Needs Work
Kelty is known for its approachable, value-oriented camping gear and accessories, offering more affordable alternatives to products from premium brands like Big Agnes and Nemo. While it succeeds at that, the brand has room to expand its sustainability efforts and its transparency about them. Kelty doesn’t publish an impact report or emissions data, nor does it operate resale or recycling services. It performs a solid selection of repairs, though, and we love that it produces its products without PFAS. Kelty also reduces its impact by using responsibly sourced down and recycled fabrics in its sleeping bags.
This sustainability analysis evaluates both product- and brand-level initiatives to capture the full scope of Kelty’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact. Our research draws from the brand’s published sustainability data, third-party certifications (a cornerstone of our process), and correspondence with brand representatives. We have independently researched 20 Kelty products to date, giving us a broad understanding of the brand’s use of low-impact materials, chemistry, and manufacturing practices.
You can explore our analyses of other outdoor brands, or use our advanced search to find products that align with your sustainability values.
Overall, Kelty’s receives a “Needs Work” transparency rating. The brand maintains a sustainability page on its website, and information about its PFAS phase-out and repair services is available in its FAQs. However, these resources lack the depth and data that many competitors provide. Kelty shares an annual impact report with its major retailers, but the report isn’t publicly accessible. It doesn’t publish greenhouse gas emissions data either, though the brand states that it tracks its footprint and has targets to reduce it. Despite these shortcomings, we appreciate that Kelty provides details about PFAS and recycled materials on its product pages, and representatives from the brand have responded to our requests for more information.
Recycled materials, such as post-consumer polyester and nylon, have smaller carbon footprints than their virgin counterparts, which are derived from fossil fuels. Kelty uses recycled materials in over 25% of its products, including most of its sleeping bags, which feature recycled polyester and nylon fabrics and recycled polyester insulation. While there are recycled textiles in many of the brand’s sleeping bags we’ve evaluated, we haven’t found post-consumer content in the other products we’ve researched, including tents, camping chairs, and backpacking packs. Kelty states that several of its upcoming tents will incorporate recycled materials, though. Still, it falls behind brands like Nemo, which uses 100% recycled fabrics across all its backpacking tents.
Bluesign-approved materials meet strict standards for chemical and environmental management throughout the production process. Additionally, brands can become Bluesign System Partners, a designation that requires them to improve sustainability across their supply chains through low-impact material use, resource efficiency, social responsibility, and more. While REI Co-op, Marmot, and other outdoor manufacturers participate in Bluesign System Partnership, Kelty doesn’t. However, it sources its down insulation from a Bluesign System Partner, Allied Feather and Down, which has produced Bluesign-approved down since 2011. Therefore, the insulation in Kelty’s down products is Bluesign approved. We haven’t come across any other Bluesign-approved materials in the brand’s products, though.
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of chemicals that have historically been used to repel dirt and water from outdoor gear. California and New York banned the use of PFAS in textiles in 2025 due to their persistence in the environment and association with adverse health effects. As a result, the outdoor industry has been working to phase out PFAS from durable water repellents (DWRs) and other materials.
In 2021, Kelty began phasing out PFAS from its products, putting it ahead of the curve among its competitors. It began treating its products with non-fluorinated DWRs and now uses these finishes across its tents, sleeping bags, and other items. The brand’s tents are also free of brominated flame retardants, which (like PFAS) have been linked to health risks. For compliance with CPAI-84 flammability standards, Kelty instead uses food-grade ammonia phosphate as a flame retardant.
All of the down insulation used in Kelty products meets the Responsible Down Standard. This third-party certification ensures that feathers come from animals that haven’t been subjected to practices like live-plucking and force-feeding. It also promotes traceability across supply chains. Kelty sources its down from Allied Feather and Down, and further enhances traceability by participating in the supplier’s Track My Down program, which allows consumers to trace the origin of the down in their products. Since 2016, Kelty has included lot numbers on its down sleeping bag hang tags so customers can access this information directly. Kelty's Wayback Sleeping Bag also contains organic cotton, which is grown with less water and chemicals than conventional cotton. However, Kelty doesn’t disclose how much organic cotton it sources.
Kelty’s parent company, Exxel Outdoors, upholds a code of conduct for its suppliers that outlines policies on human rights, fair wages and working hours, safe working conditions, and environmental responsibility. It conducts internal and independent audits to ensure compliance with these policies and takes action to address any violations. It also works with some Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP)-certified suppliers. The WRAP program certifies facilities adhere to lawful and ethical standards and requires social compliance audits every one to two years. However, Kelty doesn’t report how much of its production occurs in WRAP-certified facilities, so it doesn’t meet our responsible manufacturing standards, which require brands to participate in a third-party program that provides certification and regular audits to ensure social and environmental well-being. The brand does manufacture some products in the U.S., though, and identifies whether items are domestically produced or imported on product pages.
