eliminate the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the manufacture of its products is now complete.
Vaude made a strategic decision 15 years ago to eliminate PFAS from all of its product categories. Testing of the clothes, footwear, sleeping-bags, backpacks and tents that made up last year’s spring-summer collection has confirmed that it has achieved its PFAS elimination target.
Head of corporate social responsibility and press relations for the company, Birgit Weber, told sportstextiles that, because PFAS are now detectable worldwide, in drinking water, soil, food and even the human body, traces of PFAS may, unfortunately, still show up in some tests. “But we are not using them,” she confirmed.
This phase-out required years of intensive development, Vaude said, investing in materials research, collaborating with innovative partners and conducting extensive lab and field testing to make sure its functional requirements could also be met without PFAS.
Chief executive, Dr Antje von Dewitz said the move to phase out PFAS was “a strategic business decision, not a communications move”.
She explained that this work showed that high-performance weather protection is possible “without relying on harmful forever chemicals”.
