27.3.14

ENERGETIC & DYNAMIC



Golf Refugees 2014 Energetic Polo.
Colours purple, green and yellow combine to create a energetic feeling.

Golf Refugees 2014 Dynamic Polo.
Colours red, yellow and black combine to create a dynamic feeling.
Please contact us about availability. Please feel free to leave your comments.
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25.3.14

TRANSPARENCY OR BUST


Transparent anatomy polo shirt by Golf Refugees 2014


Transparent muscle polo shirt by Golf Refugees 2014

Part of our transparency campaign to see what's inside your clothes.
https://www.facebook.com/golfrefugeespage

Would you be prepared to wear them on the golf course?
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24.3.14

SWEAT LOVE


The chemical industry use approximately 80,000 chemicals in commercial products, but possesses toxicological data for only 400.
Sweating is a natural detox method for our bodies.
So why are you running whilst wearing a cocktail of chemicals?
Where your sweat mixes with untested combinations of chemicals from your polyester moisture-wicking anti-bacterial sports shirt.
Nike, Adidas, Puma and others are all too scared to tell you the list of chemicals they use.
Give your body a break and let your skin love sweating.
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WILL YOU SIGN OUR S.P.I.T CAMPAIGN?


Golf Refugees have started a petition for "Nike, Adidas and Puma to provide customers with a list of the chemical ingredients used to make their sports apparel, and we need your help to get it off the ground.
Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link:

Here's why it's important:
Polyester based sports apparel is specifically designed to interact with your sweating skin; the largest organ in your body.
Polyester is a non-biodegradable plastic derived from petroleum. To make it more suitable for sportswear the chemical industry developed moisture-wicking and anti-bacterial textile finishes, adding many more chemicals.
The European Consumer Organisation recently tested polyester football shirts from major brands and extracted toxic substances including lead via simulated sweat solutions in laboratories across Europe. They recommended consumers wear a natural fibre t-shirt underneath sports shirts to act as a barrier and limit your skins exposure. Some of the chemicals used are listed as skin irritants, hormone disruptors and even carcinogenic.
Lead is a very good example. Why is it still being used in sports apparel? Do you want your children to run about in sport shirts containing hazardous lead, without your knowledge?
You can therefore understand why these sports brands are so reluctant to inform you about the chemicals they use to make brightly coloured polyester sportswear.
There is currently no obligation for sport brands to test their apparel and current European REACH regulations do not require any evaluation of the potential toxicity of using combinations of substances of very high concern.

We therefore feel it is essential that Nike, Adidas and Puma come clean and inform their customers. Transparency will create increased consumer awareness and build pressure to find safer alternatives. It will also provide a choice for consumers to purchase sports apparel for their children which avoid using harmful substances such as highly toxic lead. I would personally purchase a lead free sports shirt for myself, given the choice.
Sport should be a healthy activity without our sweating skin interacting with untested combinations of toxic chemicals hidden from us.
Please support our campaign for 'Sportswear Polyester Ingredients Transparency' (SPIT).

You can sign my petition by clicking here.
Thanks!
Golf Refugees
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20.3.14

SPIRAL GOLF BALL TECHNOLOGY


We'll leave it to Marcel to persuade you that golf balls should have spiral qualities.

Last year Golf Refugees made their first spiral golf balls using printing plates on the core of the golf ball. We are working on using new technology, perhaps a programmable robotic arm to create the spiral patterns on our future golf balls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilUpprJeMQ8
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FIRESTARTER



Could climate change determine the materials of the golf clubs you swing? In areas of drought, metallic club heads can create sparks which could start a fire on your golf course.
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S.P.I.T.


This is a typical contemporary polyester golf outfit; brightly coloured shirt, cap, shoes dark trousers and belt. With marketing claims it will keep you dry, refreshed, crease free, odour free and stain resistant.

Golf refugees have calculated that such an outfit contains 100 plus chemicals, by totalling the number of chemicals used in each item of clothing from head to toe.

You may wear underpants to cover your privates, which is a good thing, because after testing polyester sport shirts in laboratories across Europe, the European Consumer Organisation recommended you wear a natural fibre garment underneath your sports apparel. To act as a barrier and limit the interaction of your sweating skin with toxic chemicals used in polyester sportswear.

