Our first bags looked rather rough, but they were already telling us how they were worthy of a place in our life.
Since the beginning they always looked a bit funky, a bit goth punk, overall difficult to stereotype.
As I was becoming an adult my initial ambitions of becoming a superhero were becoming less and less realistic. Furthermore, I could not even save myself from having to deal with a nine-to-five office job: I had a rent, so I needed a job, which consumed my time and wasted my creativity. Soon I realized that my only way out had to be indeed a creative idea and I knew very well that my artistic career would not have saved me from returning to the office. So I started wondering about my future and I started imagining a more generous and fulfilled life.
Then I found myself looking for a backpack in the streets of Prague and since I did not find anything appealing, I decided to build my own.
I soon learned quite a lot about the leather craft and when I reached the point when this craft could have became a more gratifying career, I also realized that it would not have helped anyone else: on the contrary I would have been part of the global consumption issue since the unfortunate but inevitable result of producing new goods is waste production.
This assessment was not making me proud, on the contrary I could not see any pro-social benefits in my new leather goods. So the question raised spontaneously: what if I did not use leather? At this point a very long quest for the right materials began.
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”
– Anatole France
Four years later, after multiple failures I finally found a morally healthy and ethical way of building goods made out of reclaimed plastic food containers.
Finally working with rescued plastic also meant having to find many technical solutions and creating the whole craft from its basics. Almost naturally, while constantly looking for ways of rescuing as much material from the food packaging as possible, the first bag designs came to life and they are proudly showing the embossed symbols from the packaging industry. This symbols used to indicate the type of plastic and the original purpose for which the boxes were originally manufactured. Today, they serve as a clear message of hope against compulsive consumption in the world of fashion.
In the making of our products no glues or chemicals are used and all reclaimed food packaging has been carefully heat steamed at high temperature.
The artisanal process of transforming the containers into a modular pattern, consists in cutting off pieces of plastic and firmly joining them by hand.
Our recycling process is extremely effective in its simplicity because it does not involve industrial processes and has extremely low impact on the environment.
By reusing the plastic packaging directly at the end of its usable life with no further processing, its quality is not decreased and eventually the raw material can still be recycled industrially and molded into new products, making our conversion process truly eco-friendly.
Today, our aim is to rescue most food containers from reaching the landfills and to recraft them into new luxury items and accessories.
Finally, we did not become Superman and Wonder Woman, but in the meantime we are trying not be the Villains.
