Sustainable Materials

Our premium quality leather is tanned without the use of chromium. We choose to work with naturally tanned leather, not only because of its safety for people and the planet but also because it gives all our products their natural trademark look. To verify the absence of chromium, the leather is tested by independent laboratories. Instead of chromium, vegetable tannins are used in the tanning process.

Research has shown that a significant part of the environmental impact of leather occurs in the manufacturing process. Therefore, it is not only the chemicals used in the tanning process that should determine how sustainable the leather is. Accordingly, water, wastewater, air emissions, and energy use are responsibly managed at our tanneries. To ensure a best practice tannery, we work with Leather Working Group (LWG) certified tanneries: Conceria Nuova Grenoble and Shee Sen Leather Pvt.

If you want to know more about the tanning process of sustainable leather, click here.

Uppeal™ is part of our vegan collection, produced by two innovative factories, Frumat and Mabel Synthetic, who are based in Italy. This is a bio-based material made from apples which utilizes the waste from the local fruit juice and apple sauce industry. Just like our real leather bags, this vegan alternative to leather is also a by-product of an industry to utilize “waste” as a resource. It’s a durable and low-impact material that is 100% vegan.

In addition to providing an alternative to leather for our vegan customers, we are excited to support the innovation and development of new sustainable materials in the industry. This includes improving the footprint of our existing process, and as technology develops in the vegan leather space, exploring additional materials that match our sustainability goals.

If you would like to read more about the production of Uppeal™, click here.

Next to leather, cotton is a material we use a lot, for the lining on the inside of our bags, the webbing straps and the dustbags. All the cotton fabric we use comes from Dibella India, an innovative organization based in the South of India that shares our values, ensures traceability up to farmer level and also ensures that the cotton farmers receive a fair price.

All our cotton is certified. The fabric of our signature lining is 100% recycled cotton, certified by Global Recycle Standard (GRS). The webbing straps and dustbags are Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified. The dyes used for our webbing straps are organic too.

We prioritize switching to recycled cotton fabric for our signature lining as a first step in lowering our materials impact. Avoiding or minimising the use of virgin fibres and increasing the use of recycled fibres significantly lowers a product's environmental impact - especially from water usage in the cultivation phase of cotton production.