2014 POLOS AND TEES

Feel free to share and let us know which designs you like and dislike.

If you are interested in wearing Golf Refugees on tour, please contact us.
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GB TEAM WINTER OLYMPIC APPAREL

With team GB getting kitted out for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in Adidas apparel and the games opening ceremony just a couple of weeks away. I wonder how many of our athletes know what chemicals are hidden inside their sports clothing?

The European Consumer Organisation conducted laboratory tests on polyester based sports apparel from major sportswear brands and found the majority contained highly toxic lead. With Adidas apparel containing the highest level of lead. Perhaps they should hand out medals made of lead at Sochi.
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THIS GENERATION IS DIFFERENT

By Alice Shabecoff

Childhood cancer, once a medical rarity, has grown 67 percent since 1950.

Asthma has increased 140 percent in the last twenty years

Autism rates without a doubt have increased at least 200 percent.

Miscarriages and premature births are also on the rise,

while the ratio of male babies dwindles and

teenage girls face endometriosis.

The generations born from 1970 on are the first to be raised in a truly toxified world.

Over 80,000 industrial chemicals are in commerce in this country, produced or imported at 15 trillion pounds a year.

What could be more elemental than our desire to protect our children? Children and foetuses, because of their undeveloped defense systems, are ten to sixty-five times more susceptible to specific toxics than adults. These toxics diminish the capacities of our children…the future of our families, our communities, our nation.

Illness does not necessarily show up in childhood. Environmental exposures, from conception to early life, can set a person´s cellular code for life and can cause disease at any time, through old age. This accounts for the rise in Parkinson´s and Alzheimer´s diseases, prostate and breast cancer.

A message of hope and optimism

Yet this is not the dispiriting ‘Bad News’ it might seem. It is, actually, a message of hope and optimism. We are fearful only when we are ignorant and powerless. Now that we know what is happening, we can determine not to let it happen further.

These poisons are manmade; manufacturers can take them out of our children´s lives and make profits from safe products. ‘Green chemistry’ can replace toxic molecules with harmless ones. We can connect global climate change actions to environmental health strategies. If we replace coal-fired power, in the process we reduce not only carbon but also emissions of the tons of lead, mercury, hydrochloric acid, chromium, arsenic, sulphur and nitrogen oxides that cause autism, Alzheimer’s and other public health menaces.

We cannot bury our heads and hope it will all go away. We cannot leave the job to someone else. Some may feel the problem is so massive, it’s best to pretend it doesn’t exist. But it isn’t more massive than we allow it to be. It’s totally within our reach.

We can make each other smarter and stronger. It is in our power to learn about what harms our children and to share our knowledge. It is in our power as a community of citizens and parents to demand action against the current harmful policies and practices and against the indiscriminate use of processes and practices that destroy and degrade all life on our planet
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PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE

Picture yourself on the first tee of a golf tournament. You've got some new golf equipment in the bag and you’re wearing your favourite apparel. How can you gain a psychological advantage over your opponent? Well you could consider wearing a Golf Refugees 2014 tour polo shirt. Our latest shirt details all of the toxic substances from skin irritants to carcinogenics contained in polyester sports apparel. The text is wrapped around to enable your opponent to read it when walking behind you. You can feel superior knowing that your competitors skin is interacting with toxic chemicals as you walk down the fairway.
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YOUR THOUGHTS

Should sports apparel brands inform their customers about the chemicals they use?

Should sports apparel brands test the combinations of chemicals used to ascertain the toxicity of the finished articles supplied to consumers?

Let us know your thoughts.
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HERE IT IS

Here are the ingredients used to make polyester sports apparel. They were supplied to us by a leading sportswear brand; unfortunately they will not supply the same information to their customers. There is currently no legal obligation for any sportswear brand to disclose the substances they use, so we thought we’d do it for you. You can always search for the individual chemical, if you don’t know what it is.

Feel free to share and use when buying polyester sports clothing.
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LET'S SEE AND COMPARE IT ALL

We feel consumers require more transparency from brands to make better purchasing decisions.

Designing and manufacturing a product is difficult; there are so many decisions you have to make, from selecting materials, deciding upon processes, where it’s going to be made and so on. All of these decisions have consequences, not just for the end consumer, but for the products life cycle and our environment.

Let us not just restrict comparisons and product reviews to the finished article, but make them inclusive of other factors too.

If brands decide to manufacture outside of their native country for cost and lower environmental regulations, then we feel every brand should be required to publish on their web sites the minimum monthly wage they pay in each country they operate. Brands should also have to publish details of their products ‘cradle to grave’ credentials and list any substances of very high concern they use.

Let’s see and compare it all.
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WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY PAYING FOR?

When you purchase a sports shirt from a leading brand for say $40, $60, $80 or more, where does your money actually go?

Polyester is cheap to make and with minimum labour costs in southern Asian countries such as Cambodia of only $80 per month for each garment worker; labour costs for your shirt is extremely low. They even don’t have to worry about any environmental costs in terms of air and water pollution, as these countries have little or no regulations. You could buy a similar shirt from the same factories for just a few dollars. A good slice of the price tag goes to pay the sponsorship wages of Tiger. Rory & Co. Do they really need your money, on top of appearance fees and tour earnings? Plus all of their advertisements and videos, which are expensive to produce and broadcast. If you want to print a logo on your inexpensive polyester sports shirt, just make sure it’s different from the official version.

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BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

Ever wondered who makes your sports apparel? Here are some of the thousands of garment workers rioting in Cambodia, calling for a doubling of their minimum monthly wage of $80. Four people were killed and twenty wounded after violence broke out between workers and police officers at Canadia Industrial Park- home to dozens of factories that make apparel for Western brands such as Adidas and Puma.

In comparison Adidas recently signed a shirt sponsorship deal for £300 million with Chelsea football club.

Do Adidas, Puma and others have blood on their hands?
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