Only just coming to light though is the company’s seriously worthy contribution to pulling thousands of Colombian women out of a life of prostitution and drug abuse.

Back in 1992, Nick Brown, owner of Páramo and inventor of Nikwax (the waterproofing agent which keeps Páramo jackets dry without using polluting chemicals) stumbled upon a group of nuns on a Colombian hillside with two sewing machines and a big idea.

As it happened, Nick was looking for a small scale manufacturing plant outside of the UK to kick-start production of a range of outdoor clothing using his newly invented fabric, Nikwax Analogy. Based on mammal skin, the fabric is designed to keep you dry both on the inside and the outside.

“Nick Brown, the owner of Páramo, stumbled upon a group of nuns on a Colombian hillside with two sewing machines and a big idea.”

High up in the Colombian Andes the conditions proved a perfect spot for road-testing the new material. The ‘Páramo’, after which the company is named, is a 3,500-metre high ecosystem above the tree line with almost continuous rainfall. “It’s a really good spot to go and get wet,” says Nick.

After the shockwaves that rippled through the garment industry following the catastrophic 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh, killing over a thousand exploited garment workers – mostly women – the world is slowly waking up to the critical importance of ethical manufacturing. And while Páramo now holds accolades from the Ethical Consumer and the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards for its industry leading work, back in the 90s, ethics were not so much on the agenda.

 “Ethical garment manufacturing was not top of my mind at the time,” confesses Nick, “but as soon as we got involved with Miquelina, we started to see what they were doing. And more importantly, we began to understand the significance of what we were doing for them.”

The turning point in the relationship came in the form of a $150,000 loan/donation from Páramo, which enabled Sister Esther Castaño to buy more equipment, hold enough stock and ultimately to set up a proper charitable foundation.

“Miquelina [now] manufactures 80 per cent of the Páramo range…thousands of women have have found work through the Foundation and some have even gone on to higher education”

Fast forward to 2016 and the partnership boasts some pretty impressive statistics. Miquelina manufactures 80 per cent of the Páramo range (almost 50,000 garments in 2015) on cutting edge computer aided machinery, guaranteeing a constant stream work for the women of Bogotá. Thousands of women have trained and have found work through the Foundation and some have even gone on to higher education. 120 quality hillside homes have been built for the women and their families and over 300 children from the local community eat in the Miquelina canteen everyday. For some it’s their only hot meal of the week.

So why are we only just hearing about this?

“I was always afraid people’s assumption would be that, if this was some sort of charity, the quality would not be high enough,” explains Nick. “But, as time has gone on, it’s become a really important part of what we do and it’s fair to them to include them in the story. Apart from anything it locks us in even more tightly than we were before.”

Although Páramo has never hidden the relationship, the company has always been sharply focused on the high functioning technical performance of its products. In fact, Nick asserts, it’s the exacting technical production required in the Páramo manufacturing process that really defines the Miquelina set-up and allows them to take on other contracts and grow the business. In 2002 the Foundation was awarded the ISO 9001 quality standard.

“They have just taken on a contract from a highly sophisticated company that makes bullet-proof vests,” Nick explains with pride, “it’s nothing to do with the military, it’s all about protection – but they are highly complex and technical garments sold to world leaders; protection that you can’t see. That’s perfect for Miquelina. Like Páramo gear, it has to be something complex and high quality with a good return. They are not in the business of producing millions of garments at cheap prices.”

For this woman, and many others, one of the biggest attractions to Miquelina was the access to education that, through her involvement with training and employment at the Foundation, she would be able to provide for her daughter. “I knew my girl would not live a life like mine,” she says. “Miquelina and Páramo gave me the opportunity of being a leader,” she says, smiling, “I do not just sit in front of a sewing machine, I am a technician.”

But she doesn’t want to stop there. Like many of the women employed by the Foundation, they become ambassadors for Miquelina and visit women in similar situations to their own. “Today, I go to the same places as I worked as a prostitute,” she explains, “I want to do the same thing the sisters did for me. Change lives.”

Nick Brown speaks passionately about his beloved Colombia and, visiting around twice a year, he is a regular at the busy factory. “Whenever I go I take away a large amount of energy from them,” he says. “It’s not as if I go over to Colombia to get re-energised,” he laughs, “but I have been so many times re-energised by the sheer determination of these women to make things right. To do everything they can for their children. It’s been an incredible privilege for me to have fallen into what might be the best thing I’ve done.”

And what of sister Sister Esther Castaño? Now well into her eighties, she has taken a backseat from the factory but refuses to slow down, instead she has returned to her roots and is back on the streets, recruiting and counselling the troubled women of Bogotá.

Along with his small but passionate team in East Sussex, Nick Brown set out, almost 25 years ago, with the aim of producing high quality, high performance outdoor clothing. Clothing that would have the least impact on the environment and that might actually make a difference to people’s lives.

“He told me every time he sees a Páramo badge, he thinks, they must be a nice person. They must be someone who cares.”

But he’s not daft enough to believe that this is the primary reason people will seek out what is essentially a pricey but eco-ethical-alternative to Gore-Tex. “In the first instance people have got to stay warm and dry and comfortable. So we’ve got to do that really well, which I think we do,” says Nick modestly. “And because of that, we can do the other thing.”

Although it does matter to a growing number of people, which is heartening to the folk at Páramo, who have spent much of their working lives dedicated to improving the world one jacket at a time. “I was speaking to a leading outdoor photographer a while ago,” confides Nick, “and he told me that every time he sees a Páramo badge, he thinks, they must be a nice person. They must be someone who cares.”

To read the rest of Mpora’s ‘Mountain’ issue head here

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