Do you know what any of those chemicals are?

Probably not, as the leading sportswear brands refuse to inform their customers or even admit to using any chemicals. Which is bizarre as polyester; real name ‘polyethylene terephthalate’ (PET), is a synthetic, non-biodegradable plastic derived from petroleum, developed by the chemical industry. PET is a durable fabric; hydrophobic, meaning it does not absorb moisture and unfortunately retains body odour even after washing. To make PET more suitable for sportswear, those clever people from the chemical industry developed moisture-wicking and anti-bacterial textile finishers, all based upon adding more chemicals.

Polyester sportswear has become a very lucrative market for both the chemical and oil industry who supply all of the ingredients.

There is no obligation for the brands to test any combination of chemicals used in polyester sportswear, even when it is specifically designed to interact with your sweating skin: (skin is the largest organ in your body). In effect, when you buy and wear it, you become the experiment.

They are probably safe to wear, depending upon how much sport you play and how much you sweat. As the amount of any individual chemical used in each garment is relatively low. However, no one knows the potential increase in toxicity from reactions between chemical combinations, which is of genuine concern as many of the chemicals used are listed as skin irritants, hormone disruptors even carcinogenic. Your body, through sweating skin, can also be exposed to a double dose, when similar chemicals are used in both your polyester golf shirt and trousers, when worn together.

Golf Refugees are not advising you to stop wearing polyester sportswear. All we are asking for is greater transparency for you, the consumer. These apparel brands should come clean and provide a list of the ingredients (chemicals) used to make their sports apparel.

Why are they hiding this information from you? The information is held between apparel brands, the chemical industry and regulators. The chemical industry supply material safety data sheets (MSDS), which describe how to handle, store and detail potential health risk to humans, animals and the environment of each substance they supply.

Golf Refugees can only conclude the likes of Nike, Adidas, Puma and others are too scared to tell you. They are chicken and you are guinea pigs.

We believe if enough consumers join together, greater transparency can be achieved. It will be interesting to learn if any printed or digital sports media who rely on leading brands advertising revenue will support this campaign for ‘Sportswear Polyester Ingredients Transparency’ (SPIT). Please let us know if you would be willing to support SPIT.
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15.3.14

FACEBOOK PAGE


We now have a Facebook page for Golf Refugees.

https://www.facebook.com/golfrefugeespage

Feel free to 'like' us.
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14.3.14

GOLF REVOLUTION


What would you rather have, Tiger’s clubs or more advanced clubs which can reach the limits of physics?

The problem is; Tiger is too good, hence his clubs are restricted. But let’s face it, you’re not that good. You don’t have enough time to practise, so you need all the help you can get from equipment.

The problem is; if Tiger & Co isn't playing with your clubs, then it’s much harder for golf b
rands to sell them to you and others.

Also, if Tiger isn't playing with them, then your clubs are outside of the current rules of golf. According to the USGA & R&A you wouldn't be playing golf, but some other game.

Therefore, the people who are preventing you from reaching your true potential, given your limited time and ability to play golf, are Tiger and the rule makers.

Unless you start a golf revolution.
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13.3.14

IT DOESN'T SOUND VERY SPORTING TO ME


ADIDAS SPORT ANTI-PERSPIRANT made by Coty.


LIST OF INGREDIENTS:
BUTANE-ISOBUTANE-PROPANE, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, ALUMINUM CHLOROHYDRATE, C12-15 ALKYL BENZOATE, PARFUM/FRAGRANCE, DISTEARDIMONIUM
HECTORITE, DIMETHICONE, CAESALPINIA SPINOSA GUM, HYDROGENATED POLYDECENE, SORBITAN SESQUIOLEATE, LIMONENE,
BUTYLPHENYL METHYLPROPIONAL, SUCROSE STEARATE, SILICA, ALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE, LINALOOL, COUMARIN, GOSSYPIUM
HERBACEUM (COTTON) POWDER, GERANIOL, BHT.

