🌍 World’s first backpack protecting the oceans, certified and controlled by an independent organisation
🌍 World’s first backpack protecting the oceans, certified and controlled by an independent organisation
✔️ Take part in our pre-launch of the OCEAN collection and save up to 34% compared to the normal price!
✔️ Together we can achieve our goal of recovering 100 tons of Ocean Bound Plastic by 2025 (a backpack protects the oceans from Ø 2.5 kg of plastic waste).
✔️ You will be the very first to get your piece from this new collection in January 22nd - before the official launch.
✔️ Your pre-order will help us build a novel fully certified and transparent supply chain for recycled ocean bound plastic.
Good style, modern city life, ecological sustainability and social cohesion do not have to be contradictions: we combine sustainable materials and minimalist design with functionality for every day.
8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans every year. This plastic affects us all: its in our water, our animals and in us. Something has to be done! Prevention and cleaning is the key to it as well as building up supply chains that allows to recycle plastic in an economical as well as sustainable manner and values plastic trash as the valuable source of resources as it is.
Inspired by other frontrunners in this field and since we have seen the plastic problem ourselves in India (where we are manufacturing all our bags) we asked ourselves: what can we do in order to stop the plastic pollution of our oceans and build up a supply-chain that is based on a recycling-approach? And how do we do it in India, where this supply chain for ocean plastic materials, which can be used to make backpacks, has not yet existed? After more than 18 months of intensive work and exchange with many players in India we had a clue how to make this work… we just had to connect the dots.
It all starts with collecting and catching plastic on coasts and rivers where this waste is bound to end up in the oceans. For this essential element in our supply chain, we have teamed up with the NGO Plastics for Change, which has been fighting against plastic pollution in India for many years (see box below to learn more about PFC). This plastic waste is sorted, cleaned and finally shredded into flakes before new yarn and then a robust, durable fabric is woven from it, which we use to make our bags. This recycling process not only helps keeping the oceans clean. It also helps reducing greenhouse gases and protecting our climate. Because: because one ton of recycled plastic saves 2 tons of crude oil and up to 1.6 tons CO2, which would be incurred by the production of new plastic. Ensuring highest quality standards of materials and making means producing a bag made to last, thereby saving resources and protecting the environment. "Don't buy more, buy better" has been our philosophy since our establishment.
Our supply chain is in place, the product designs are final. Now only the last step is missing, for which we have to reach our financing target of € 25,000: the certification and control of our supply chain. The NGO Zero Plastic Oceans has created a certification standard that defines what “ocean plastic” or "ocean bound plastic" is and under what conditions its recycling has positive effects on our oceans. Furthermore, Zero Plastic Oceans defined control standards (such as traceability of the origin of plastic waste) along the entire supply chain. To ensure that every part of the supply chain adheres to its obligation to the OBP standard, the entire value chain, from the first piece of plastic waste to the dispatch of the product to our customers, is audited. This is where Control Union comes into play, taking on this task as an independent, neutral organization.
In summary: We have not only set ourselves the goal of making backpacks from recycled plastic and thus protecting the oceans. We also want our customers to be sure that we and our partners are generating the promised impact at every step of the supply chain. Therefore, we want to build world's first fully certified Ocean Bound Plastic supply chain for bags and backpacks, in which every step of the supply chain is certified and controlled by an independent organization. Trust is good, but control is better. - Therefore we kindly ask for your help today!
We not only want to produce beautiful, high-quality and functional backpacks, but also act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Therefore our production is SEDEX and SA8000 certified. These renowned standards ensure good working and social conditions in our supply chain and the processes involved, controlled by an independent body. The responsible management for the protection of the environment ensures the certification according to ISO 14001. We achieve high quality and few rejects through certification according to ISO 9001. You can find out more about our production here.
Rewards will be sent out at the beginning of January 2022. In the EU and to Switzerland we deliver your favourite free of shipping costs. Shipping is done with DHL and is due to DHL GoGreen climate-neutral. We also send plastic-free, of course, and our shipping boxes grow on the meadow! You read that right! We ship our products in a box made from 40% regional grass and 60% recycled paper - this is currently the most sustainable packaging. You can learn more about it here. We will contact you by email before sending you the rewards in order to check your address details again and provide you with further information. When your parcel is dispatched, we will send you a tracking code with which you can track the delivery. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at service@fitzandhuxley.com When shipping to the USA and UK, we have to charge 15 and 5 EUR shipping costs respectively. Due to the distance and since Brexit, the shipping costs are unfortunately very high - we hope for your understanding.
