Do REI Co-op camping tents & tarps have PFAS?

What REI Co-op says and does about PFAS

REI is both a brand and a retailer, and its PFAS commitment covers both. It announced that PFAS restrictions would take effect in autumn 2024 for cookware and most textiles, and in autumn 2026 for professional, expedition-level apparel. Those are commitments. Independent lab testing published before the commitment found PFAS in six of eight products bought at REI, including long-chain compounds in three REI-branded jackets, and we found no published confirmation that the 2024 deadline was met.

• Brand statementREI’s PFAS restrictions were announced as taking effect in autumn 2024 for cookware and textile products, a requirement placed on more than a thousand brand partners as well as its own label. Toxic-Free Future ↗
• Brand statementThe commitment has two dates, autumn 2024 for most textiles and cookware, and autumn 2026 for professional, expedition-level apparel. Clean Water Action ↗
• Independent testToxic-Free Future reported that six of the eight products it bought at REI contained PFAS, and that three REI-brand jackets contained a mixture of older long-chain and newer short-chain compounds. Toxic-Free Future, Toxic Convenience ↗
• Independent testIn the same testing, two REI-branded Gore-Tex jackets returned total fluorine results above 80,000 parts per million, the highest in the sample. Total fluorine is a screening marker rather than identification of individual PFAS. Toxic-Free Future, Toxic Convenience ↗
• Regulatory filingCalifornia bans new textile articles containing regulated PFAS from sale in the state from 1 January 2025, with outdoor apparel for severe wet conditions covered from 1 January 2028. California AB 1817 ↗

Sources checked October 1, 2026. A brand statement is the company’s own claim, which we report but have not verified. Our grades are model-based estimates, not lab tests.