Paka Launches Nontoxic Essentials
Paka founder Kris Cody is expanding his eco-friendly alpaca apparel offering with Thursday's launch of Paka Essentials
— a capsule of men's and women's underpinnings that serve as a “nontoxic alternative option to conventional undergarments,” which often have a presence of synthetic materials and PFAs.
“This launch is a big one for us. Traditionally, being more of a sweater company and obviously the jackets and those other insulate technologies, but to come into the summer with something super lightweight, breathable, and all natural represents a big step for our brand,” Cody told WWD.
The Essentials collection includes men's and women's styles crafted in royal alpaca, eucalyptus pump and organic Pima cotton for moisture-wicking, natural breathability, a soft hand feel, durability and nontoxic properties. “For us, if we're going to go into undergarments with natural fibers, we want to maximize health.”
“This is what I live and breathe as the founder: bringing these natural technologies to market. This blend had never been made before of this royal alpaca with eucalyptus and organic cotton, all from Peru and fully traceable, down to the coordinates that it comes from,” he said of the assortment, which has been in development for two years. “One of the reasons for not creating something too tight is through the research around the impact that toxins that have been in other underwear have had; it's shown the tighter your underwear, the more impact on sperm count with that health initiative. Men's testosterone has dropped 50 percent in three decades. If you're not going commando, we want to enable as much freedom [ as possible]. With the fertility of men, and one in five American women being infertile, that's what's really important here.”
Paka Essentials includes men's briefs for $ 35 ( in black and gray) — a style to be in- between a brief and boxer; women's includes a bra ($ 35) and matching brief ($ 25). The women's bra was designed for everyday wearability, with comfort in mind rather than athletic compression, and comes in two-tone, tonal shades of quail lavender, forage green, black and ivory.
Each style boasts the slogan “Sink Into Nature,” which plays into Cody's ethos of building clothes that bring consumers into nature, rather than developing products that harm it.