At the height of the Flint water crisis, the city of Flint was using more than 20 million water bottles a day to meet their daily needs. This resulted in a surplus of plastic being brought into the city. Genusee is an emerging eyewear brand seeking to bring new hope to the city of Flint. It is the first sustainable eyewear brand to have their products made and assembled in Flint, setting the Michigan city up to become a hub for sustainable eyewear and fashion manufacturing in the future. The company’s impact is focused on effecting change in four ways—reducing plastic waste, creating living wage jobs, encouraging circular economies, and building into the future of Flint by giving back to the kids and families who have been affected by lead poisoning.
Their first frame style, the Roeper, is democratically designed to look great on everyone. It is available exclusively on Kickstarter as either prescription optical or sunglasses. With every purchase, the company is able to upcycle 15 water bottles.
[paper.] is a Berlin based responsible fashion label, that crafts rucksacks out of paper, with a minimalist design. Their idea is to make sustainable fashion appealing and affordable. Their first rucksack [square.] has a minimalist design, and is durable, water-repellent, and flexible, which ensures a long lifetime.
[paper.] was founded by Katharina, Sebastian, and Bernd, who were looking for sustainable backpacks in the market and got frustrated with the current state of the fashion industry. Their approaches include:
Narwood is a UK based watch and sustainable apparel company focused on providing the highest quality of wooden watches and bamboo scarves, made out of sustainable and renewable materials. All wooden watches are made fully from either Sandalwood or Maplewood. Their new contemporary collection all feature a unique grain of wood aged individually so no one watch is the same.
Their bamboo scarf collection is made from luxury bamboo fibre harvested from sustainable bamboo forests. To help conserve the environment, for every item sold, a tree is planted. They do this through their partner charity, One Tree Planted. The wood watches are all water resistant and made to withstand any task, making them pieces that can be taken anywhere.
Watson & Wolfe is a British sustainable men’s accessories brand, providing a luxury range of men’s wallets, credit card cases and men’s bags.
Their veg leather (also called faux/synthetic leather) is made from plant Bio-Polyols, elements derived from non-food material that does not divert resources necessary for food farms or animal feed.
Bio-Polyols are synthesized using renewable materials such as rapeseed or plant oils. The polyols create PU (Polyurethane). The leather contains more than 50% BIO content, coming from renewable sources. The raw material for Bio Polyol has a significantly smaller environmental footprint than its petroleum-based alternatives, saving CO2 emissions.
For the interior linings of the products, they use recycled plastic lining instead of new polyester, thus reducing the output of wasted water, and cutting down on the consumption of crude oil.
SOLOSOCKS was established in Copenhagen in 2016, based on the problem of missing socks. Coming from big families, the founders were tired of pairing socks during each laundry session. Why was it that socks kept on going missing? After a ton of research, they realized that there was no explanation. Socks simply just disappear.
Instead of finding out what the problem was, they decided to come up with a solution: SOLOSOCKS – a pack of 7 single socks designed to mix and match. This meant that one would not have to spend time pairing their socks again. With SOLOSOCKS, one simply takes the socks that look similar and put them together in the packaging which turns into a portable storage box.
When people buy a pair of socks, and one goes missing (or gets a hole in it), they usually throw both socks out. It is a huge problem for the environment. Textile waste is one of the biggest threats to our planet. With SOLOSOCKS people are encouraged to buy 7 socks. This way, they never have that problem. And if they lose 6 socks, you can always restock on the style. SOLOSOCKS are different in many ways, allowing people to express their individuality with freedom, convenience and ease of use.
At SOLOSOCKS, the storage box and packaging materials are made of recyclable cardboard produced by the manufacturer ‘Nilorn’ who has signed the ‘UN Global Compacts principles of sustainability’. Their website is also CO2 neutral, which means that they have CO2 neutralization corresponding to the emission from their website (emission from both servers and clients are covered).