29.1.16

HORMONE DISRUPTOR


'Hormone Disruptor' polo.
From the 'honesty is not the best policy' 2016 Golf Refugees collection.
‪#‎golfrefugees‬ ‪#‎honestyisnotthebestpolicy‬
How many hormone disruptor chemicals are used in your sports apparel?
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PERFORMANCE ENHANCING


Is Golf’s anti-doping policy a joke?

Professional golfers could use performance enhancing drugs such as HGH – human growth hormone, to gain extra distance off the tee and be confident that the Tours current anti-doping policy will not catch them.

HGH can only be detected by taking blood samples, which the Tour currently resist, citing taking blood could harm a golfers performance..

"I'm all for more testing" Rory McIlroy "I don’t think they should blood-test at tournaments. If you've ever had a needle in here [pointing to his arm], you get a dead arm for a day. But out of competition, testing is no problem at all."

But Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and McIlroy headlined a group of Tour stars who told in 2013, that they had never been tested away from a tournament venue. John Daly called the Tour's testing policy "a big joke" and said he and other Tour pros know exactly when they will be tested, a claim the Tour denies.

The Tour's drug-testing program was designed not so much to catch cheaters as to reassure sponsors that there are no cheaters to catch. The resulting program is too simple, too soft and too secretive to combat the increasingly sophisticated science of doping, according to top officials from WADA and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
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28.1.16

NAME YOUR PRICE


Which golf pro would wear this polo shirt on tour?
Name your price.
Other shirts from this 'honesty is not the best policy' 2016 Golf Refugees collection are;
Carcinogens inside and hormone disruptor.
#golfrefugees #honestyisnotthebestpolicy
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25.1.16

HOW DO YOU FEEL?


The German sportswear giant Adidas has reportedly written to the IAAF, the embattled athletics governing body, it is terminating its multi-million sponsorship deal three years early.

Is there another scandal, reputational issue much closer to home for all major sportswear brands? The ‘awful truth’ about how their clothes are made?

What would happen if the labels on sportswear had to tell the truth about pay, conditions and the daily lives of the predominantly young female textile workers?

How would ‘brand ambassador’ athletes feel if their sport shirt label said something like this?

“100% polyester. Made in Cambodia by Joya, who left school at the age of twelve. She gets up at 5:00 am every morning to make her way to the garment factory where she works. It will be dark when she arrives and dark when she leaves. She dresses lightly because the temperature in the room she works reaches 30 degrees. The dust in the room fills her nose and mouth. She will make less than a dollar, for a day spent slowly suffocating. A mask would cost the company ten cents.

The label doesn’t tell the whole story.”

As the labels note, the long hours and poverty wages are rarely the sum of a garment worker’s problems. Their environments are often riddled with fire, chemical, and structural hazards that threaten life and limb on a daily basis.
How do you feel about buying and wearing sport shirts like this?
Ref: Ecouterre
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24.1.16

THREE PERCENT


Google only pay 3% tax in the UK. In fact we are being a little bit generous, the actual figure is 2.7%. And this after ten years of cosy discussions with HMRC. If only all businesses were treated like this.
#golfrefugeesdesign #3percentgoogle
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22.1.16

CLIMATE ACTION


With climate change causing more frequent freaky weather. Do golf courses need to adapt and golfers perceptions of how courses should look?
In areas of drought, should golf courses be green?
In areas of increased rainfall and risk of flooding, should golf courses reduce the amount of chemicals / growth hormones applied to fairways / greens to reduce the risk of ground water contamination?
Should the governing bodies of golf be developing new rules to help prepare golfers, clubs and tours for climate change?
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20.1.16

KEEP OFF THE GRASS


Grass grows from exposure to sunlight and rainfall, but how does the grass grow on your local fairways and greens? It may need a little extra help over the cold winter months to look its best; so many golf courses apply growth hormones  We heard about a bizarre situation where a prestigious club forked out 50k for growth hormones this winter only to fork out another 50k for anti-growth hormones to nullify the effect, after a very mild winter.

Golf courses are credited with using herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, growth and anti-growth hormones. Many of these chemicals will remain in the sediments and soils for tens if not hundreds of years.

