Patagonia was on a mission. It wanted to make recycled underwear - among other things - from cast-off long johns, campaign posters, phone cards, old municipal uniforms, and any other sort of polyester that had run its course. Key to the project's success was a process for smoothing the fabric so that customers wouldn't feel their Capilene boxers biting them in the, er, behind.

It wasn't the company's first trek up the recycled-polyester mountain. Several years before, Patagonia and its textile partner, Wellman, had developed a fabric spun from used soda bottles. The first product sample using the material, says Jill Dumain, the company's director of environmental analysis, was a bag so scratchy and ugly, it might have rivaled Grandma's horsehair sofa. After some painful trial and error, Patagonia decided to make fleece from the soda bottles instead - which worked out perfectly, spawning a line of Synchilla sweatshirts and jackets made entirely from postconsumer plastic.

But the same approach wouldn't work for underwear, and it certainly wouldn't work for the sort of water-repellent jackets Patagonia sells to hikers, skiers, climbers, runners, and anyone who'd like to mimic one of the above. For that, the company had to turn to a Japanese partner, Teijin, which eventually figured out how to spin a filament yarn from phone cards and their ilk. Now Patagonia's popular line of Capilene thermal underwear and some of its Patagonia Body everyday skivvies are made from at least 50 percent recycled polyester; its 100 percent recycled rain jacket, the Eco Rainshell, has won an Outside magazine Green Gear of the Year award.