Why Buy From Us

A | OVERVIEW

You don't have to be looking for an Eco-Conscious gift to buy with Jaggery Bags. Our products are super cool regardless of their fabulous Eco-friendly qualities. All our designs are the result of deep meditations on the past and the future of urban gear. Our bags & accessories are loaded with useful features that will satisfy the most technically driven user, and our classic minimalist styling will come as a welcome relief to the legions of ubiquitous black ballistic bags found in the market today. Here at Jaggery Bags all our products are made from repurposed materials, otherwise known as upcycled materials. These materials range from super durable army truck tarpaulin material that spends years on the side of lorries trekking around Indian highways being battered by the weather, grit and who knows what else to parachute materials, tyre tube inners, automobile seat belts, kids bouncies, car upholstery to your Dad's old pinstriped suits and all sorts of unused vintage discarded fabrics. Unfortunately when these materials are no longer needed, most end up in landfills or end up being burnt. That's when we step in!

B | OUR ETHOS

The basis for all our activities can be summed up in three words: sustainable, sustainable, sustainable! We are committed to the design and production of sustainable design ethos and we want to offer our consumers ecological and meaningful alternatives to mass produced assembly line driven goods. We produce unique handcrafted bags and accessories with the intention of promoting an environmentally-friendly mode of thinking.

Cultural ethos that guide our thinking as creative practitioners, so as to:

A: create a venture that provides livelihood to skilled artisans who handcraft premium bags out of industrial waste materials

B: provide environmentally-friendly and unique alternatives to mass produced products in order to promote a sustainable lifestyle

C: explore material repositories that have not traditionally been utilized for making bags & accessories, and finally

D: offer international quality design and finishing at everyday prices

C | LEAN PRODUCTION PROCESS

We thought it'd be great for you the customer to get a glimpse into this recontexualization process of how we transform Industrial Waste into Upcyled Bags & Green Fashion Accessories, i.e., fusing a new lease of life into old materials.

Here goes:

1. The Raw Material

Outer Skin

We've set up our material supply chain over the last few years and we source totally-locally. Our products are manufactured by repurposing existing materials into new uses. Among the material we use are discarded kids inflatable castles, salvaged leather, decommissioned automobile seat belts, decommissioned army truck tarps and tactical tent, textile industry surplus fabrics, and a variety of hard materials.

Inner Membrane

Our tendency is to choose lining fabrics that are most befitting the pattern under production. We work with a wide variety of fabrics ranging from never used vintage dead stock fabrics like table cloths, bedsheets, jacket inners and surplus industrial materials sourced from Indian Textile Warehouse Auctions to fabrics like Ajrak, Kantha and Mashru Silk sourced from handicraft practitioners from around the country.

Hardware Fittings

We believe in choosing only the best hardware so as to guarantee a product that is high quality and super durable. All components are top of the line and also absolutely new. These include Industrial Strength Acetal fittings by Duralfex, ITW Nexus and Fancy Fittings. Heavy duty Antique Brass fittings by Leather Links. Original YKK zippers and Pullers in #5 VISLON, AquaGuard and #8 Antique Brass Zippers.

Storage System

It is in the storage of raw materials and the finished goods where we incur a lot of costs. Because the decommissioned material must be received as and when it is available - to keep it from ending up in a landfill - often times we end up acquiring more than what is required at the time. Our finished products are first catalogued and then stored in large cardboard boxes and vacuum sealed bags.

The Drawing Board

When we design products, our goal is to always use materials as efficiently as possible. Design aims to take into account the characteristics of the original material and to preserve them as far as possible. In some products identification of the original material can be easy, while in others not as much. The background story of the material may not always inform new product development.

Cutting & washing

Manufacturing products from recycled materials is considerably more complicated than the production of a similar product with new material sourced OTC. Upcycled materials often require sorting, washing and cleaning to help disinfect them and make them workable. Sorting and cutting materials is always carried out manually in a time intensive process.

Stitching & Sewing

Our patterns are specially designed to optimize fabric cutting and reduce manufacturing waste. A holistic approach that unites our minimalist design philosophy, localized sourcing and minimal waste manufacturing. All our products are hand crafted by a team of skilled artisans at a Fair Trade Manufacturing unit in New Delhi, India.

Our Collections

We launch four seasonal collections a year, with an additional 'Classic' that is available throughout the year. Our collections consist of bags and accessories for a gender neutral audience and are structured around a major theme. Recent themes celebrate ideas of freedom, irreverence and happiness. Our signature style tends to be quirky yet timeless and our products often blend big vision to small details.