ADIDAS (and others) MOISTURE-WICKING, ANTI-BACTERIAL POLYESTER SPORT SHIRT

LIST OF INGREDIENTS;
ANTIMONY, CADMIUM, CHROMIUM, LEAD, NICKEL, MERCURY,
FORMALDEHYDE, CHLORINATED PHENOLS (PCP, TeCP, TrlCP),
ARYL-AMINES FROM AZO DYES, ORGANOTINS (MBT, DBT, TBT),
PHTHALATES, ALKYLPHENOLETHOXYLATES (APEO, NPE),
PERFLUROOCTANE SULFONATE, POLYAROMATIC HYDROCARBONS,
DIMETHYL FUMARATE.

Both of these sport products are designed to interact with your sweating skin. If you use/wear both products you are subjecting the largest organ in your body to 40 or more toxic chemicals.

Any combinations of the chemicals contained in both products will not have been tested together, until you use them.

It doesn't sound very sporting to me.

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TANSY HOSKINS ON RANA PLAZA

Picture; Tansy Hoskins by Ruby Wright.

Last week I had the pleasure of a chat in London, with the author of ‘Stitched Up – The Anti Capitalist book of Fashion by Tansy Hoskins from Pluto Books.

http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745334561.

Tansy articulated the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh killing 1,123 people happened as a consequence of our current capitalist system. Where a single wealthy factory owner can dictate and force young female workers to work in unsafe buildings by threatening the sack or worse. Rana Plaza made clothes for western brands, their labels visible on the ground, intermingled with the rumble and bodies.

What can be done to prevent this happening again in the fashion industry?

Western consumers walk into beautifully presented shops with racks of clothing made in buildings unfit for human habitation. A striking contrast can be made between the image of the branded retail outlets on our high streets and that of the dilapidated sub-contracted invisible factories that make our clothes. Tansy makes the case for a collective ownership, where each factory is owned in part by every participant.

“What if every clothing factory, cotton field, technology developer and the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris were under collective ownership? What if instead of operating to produce profits for the few, they were run for the benefit of humanity and the planet? For Rana Plaza this would have meant that no illegal extra floors would have been built, no workers would have been sent into an unsafe workplace, no hazardous generators would have been installed (as electricity production would also be under collective control) and hours and conditions would be collectively agreed”

What would happen if we were all more involved in how our clothes were made, instead of just shopping for them?
“Imagine how much more we would value and care for our clothes, let alone our world, if we played a meaningful creative role.”

I know from my own personal experience, when you are designing apparel, you then have to decide what fabric you wish to buy and which factories you select to manufacture. How well would you sleep if you knowingly decided upon using a sweatshop?

Can technology help save the unscrupulous practices of the fashion houses? Within ten years many more of us will be able to manufacture our own clothing using 3D Printing. Instead of shopping, you will use software, probably an App on your smart phone, to process your selections regarding fabric, cut, colour, pattern and size. Your design will then be produced by a printing bureau and sent directly to your home.

To make the necessary changes to the fashion industry we need to work together. To build a strong alliance against how the small number of corporations who control the fashion industry operate. When we see ourselves as individuals, with a freedom of choice to buy and consume, we are inadvertently giving away our power, by allowing the corporations to divide and rule over us.

Ending on a more light-hearted note, Tansy asked if all of those trend forecasters who influence the fashion elite, could make ‘yellow’ the next seasonal colour.
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12.3.14

NEW FOR 2014





New designs for 2014 by Golf Refugees.

Top: Button placket hidden under wide stripe colour

Bottom: Oversized square fake breast pocket.

100 per cent organic.
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40 PLUS


If you ask Adidas customer service for a list of the ingredients used in their sport deodorants they will not tell you directly, they will not list them on their web site. Adidas will instead forward your enquiry to the company who actually make their deodorants; Coty; who also make anti-perspirants for other brands; Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Rimmel and Playboy.
Coty will not tell you either, they will not list the ingredients on their web site, instead they will tell you to contact the individual brands, or take a trip down to your local retailer. By law, brands have to list the ingredients of deodorants on the packaging. But what happens if you are purchasing on-line? You cannot see the ingredients before you buy.

Why are these brands so reluctant to tell you? Could it be they are using substances in their products they would rather not tell you about?

I thought sport was meant to be a healthy activity for all to participate. If you wear an Adidas (and others) sport deodorant and moisture-wicking, anti-bacterial polyester sport shirt you are in fact subjecting your sweating skin to interact with over 40 chemicals. That is just by wearing two sport products. Leading sport brands have turned sport into a chemical factory. Some of the 40 plus chemicals used are listed as skin irritants, some are hormone disruptors and others are even stated as carcinogenic.

