Nikwax: look after your kit instead of binning it

The British brand Nikwax has been making care and waterproofing products for outdoor kit for almost 50 years, and from the very start it left out what the industry treated as standard for decades: fluorochemicals (PFAS/PFC), aerosols and solvents. Nikwax builds everything on water-based formulations instead, looking after technical clothing, footwear and gear without loading the burden onto people or the environment.

In 1977 Nick Brown was 22 and had a problem: his leather mountain boots kept getting wet. So he mixed his own waterproofing wax in the kitchen, one that worked without wrecking the leather. Nikwax grew out of that single wax.

Over the following decades Brown widened the range, moving from leather waxes to water-based waterproofing and cleaning products for fabrics, membranes and equipment. He stuck to his founding rule throughout: no fluorochemicals, no solvents, no aerosols. Long before PFAS became a public debate, Nikwax had already banished them from the whole range.

Brown deliberately kept the company privately held, with no shareholders and no pressure for quick profit. In 2017 Nikwax went further and became the first outdoor company to account for all of its CO₂ emissions since founding, balancing them in full through forest protection projects run by the World Land Trust.

Nikwax follows one simple principle: clean first, then waterproof. Dirt and detergent residue are usually the reason a jacket or a boot stops beading. The membrane is rarely broken, the surface is just clogged. A wash with the right product is often enough to bring the water repellency back.