Over hear in the UK, climate change is bringing about warmer, wetter weather patterns. All of these chemicals applied to fields and golf courses are gong to be more suspectable to being washed away into ground water under increased rainfall. Different weather requires new solutions?

House prices have a propensity to increase when situated next to golf courses, but perhaps they should be treated with caution, similar to living next to a crop spraying field.

We wondered how many golf club members were informed about the chemicals being used to keep their courses looking good throughout the year. Our initial research found that very few, if any, UK clubs provided any transparency on this issue.

We are now in the process of asking the R&A and their Golf Environmental Organisation (GEO) to consider a proposal for either a voluntary or mandatory scheme to provide members upon request with information about the chemicals golf clubs use out on the course.
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18.1.16

TO ASK OR NOT TO ASK?


Before signing lucrative sport apparel contracts should leading athletes be given the opportunity to visit the predominantly young female textile workers in one of the factories who will make their apparel?
If unable to arrange a visit, could an independence source provide information regarding the pay and conditions of the textile workers prior to signing?
Do we all need to connect more with the clothes we wear?
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16.1.16

MODERNIST


Taken from our 2016 Modernist Collection.

If any tour pros, male or female, would like to wear these distinctive polos this season, please get in touch.
#modernistpolo #golfrefugees

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14.1.16

SPIETH


Sad day for tooth decay, obesity and diabetes. Spieth signs huge deal with Coca Cola tooth fairy.
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10.1.16

ASTOUNDING STORY


When Golf Refugees investigated the Restricted Substance Lists (RSL’s) of leading sportswear brands we found PFC chemicals; PFOA and PFOS - used for water repellent and stain resistant properties in textiles.

Below is the astounding story about DuPont secretly poisoning people for decades with PFOA also known as Teflon.

“Bilott learned from the documents that 3M and DuPont had been conducting secret medical studies on PFOA for more than four decades. In 1961, DuPont researches found that the chemical could increase the size of the liver in rats and rabbits. A year later, they replicated these results in studies with dogs. PFOA’s peculiar chemical structure made it uncannily resistant to degradation. It also bound to plasma proteins in the blood, circulating through each organ in the body. In the 1970’s, DuPont discovered that there were high concentrations of PFOA in the blood of factory workers at Washington Works. They did not tell their workers this. In 1981, 3M – which continued to serve as the supplier of PFOA to DuPont and other corporations – found that ingestion of the substance caused birth defects in rats. After 3M shared this information, DuPont tested the children of pregnant employees in their Teflon division. Of seven births, two had eye defects. DuPont did not make this information public.

In 1984, DuPont became aware that dust vented from factory chimneys settled well beyond the property line and, more disturbing, that PFOA was present in the local water supply. DuPont declined to disclose this finding. In 1991, DuPont scientists determined an internal safety limit for PFOA concentration in drinking water; one part per billon. The same year, DuPont found that water in one local district contained PFOA levels at three times that figure. Despite internal debate, it declined to make the information public.” – NYTimesMag

As mere consumers we are all 'kept in the dark' guinea pigs by the powerful chemical industry. Chemical classifications need to be listed on all consumer products. There is currently no disclosure of any chemical information on clothing to consumers and yet a quarter of the world’s chemicals are used to produce textiles. And when brands refuse to provide chemical information upon request, consumers need to ask themselves whether or not to trust those brands and their products. Ignore the marketing and sport star endorsements. Chemical transparency is the only way forward for public health.
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5.1.16

AERO DRIVERS ARE BACK

Aerodynamics on drivers are back in vogue on the latest offering from Callaway and Ping. The latter having a fixed small rear spoiler. Golf Refugees proposed 3D printed spoilers for all drivers, provided there is a suitable attachment mechanism. Picture shows a very early 'crude' prototype of a detachable sole driver spoiler.

A spoiler positioned here would not increase the frontal-cross-sectional area of the driver, because of the upward angle of the sole. It could help energise the flow underneath the club and reduce the wake which creates pressure drag.

The technical problem is how to attach any 3D printed spoiler to a thin-walled structure club head?

Any ideas?

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1.1.16

GR8 2016


Have a GR8 2016 from Golf Refugees.
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