Bamboo shirts for all athletes in 2008
Event directors the world over face an annual dilemma: how to properly recognize race sponsors without overloading the athlete with yet another cotton t-shirt. Cotton is inexpensive, ubiquitous, and easy to find, but intensive cotton production is also damaging to the environment. There has to be a better way.

In efforts to produce this race more responsibly, and in partnership with Bamboosa, the Musselman Triathlon will again outfit all athletes with a race shirt made of 100% organic bamboo. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world, has great tensile strength, can be grown easily and splits straight, making it one of the most useful plants known to man. Bamboo has been used for shelter, food, paper, furniture, flooring, and a hundred other things.

Bamboo is also a wonderful material for apparel due to the following characteristics:

  • Soft: bamboo fiber is softer than the softest cotton, has a natural sheen to the surface and feels similar to silk or cashmere.

  • Protective: unlike other anti-microbial fabrics, which require a chemical treatment, bamboo fiber clothing is naturally anti-microbial and requires no harmful chemicals. It contains an agent, "bamboo kun", that prevents bacteria from cultivating on it. Bamboo apparel is comfortable, thermal regulating and will keep you cooler, drier, warmer and odor free - and certain species have the tensile strength equivalent to that of steel.

  • Natural: bamboo is of the world's most prolific and fastest-growing plants, and is able to reach maturity in about four years, compared to the typical 25 to 70 years for commercial tree species in the U.S. In Asia, bamboo has been used in the traditional hand-made production of paper for centuries. Through modern manufacturing processes, bamboo pulp is now capable of producing bamboo fiber for use in yarn and fabric.

  • Sustainable: bamboo is grown without pesticides or chemicals, is 100% biodegradeable, and naturally regenerative. Bamboo is actually a tropical grass with an extensive root system that sends out an average of four to six new shoots per year, naturally replenishing itself and growing to heights of 60 feet or more. Some bamboo species grow up to 4 feet per day and can be harvested every 3 to 4 years.

    Bamboo is planted and grown on family-owned farms that have been in agricultural use for generations. None of the fiber comes from tropical forests. Over 2.5 billion people work with or depend on bamboo as a natural resource.
UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot... nothing is going to get better... It's not. --The Lorax
 
Have a look at the shirt you won't want to take off.