Sheep Inc x Ponda: Crafting a Puffer Shaped by Nature
At Ponda, we have long admired the energy, creativity and determination behind RE-PEAT’s work. Their commitment to championing peatlands and the communities who depend on them - feels both urgent and deeply inspiring. RE-PEAT is a youth-led collective working across Europe, using creative advocacy to give peatlands the attention they deserve. Bringing together voices from art, science and activism, its members are united by a shared love for these vital ecosystems and a fierce commitment to protecting them.
Youth-led activism is essential in responding to the climate crisis, and it is always energising to connect with others who care about wetlands as deeply as we do. Over the coming months, we’ll be collaborating with RE-PEAT on a number of projects, but first, we wanted to introduce their brilliant team to the Ponda community. We’re delighted to sit down with them to explore how RE-PEAT began, the role of art in activism, and why peatlands deserve a much louder voice in the climate conversation.
To begin, could you share the story of how RE-PEAT first came to life? Where did the idea spark from, and how did it grow into what it is today? What are your best achievements in this time period?
Looking back now, it’s clear that September 2019 is a sort of BP and AP situation for a few of us: before peatlands and after peatlands. It was at this time that Bethany and Frankie were in Germany for a climate camp, which was set up to protest against a big chemical fertilizer company. They ended up spontaneously joining a peatland excursion and finding out about how vital peatlands are for the climate. On the bus ride home totally transfixed in this new mission, the name “re-peat” jokingly emerged. Since then, more and more people “re-peated” this moment of BP/AP, and so we formed a collective with many time-travelling multi-perspective starting points.
Over the course of the last five years together, we’ve learnt a lot more about peatlands. We have travelled across land and sea to visit them, listened to memories and built our own relationships with these landscapes. We’ve seen the importance of finding playful, metaphorical, collaborative, and imaginative ways of relating with peatlands and sharing their peculiar values. In return, the peatlands have guided us through explorations of grief, deep time, intergenerational thinking, migration, extraction, culture and more.
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Since starting RE-PEAT, what is one of your favourite or most surprising things you’ve learned about peatlands?
People often think about peatlands as wet places, but when they are dry they become places that attract fire. Zombie fires can smolder underground for weeks, months and in some cases years… waiting in the shadows for the right moment to emerge into the light and reignite the world above. The idea of zombie fires is totally ominous, but also strangely magical in the way that they escape our view and our control. This is why peatlands, when kept wet and healthy, are such important mitigators of fire and drought. With their absorbent properties, they can also help prevent flooding. Peatlands are vital, intelligent regulators of landscapes, they are ecosystems we urgently need to care for and protect.
Wetlands and peatlands are often overlooked in climate discussions. Why do you think they remain so underrepresented, despite their huge ecological importance?
Wetlands and peatlands are often overlooked in climate discussions because of how they have been framed culturally and politically. They are frequently portrayed as wastelands, as “scary” or “empty” places. As landscapes to be drained rather than valued, making their ecological richness easy to ignore. Their degradation is also a form of slow violence: like the frog in hot water metaphor, the impacts unfold gradually and go unnoticed until it’s too late. For example in the Netherlands, soil subsidence from drained peatlands happens slowly, yet over time the land sinks by meters. Restoring peatlands is also slow. It requires landscape-wide agreement and collaboration between many actors, which is far harder to organise than restoration efforts focused on a single plot of land, such as forests.
We delivered one of the largest peatland exhibitions to date, Limbo, created in collaboration with De Proef, a former horticultural school in the peat-rich province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. Inspired by the region’s long history of peat extraction, the exhibition brought together over 25 artists from around Europe, working across sound, data, video, and cartography to present peatlands as culturally complex landscapes rather than mere carbon stores. Alongside the exhibition, we hosted side-programming including lino-printing, artist talks, and a paludi dinner, pairing historical context with clear calls to action and significantly expanding the cultural and political visibility of peatland justice in the Netherlands.
The crowdfund supported the exhibition on a limited budget, ensuring fair artist compensation and enabling an interactive public programme, documentation, and a booklet that extends the work beyond the exhibition itself. Through over 200 pledges we reached just over €10,000! We are deeply grateful for the global network of supporters who made this possible.
Images from the Limbo exhibition taken by Caroline Vitzhum
Sheep Inc has always stood apart. As the world’s first carbon-negative clothing brand, they design with intention, responsibility, and a deep respect for the natural world. Their commitment to regenerative practices mirrors our own, making this partnership feel not just exciting but entirely natural from the very beginning.
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Their close-knit supply chain (no pun intended) is built on transparency, originality, and low-emission journeys. Since their launch in 2019, we’ve loved watching their playful, sheep-soaked campaigns bring attention back to the farm - celebrating the very origins of the materials that shape their garments. We were thrilled to have also collaborated with Italian mill Manteco, who provided the outer shell crafted from recycled MWool® for natural weather resistance.
“With this piece, we wanted to prove that outerwear can be technically advanced and deeply natural,” says Edzard van der Wyck, Co-Founder of Sheep Inc. “Working with Manteco and Ponda allowed us to create a jacket that performs in all senses, from warmth and wearability to planetary impact.”
Made in Europe and crafted entirely from recycled, undyed Merino wool- MWool is refined, durable, and honest - a quiet expression of luxury rooted in longevity. Manteco has been pioneering circular textiles in Italy since 1943, and its expertise sets the tone for the jacket’s whole design philosophy.
Inside, the jacket is filled with our BioPuff® insulation. It’s incredibly light, warm, and soft, offering the loft of down without relying on animals or synthetics. BioPuff® is water-repellent, cruelty-free, and fully traceable. And every kilogram saves an average of 42.76 kg of CO₂ - a small reminder of the big impact wetlands can make.
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As our CEO, Julian Ellis-Brown, explains:
“This collaboration marks a significant step for regenerative design. The fibres that fill this jacket have grown in a regenerated wetland – capturing carbon, increasing biodiversity, and helping build climate resilience for farmers and the communities that surround them. Thanks to the work of Sheep Inc., powered by BioPuff®, consumers today have the choice to be a part of the movement towards a planet-positive apparel supply chain.”
The jacket is designed gender neutral so it can be easily swapped with your partner or family members. It hugs you like a duvet, offering endless lightweight comfort and warmth. Unlike other polyester-style puffers, this one is soft on the outside as well as inside.
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