I'd rather play sport naked than subject my body to untested combinations of toxic chemicals. How crazy is that? It’s time to ignore the marketing spiel and find out exactly what you are buying and wearing. Do Adidas and others really care about you and your children’s long term health?
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10.3.14

WHAT COULD YOU WEAR?


Could this be the beginning of 'exploitative toxic free golf fashion'? The shirt is organic, not sure about the undies.
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9.3.14

EXPLOITATIVE TOXIC FASHION DOT COM


At the start of the season and at set times during the year, golf professionals receive the latest apparel from their sponsored brands. Now you can feel and look just like your favourite golfer. At the very same time as your favourite professionals receive their new colours, patterns and styles we have arranged for the same brands to deliver to us. Imagine waking up in the morning and opening the latest shirts at the very same time as Tiger, Rory, Bubba, Adam, Justin, Jason, John, well perhaps not John. We can guarantee you will have exactly the same exploitative toxic fashion. Made is the same unsafe factory, by the same exploited young people and from the same fabrics laced with toxic chemicals.

Visit now and open your exclusive account. Each new account with exploitative toxic fashion dot com will automatically enter you into our sensational competitions. We will be attending all of the major championships and PGA tournaments; we’ll even visit the LPGA. And for the lucky winner, imagine standing next to Tiger at Augusta National, wearing identical apparel. You could almost be twins. Look, feel, even sound like him. You will remember that moment for the rest of your life. Discuss the technical innovations and conveniently ignore all of the devastating water pollution caused by dyeing your brightly coloured polyester sportswear. As well as an all expenses paid trip to Augusta. We've arranged a photographic feature of you in your new exploitative toxic fashion with a leading golf magazine and an interview on a major US sports network. Don’t worry, they will only ask you the same lame questions. Just to make you feel as if you were a professional golfer.

Now that you've joined the big boys club you don’t have to worry about the little people any more. You can exploit thousands of young female textile workers and feel great about it. Just like a pro.
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7.3.14

WHAT'S IN A LABEL?


There’s a big discussion going on about using bar codes and / or QR codes for clothing with the objective of providing and connecting consumers with the product they are purchasing .It is envisaged customers will read the codes using their smart phones. The big question has to be what information should be included?

Golf Refugees have been banging on for a while about sports apparel; introducing a list of the chemical ingredients, as sportswear is designed to interact with your skin.

We also feel the following should be included;

Who owns the factory?

Are the textile workers unionised? Yes or No

Average textile worker (weekly/monthly) pay?

Average textile worker age?

What energy sources are used to power the factory?

Does the factory have any water treatment / water recycling facilities for dye water?

This is an important issue. If you have any time please let us know what information you'd like to see included?
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6.3.14

STICKS AROUND


Plastic, once seen as a miracle material, has a dark side to it, because once it’s released into the environment, it sticks around for a really long time, contributing to water contamination and ocean pollution, as well as harming wildlife.

Polyester is a plastic, which begs the question why are we designing and manufacturing polyester sports apparel, which will stick around for 1,000 years, yet may only be worn for a summer or two. 99% of its life will be spent underground in landfill where no one can see it.
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HUSH MONEY


We've all seen the ‘quiet please’ signs go up at the side of the green when a pro putts. They always seem to happen to me just when I’m about to sneeze or cough.
 
So this may be the ideal shirt to wear when watching golf.
 
Unfortunately the ‘real’ meaning of the graphic is concerned about apparel sponsorship deals for professional athletes.
 
The definition of ‘hush’ is to make someone be quite or stop talking.
 
In this situation it is to prevent professional golfers from talking about the horrendous conditions and pay of young female textile workers and the devastating water pollution caused by manufacturing their brightly coloured sports apparel.
 
They cannot talk about it, but they are all tainted by wearing exploitative toxic fashion.
 
You could say apparel sponsorship deals amount to being paid ‘hush’ money.
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3.3.14

INCONSISTENT


Why do Adidas (and others) list the chemical ingredients of their sport deodorants but decline to list the substances used in their sport shirts?
When both products are designed to interact with your skin.
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