„Hey friends, I am Lars the founder behind the Berlin backpack label Fitz & Huxley. The idea for Fitz & Huxley came up in 2012 when I was looking for a stylish non-sports backpack and couldn't find anything nice but suitable for everyday use. As long as I looked, there was nothing without synthetic materials - i.e. plastic - which came along with enough storage space for my university or sports equipment and then also convinced me visually. Two more years passed; At the time, I wasn't that happy in my job, which somehow seemed pointless to me. I kept discussing my idea and my different designs with friends. Sure, that was a new, different kind of backpack - but should that be enough to start your own company?
I made contacts in India through friends and after a long search I found a production partner who shared my ideas about beautiful, high-quality, natural materials and was able to meet my high demands on environmental and social standards. The first prototypes were made and I became more confident and confident about my project. I gathered my courage and my savings and ordered 400 backpacks. I fevered for three months every day and then flew to India myself to inspect the first production batch. Unfortunately, to my big disappointment, the first backpacks produced didn't look nearly as great as the prototype and I didn't know exactly why. I was devastated. Over the next few days I checked every single backpack and analyzed the problem: if the seams, rivets and leather on my very first backpack in Berlin were perfect, the leather here had scratches during the production process, rivets were partially damaged and the reinforcement of the backpack was not straight sewn so that some rucksacks didn't look bright and beautiful but sad and kinked. So the sum of the details made all the difference. I rescheduled my flight and stayed in India for three more weeks to repair or replace the backpacks with the production team.
That was in 2016. Since then, I haven't gotten tired of demanding the highest standards over and over again and thus demonstrating what a Fitz & Huxley can do from an ordinary backpack - that is, an object that you carry on your back to move things from A to B - differs.
I am very happy if you like our backpack designs and if you share our love for minimalist design and natural materials.
Best wishes from Berlin,
Your sincerely Lars“
Fitz & Huxley is an alternative to ever faster product life cycles and disposable fashion – in other words, “fast fashion”. For us, sustainability is not a marketing buzzword, but a self-evident secondary condition of all our actions. We make high quality bags that have a long life ahead of them. In addition, when designing, we make sure that products can be repaired and do not have to be thrown away.
We ship the rewards climate-neutral with DHL GoGreen. We also send plastic-free, of course, and our shipping boxes grow on the meadow! You read that right! We ship our products in a box made from 40% regional grass and 60% recycled paper - this is currently the most sustainable packaging. Since we did not use mixed materials in the design of our backpacks and bags, this makes recycling easier at the end of the product life. We are also evaluating to set up a take-back resp. recycling program.
We collect plastic waste that would otherwise end up in our oceans, recycle it and turn it into new bags. In this way we not only stop the littering of our earth, we also save valuable raw materials through recycling. This recycling process not only helps keeping the oceans clean. It also helps to reduce greenhouse gases and protect our climate. Because: one ton of recycled plastic saves 2 tons of crude oil and up to 1.6 tons CO2, which would be used in the production of new plastic. Unlike other everyday items, backpacks are ideal because they do not need to be washed and do not release microplastics.
We not only want to produce beautiful, high-quality and functional backpacks, but also act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Therefore our production is SEDEX and SA8000 certified. These renowned standards ensure good working and social conditions in our supply chain and the processes involved, controlled by an independent body. The responsible management for the protection of the environment ensures the certification according to ISO 14001. We achieve high quality and few rejects through certification according to ISO 9001.
We ship the rewards climate-neutral with DHL GoGreen. We also send plastic-free, of course, and our shipping boxes grow on the meadow! You read that right! We ship our products in a box made from 40% regional grass and 60% recycled paper - this is currently the most sustainable packaging.
We want to establish greater transparency, traceability and control in supply chains. We have not only set ourselves the goal of making backpacks from recycled plastic and thus protecting the oceans. We also want our customers to be sure that we and our partners are generating the promised impact at every step of the supply chain. Therefore, we want to build world's first fully certified Ocean Bound Plastic supply chain for bags and backpacks, in which every step of the supply chain is certified and controlled by an independent organization. Trust is good, but control is better.
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