SBIO 2013 finalist Thread, which creates fabric from plastic bottle waste collected in the developing world, has released a line of special-edition bags with its first partner, canvas bag manufacturer Moop.
Each waxed canvas Moop + Thread bag — available in Messenger No.1 and Paperback styles, all designed and hand-manufactured at Moop’s Pittsburgh-based studio — is lined with fabric made from 16 plastic bottles.
“We are beyond excited,” says Thread’s director of marketing, Frank Macinsky. “Moop has been an excellent first customer. We love their design aesthetic and we share a lot of the same values.”
Those same values refer to Thread’s dedication to environmental and social responsibility. Each bag creates jobs, and supports a network of over 1,620 income opportunities in the poorest neighborhoods in Haiti. Thread is able to track these numbers with their innovative Ground to Good platform, which tracks the total impact of its products — from each plastic bottle to each bolt of fabric.
Moop is equally excited.
“By partnering with Thread, we are able to introduce a new, responsible material to our customers, while continuing to support a personable business ethnic of creating good jobs for talented people,” says Wendy Downs, founder and owner of Moop.
"Helping other companies make their products more responsible, more sustainable and more valuable is at the heart of our mission,” says Thread founder Ian Rosenberger. “We know that by connecting customers of things like bags, shoes and jackets to the poor, we can use a simple thing like fabric to help end poverty."
With this first partnership, Thread now joins the ranks of companies such as Levi’s, Dirtball and Pharrell Williams' Bionic Yarn, all incorporating plastic bottle waste into their denim, as the latest addition to a team of solutions emerging to tackle this global problem.
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Published May 12, 2014 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT / 1am BST / 2am CEST