Teko has been honored as a recipient of a 2005 Backpacker magazine Editors' Choice Award given annually to products in recognition of their innovation in design, materials and/or performance. Backpacker executive editor Jonathan Dorn and his staff of editors and testers presented Teko Socks with the award at the annual Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City, UT on January 29th.

The Backpacker Editors' Choice Awards, bestowed annually since 1993, honor the products that Backpacker editors have chosen as the best of the year based on months of trail testing by teams of highly experienced hikers and climbers. With no set categories for the awards and no set number of recipients, the products and the testing process drive the award categories

Teko Socks was one of only 16 innovative products that have been honored with a 2005 Backpacker Editors' Choice Award, and the only recipient this year of the Editor's Choice Green Award.

Teko strives to reach the ideals of sustainability. Using only ecologically sound high performance fibers and manufacturing processes, and recycled materials for packaging; Teko Socks ensures that its products are safe for the environment. Every fiber Teko selects must meet the criteria of achieving the highest level of performance as well as leaving minimal impact on the Earth. Teko's line consists of the following fibers:

  • Ecopoly™ Recycled Polyester: Ecopoly uses advanced technology to recycle polyester products and PET bottles and postindustrial waste into highly pure, raw polyester. It has great moisture transfer, soft hand, and is incredibly durable.
  • EcoWash Merino Wool: This wool is distinguished by the use of ozone in the shrink resistant processing of the wool, as opposed to the environmentally damaging chlorine traditionally used today. The performance advantage to ozone processing is linked to the fact that the ozone does not strip the wool of its natural oils like the more caustic chlorine process. As a result, the socks have an incredibly soft hand and superior water repellency.
  • Merino Wool: Teko's Merino Wool comes from New Zealand sheep farmers who have been practicing environmentally sound techniques for hundreds of years. The wool is shrink resistant and we dye it to meet Oeko-Tex 100 standards.
  • Organic Supima® Cotton: The production is certified by Skal and meets strict EC rules for organic agriculture, guaranteeing the elimination of harmful residues. The silky appearance and soft hand of the Supima Cotton meets our highest quality requirements.

    To determine a worthy recipient of Backpacker's Editors' Choice Green Award, Backpacker hires experts in the field of eco-friendly business practices in the outdoor industry to research new developments. The editors combine those reports with their own extensive knowledge of the industry, then put the candidates to the test out in the field before determining an overall winner or winners

    “We went to greater lengths, and greater distances, than ever before to determine this year's Editors' Choice winners,” said Dorn, who led a team of editors on a 10-day expedition to New Zealand as part of the testing criteria. “We did extensive field-testing and put products to the test in as many conditions as possible, because backpackers rely on our authenticity and that of the information we provide them.”

    “We are thrilled and honored to receive this award from Backpacker,” said Teko President, Jim Heiden.

    The Backpacker Editors' Choice Awards are the gold standard against which all outdoor products are measured, and are a seal of approval that can help put an outdoor company or product on the proverbial map. Each year at the Outdoor Retailer show, retail buyers use the awards announcements as a must-buy shopping list, knowing that their customers will be asking for these products in the spring.

    Since their inception, the Backpacker Editors' Choice Awards have come to be regarded as the most sought-after award for outdoor equipment and apparel found in the industry. The impeccable outdoor credentials and rigorous field-testing standards of the Backpacker staff guarantee that these awards are an undisputed mark of quality for the companies and products selected.

    All winners must excel under extensive field-testing conducted by Backpacker's team of editors, who take hundreds of new products every year into the backcountry to put them to the test. This rigorous process ensures that the performance of the winners is truly worthy of distinction and meets the guiding principle behind the program: gear that is of real value to the readers of Backpacker magazine, who are very active, long-term outdoor enthusiasts.

    The complete list of Backpacker 2005 Editors' Choice Award winners will be officially announced to the general public in the magazine's April issue, on newsstands March 15.