Today is a very special day. We're releasing something we've been dreaming about for years.
I've said it a lot of times: we love travel and we love the planet. By our definition, that's a global citizen. Someone who truly loves the planet - both for its wonder and beauty and making sure it's preserved for future generations.
For two and a half years, we've been working on finding a way to make travel goods from upcycled ocean-bound plastic. It's been a massive undertaking to set up the supply chain necessary to allow for this step in the business.
Step one was buying ocean-bound plastic from groups who had been collecting it from the Maldives. Now, at this stage of the journey, we are paying local people in the Philippines to collect plastic from beaches and riverways. We're doing this in conjunction with The Plastic Bank. By working with The Plastic Bank, we're able to help create jobs for locals in the Philippines.
We take recycled plastic and break it down into flakes, then make it into pellets and thus into yarn which is woven into the fabric we use on the outside and the inside of our bags.
The Kickstarter campaign, which allowed us to get this journey started, launched in October 2018 with The Daypack. 1463 backers joined our mission which allowed us to purchase our first large order of ocean-bound plastic and bring our dream to reality.
Today, August 7th 2019, we launch Shore-Tex with a full collection of three products, each coming in three colors - with shipping starting today.
Our first Shore-Tex launch includes:
The Daypack - a new premium everyday backpack.
The Lifepack - our flagship, the Solar Powered and Anti-Theft Backpack.
The Sling - a new product perfect for everyday adventures.
Together with the launch of Shore-Tex, we're also unleashing our new shipping solution - a reusable bag that's used as the shipping packaging. All new products produced by us are shipped without any single-use plastics! The most exciting part is the reversible tote functionality of our shipping bag - check it out here:
We're setting a new standard in sustainability - and as such we're releasing these shipping concepts to the world without any patent claims - allowing others to follow suit using similar ideas. Making the world a better place is something we all need to work toward, together.
-Adrian Solgaard
Founder, Solgaard.co
