Our buttons are (literally) nuts

Every decision we make at Evolve begins with our environmental impact. So of course, when designing our new line of Escapade Shorts, we considered everything... right down to the buttons! By choosing to make our buttons from sustainable corozo nuts instead of virgin plastic, we can help prevent rainforest deforestation one wild-grown nut button at a time.

Plastic buttons have been the the standard choice for the fashion industry since the early 20th century. While undeniably useful, they’re made from fossil fuels and pollute our environment at every stage of the product life cycle.

Corozo is a natural, sustainable, and most importantly biodegradable alternative that we are super excited to share with you.

Unlike plastic buttons, Corozo buttons are grown, not made. Corozo — also known as tagua or ivory nut — is the seed of the tagua palm. These trees are a vital component of a healthy rainforest ecosystem, and grow wild in equatorial rainforests, throughout the north of South America.

A mature tree produces up to eight fruits each year, and every fruit is bursting with these valuable seeds. Once fully grown, each tree can continue to produce fruit for over 100 years, so working with a tagua tree is truly a long-term partnership.

One tagua tree alone can produce about 2,000-3,000 corozo buttons each and every season. Best of all, the production of corozo buttons provides a financial incentive for local communities to protect the rainforest.

The Amazon is home to 10% of all known plant and animal species in the world and it is shrinking at frightening speed. While much of the Amazon is at risk of illegal logging or clear-cutting to make way for monoculture banana plantations and cattle ranches, tagua forests stand strong because the fruit-bearing trees are far more valuable alive.

The harvesters wait for the fruit to drop to the ground, before collecting them. Once ripe, the seeds are left to harden in the sun for several months, for being sliced, polished and dyed into the final buttons. Left over waste is ground to a powder and can be used as a substitute for plastic micro-beads used in exfoliation products.

This is just one of the many decisions we laboured over in designing our Escapade shorts and bringing them to life. The end result, we feel, is a pair of shorts that you can be truly proud to wear.

Not only are they supremely comfortable, but every time you button them up for your next adventure, you are helping to defend our invaluable Amazon Rainforest.