Despite producing waste, packaging doesn’t account for a significant share of a brand’s environmental impact (unlike activities such as raw material extraction, processing, and manufacturing). Still, many brands have reduced the amount of packaging they use and swapped virgin materials for recycled alternatives to reduce their footprint. While not recycled, Kelty’s hangtags are Forest Council Stewardship certified, which ensures wood and paper products are sourced from responsibly managed forests. Hangtags are a small share of overall packaging, though, and Kelty doesn’t disclose whether its other packaging (like shipping materials and poly bags) is reduced or recycled. For comparison, Klymit uses 100% recycled cardboard and is working to eliminate 85% of poly bags from its products.
Repair services allow customers to extend the lifespan of their gear, and Kelty’s offerings in this arena help keep products on the trail and out of the landfill. In 2022, the only year for which data is available, Kelty repaired over 1,700 items. Its in-house team can fix broken tent poles, delaminating seams, small tears and holes, and zipper issues (as long as the teeth are intact). However, it doesn’t repair furniture, lanterns, or child carriers, nor does it re-stuff down-insulated items. The brand can’t address major tears and holes, leaking tents and rainflies, or plastic corner joints on products, either.
Kelty’s tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, and child carriers are covered by a limited-lifetime warranty against material and manufacturing defects, while its other products carry a one-year warranty. The brand addresses warranty-related issues for free and performs non-warranty repairs for reasonable fees, estimating it services more than 30 products per week. It also offers replacement parts (such as trekking pole tips, backpack straps, and buckles) and various resources for at-home maintenance, or customers can send their gear to Kelty for repair using this form.
Once outdoor gear is beyond repair and reaches the end of its usable life, recycling services provide responsible end-of-life solutions. These services typically transform a product’s fabrics and components into materials for new goods. If items still have life left, resale programs provide opportunities for customers to trade in used products for credit. Both resale and recycling programs keep products in circulation and out of landfills. However, Kelty operates neither a resale nor a recycling service and states it doesn’t currently plan to initiate one, so customers must seek other options for their used gear. It falls behind comparable camping brands in this regard, such as Sea to Summit and Nemo, which operate both resale and recycling programs, as well as Big Agnes, which offers a recycling program.
Many outdoor brands track their greenhouse gas emissions across their operations and supply chains. Indirect emissions (Scope 3) account for the vast majority of a company’s carbon footprint and include activities such as raw material extraction, processing, and manufacturing, whereas direct emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) have a smaller impact. Kelty states it tracks its emissions and has targets to reduce them, but it doesn’t disclose which scopes it measures or whether its targets are science-aligned or verified. The company doesn’t publicly report its footprint or targets either. While Kelty’s parent company, Exxel Outdoors, participates in the Higg Index, a series of tools that help companies evaluate and reduce their environmental impact, it doesn’t identify which Higg tools it uses. Without data from Exxel Outdoors or Kelty, we have little insight into the brand’s carbon footprint and the actions it's taking to address it.
Neither Kelty nor Exxel Outdoors publishes a publicly available annual impact report, though Kelty shares one with its major retailers. Typically, such reports detail how companies source their materials, address their greenhouse gas emissions, limit resource consumption, mitigate waste production, package products, and more. They also promote transparency and accountability by making sustainability data publicly available. Without an impact report, we have limited information about Kelty’s sustainability efforts and progress. The brand publishes a sustainability webpage that features information on its social initiatives, repair program, and PFAS phase-out, but it doesn’t discuss all of our criteria or include data. Exxel Outdoors states that it plans to communicate its “sustainability story” to its customers, employees, and the outdoor industry, but it has yet to do so.
In 1989, Kelty founded the Conservation Alliance with REI Co-op, Patagonia, and The North Face to promote environmental conservation among the outdoor industry. Today, the organization includes over 250 members. It has donated over $29 million to grassroots conservation efforts across North America, protecting more than 73 million acres of wildlands and 3,580 miles of rivers, removing 37 dams, designating five marine reserves, and purchasing 21 climbing areas. Kelty is also a member of the Outdoor Industry Association, a group that collaborates on sustainability initiatives, engages in policy, and advocates for the outdoor industry.
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