Nicolas Rochat: Dressing up for a sustainable workout

With the ambition to eliminate all plastic from sportswear, Nicolas Rochat, a natureloving Swiss entrepreneur, has launched Mover, a brand that is increasingly making waves across this world of polyester.

As the head of a company that fights against plastic use and intends to reduce its environmental impact, this committed entrepreneur is defending his convictions while simultaneously aiming to align both professional and personal worlds.

Dual family heritage

Mover flourishes within an open space of neatly arranged clothes. A typical small and growing business. The visitor is welcomed by a large neon sign: “don’t stay home”. Getting a move on is clearly the core credo of this company which stylishly fits out sports enthusiasts, while advocating a position that is as technically sophisticated as it is green.
Dressed in upcycled denim jeans and environmentally friendly trainers, this business leader is walking the walk of “a new model of capitalism”. With a strong family heritage behind him, Nicolas Rochat is successfully combining commercial success and industrial ethics.
One of his grandfathers, a forest-loving doctor, supplied him with this basic need, combining nature and outdoor activity. The other, a German industrialist who founded Grohe sanitary-ware, bequeathed his entrepreneurial genes. Mover is the expression of a family desire to “run a quality business”. Nicolas Rochat is keen to align his business practice to his personal convictions, leading the textile industry towards new and more sustainable practices.

Nicolas Rochat, CEO of Mover Sportswear, is committed to developing the textile industry to support the environment.
Mover Sportswear clothes are conceived in Lausanne. Through research, the Mover team has successfully banished plastic from its products, without negatively affecting their performance.

Zero plastic is fantastic

Acquired in 2004 from a Swedish company producing Gore-Tex textiles, Mover made a 360-degree ethical pivot in 2017. Out went polyester and synthetic colours. In came quality natural fibres and soft er colours. Mover dresses sports people in cotton and alpaca wool, whose soft ness makes it a pleasure to wear. Labelled in yellow -with the monogram “stop plastic”, jackets and fleeces are produced with minimal environmental impact. The alpaca fleece, developed aft er several years of research, is produced locally and the cotton is bought from the producers at a fair-trade prices. The textiles meet all the sporting criteria perfectly, including lightness, comfort and breathability. The unisex cuts and natural colours counter traditional sports-fashion codes and challenge the waste of so-called “fast fashion”. Concerned about details, the Swiss brand even spent many months looking for 100% cotton yarn and sustainable Turkish zippers. “Mover demonstrates that plastic-free sportswear is not only possible, it is efficient, more comfortable, durable, attractive, and profitable”, assures its founder.

We can’t continue to put up with recycled plastic. We need to stir up a hornet’s nest.

100% performance

On the management side, the company is run by five people. “Communications, IT, styling, production monitoring, administration, we do everything in-house”, summarises Nicolas Rochat. Production has been relocated from China to Portugal in order to reduce transport costs and ease production management. Orders placed online leave directly from centralised stock in Spain, packed in simple cardboard boxes by a textile logistician trained in origamistyle paper folding. In his quest for quality, nothing escapes this entrepreneur who pays attention to the smallest of details. Accustomed to being one step ahead, Nicolas Rochat took advantage of the recent lockdowns to think about how to minimise costs, essential for off setting expensive raw materials. The head of this fast-growing company says he is now ready to expand. Contacted by sports equipment retailers, observed by specialists on the lookout for “greenwashing”, Mover is demonstrating significant success in the ethical clothing sector. Rochat is convinced that the future of his company lies in R&D on natural fabrics, meeting the increasingly demanding expectations of attentive consumers and becoming increasingly sophisticated in its approach. With its success and growth, the company is also refining its fight for the environment. Nicolas Rochat who up until now has advocated for “zero plastic”, is now pushing for “zero plastic recycling”. “We can’t continue to put up with recycled plastic”, He insists. “We need to stir up a hornet’s nest.” Ready to further strengthen its communications component, the Swiss clothing manufacturer wants to ensure that the message gets through to everyone.

As a lover of open spaces it was clear to Nicolas Rochat that he should campaign for a textile sector that does more to respect the environment.

Text

Cécile Cau
Freelance journalist specialising in societal issues.
Author of the blog sofoodsogood.com.

Images

Gianni Camporota
Passionate about all things outdoors, Gianni trained in photography at the Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) and also works with moving images.