Buy for the tenth season, not the first

A long walk across Kinder Scout in February, or a slow amble along a Pembrokeshire bridleway in June, asks a great deal of your clothing. Slanting rain, bramble thorns, gate latches that snag waterproofs, and the constant rub of a rucksack strap over many miles. The kit that copes is rarely the cheapest thing on the shelf, and it is almost never the newest. It is the jacket you have owned for eight years, washed properly, reproofed each autumn, and had the main zip replaced on twice.

Sustainable outdoor gear, at heart, is simply gear that stays in use. Recycled fabric, low-impact dyes and fairly paid factories all matter enormously, but they count for little if the garment is in landfill after two winters. So the first question to ask in a shop — or while browsing online late at night — is not "what is it made from?" but "how long can I reasonably keep this going?"

Reading the label properly

Labels reward patient reading. Look for:

• Recycled synthetics — polyester and nylon from bottles or manufacturing offcuts. Worthwhile, but check the fabric has enough weight to cope with a bramble or a granite edge.
• Single-fibre construction where you can find it. A garment made from one polymer can be recycled far more easily than a bonded blend of polyester, elastane and cotton.
• A stated percentage — "70% recycled" tells you something. "Recycled materials" on its own tells you almost nothing.
• Traceable wool — merino with a named farm, region or certification rather than a vague claim of ethical sourcing.
• Spare parts and repair support — replacement zips, buckles, cord locks and patch fabric still sold years after purchase.

Be sceptical of the fluffy vocabulary. Words like "eco", "green" and "planet-friendly" carry no legal weight in the UK. Ask instead for numbers: recycled content, the weight of the fabric in grams per square metre, the length of the guarantee.

Repair is a skill worth learning

Most outdoor gear fails in small, fixable ways. A zip slider wears out before the zip tape does. A thorn leaves a 5mm hole in a sleeve. A boot sole wears thin while the upper is still sound. Learning four or five repairs will save you hundreds of pounds and keep good kit out of the bin.

• Zips: a broken slider can often be replaced without unpicking the whole zip — a job most outdoor repair workshops will do for a modest fee.
• Tears in waterproofs: a self-adhesive patch applied from the inside, smoothed flat, will hold for years on a clean, dry surface. Round the corners to stop it peeling.
• Socks: merino darns beautifully. A small ball of matching wool and a darning needle will add two or three winters to a favourite pair.
• Boots: resoling is possible on many stitched or resolable models. Ask before you assume they are finished.
• Cord and toggles: carry a metre of 2mm cord and a couple of spare cord locks in your pack. It is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.

Local repair cafés, outdoor shops with a workshop bench and mail-in repair services are all worth knowing about before something fails. A £20 repair against a £220 replacement is an easy sum to do.

Who made it, and where

Labour is usually the smallest slice of an outdoor garment's price, so a brand cutting corners there is often cutting them elsewhere too. Signs of a serious approach include a published list of factories with names and locations, third-party audits rather than self-assessment, and a stated commitment to paying a living wage rather than merely the legal minimum.

If a company cannot tell you which factory made your jacket, that is not necessarily malice — supply chains are long and shifting — but it is a reason to look elsewhere. Good questions to ask by email: how many factories do you work with? Do you publish them? How do you verify wages? This takes ten minutes and it changes what gets made.

Care that doubles a garment's life

Washing a waterproof feels counter-intuitive, but dirt and body oils clog the fabric and stop it beading, so a damp, clammy jacket is often a dirty one rather than a worn-out one. Wash at 30°C with a technical cleaner, never fabric conditioner, then tumble dry on low or iron on a cool setting to reactivate the water-repellent finish. Do this once or twice a season, not every week.

When beading finally stops, reproof with a wash-in or spray-on treatment, concentrating on shoulders, hood and cuffs. Boots want the mud rinsed off after every walk, drying slowly away from radiators, wax for leather and a spray for synthetics. Store everything clean, dry and on a hanger rather than crammed into a damp cupboard.

Buying well, walking lightly

Buy fewer pieces and choose them carefully: a merino base layer, a fleece or light synthetic mid-layer, a shell that fits over both, and boots you have walked in properly before trusting them on a long day. Second-hand is thriving — charity shops near popular trailheads, online resale sites and local gear swaps are full of barely used kit. If you are walking one long-distance path and nothing more, hiring a rucksack or a tent makes real sense.

Then carry a small repair kit, follow the Countryside Code, shut the gates behind you and keep to the path across peat and wildflower meadows. The most sustainable gear is the gear you already own, looked after well enough to be handed on to somebody else when you are finally done with it.