Looptworks | Upcycled Bags, Packs & Accessories

Let the games begin! The 2019 NBA season is heating up, and just in time to showcase love for your team, Looptworks is officially debuting our collaboration with the NBA featuring upcycled fan gear crafted from retired, authentic jerseys.

The NBA has partnered with Looptworks and tasked us with repurposing these excess jerseys in order to give them a second life. Each item in our NBA collection is upcycled from authentic NBA replica fan jerseys, all made in limited edition batches here in Portland, Oregon.

When a player has been traded to a new team or their jersey is retired, what happens to all of the unique jerseys with their name and number on them? For example, last year when Lebron James moved from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Los Angeles Lakers, Cavaliers jerseys bearing Lebron’s name and number could no longer be sold.

However, thousands of these jerseys have already been produced and were ready for sale. So what happens next? Instead of throwing them away, incinerating them or putting them into storage indefinitely, they were shipping to Looptworks and our non-profit partner here in Portland. They are then deconstructed and reborn as backpacks, pillows and waist packs, a process known as upcycling.

This process happens every season, but by upcycling the jerseys, we're reusing these jerseys and keeping what was special about these materials intact, and giving them another chance to be worn by fans.

To our fans that love our Southwest In Flight LUV Convertible Tote, thank you for making it one of our most popular bags, and we have some good news too! They are now back in stock.

If you’ve been waiting for the next round of in-stock totes, now’s your time to strike. Get yours before they’re gone!

But did you know the Convertible Tote is actually quite difficult to put together? Our tote is made from retired leather Southwest Airlines seats, so it’s already lived its first life. It’s gone through a lot on board Southwest’s planes, and it’s traveled across the world.

“It’s pretty difficult. It’s not easy. It’s already lived a pretty long life, so it’s quite stretchy,” said Looptwork’s Product Line Manager Alex Kramer.

Because of the stretch, sewing becomes more difficult as some pieces might shift around and be hard to stitch together correctly.

However, difficulty didn’t stop us from creating something of higher quality and value. We’re experts in upcycling, and we put in the work to give the leather a second life and to create a tote perfect for Southwest fans!

In fact, our tote went through a few phases of redevelopment to create the best version we could.

“We redeveloped it twice to make it even better than before,” said Kramer.

From design to production, some changes were necessary to create a solid tote. We wanted to make sure we were creating something exceptionally excellent!

The Southwest Convertible Tote continues to be a fan favorite, and you can read more on the rest of the collection here, and to pick up yours, click here!

The 12 days of Upcycling are upon us! — Through December 15th, enjoy seasonal savings on select specials on great eco-friendly items. Looking for Earth-friendly gift ideas with a story? You've come to the right place! 

Check back to take advantage of the daily deals!

12/1: This weekend, all tees are half off!  (through Monday)

12/2: Buy a Pack or a Bag & Get a Free Hoptu Upcycled Neoprene Sleeve!

Through Monday - to receive your free Hoptu sleeve, simply put the Hoptu of your choice plus a bag or pack in your cart — the discount will be applied at checkout.

12/3: ??? Stay Tuned!

In partnership with the University of Oregon athletic department and the Sports Product Management program within the UO Lundquist College of Business, Looptworks introduces a new collection of fan gear upcycled from excess athletic uniforms. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Sports Product Management program, and this unique partnership between Looptworks and the University athletic and academic departments benefits fans, students and the environment, creating a win-win-win scenario.

Great looking, Earth friendly products are only part of the story though. This partnership also involves students from the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business Sports Product Management program as partners in product creation, development and marketing. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds are donated back to the University, meaning fans can now support the team and the students while showing their Duck pride.

The process works like this:

The Oregon athletic department provides excess athletic uniforms from its sports teams to Looptworks, who then works with students to deconstruct them into materials which are used to create entirely new products. The limited edition products are then sold at the Duck Store and online at Looptworks.com.

Fans purchasing upcycled products made from excess materials versus buying something made from virgin materials help conserve water, avoid carbon emissions and avoid excess materials from going to landfill or incineration.

As all Looptworks Re-Duck products are sewn and upcycled locally in Oregon, it contributes to the local economy. Looptworks also partners with Relay Resources, a non-profit that employs people that face barriers to employment, providing additional jobs and social value.

“Looptworks is committed to upcycling excess materials into fun and innovative new products, so this partnership with the U of O was perfect match,” say Scott Hamlin, Founder and CEO of Looptworks. “As an alum myself, I was excited to bring the Athletic and Academic sides of the University together in a project that benefits the planet and allows Duck fans to support the teams and the school.”

“Oregon Athletics is proud to collaborate with the UO Lundquist College of Business and Looptworks on another innovative project that will continue to promote sustainability by upcycling dated inventory and used athletic gear to create new products,” said UO athletic director Rob Mullens. “We appreciate being included in such a valuable project that features innovative products and allows Duck fans the opportunity to support the Sports Product Management program within the Lundquist College of Business.”  

The limited edition Looptworks Re-Duck Collection is available at the Duck Store and online at Looptworks.com/Ducks beginning September 15th. Keep an eye out or sign up for the Looptworks newsletter to be notified when additional items launch in October and November as well.

Click here to view the Re-Duck Collection

The Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) builds linkages between young leaders across the hemisphere to empower business and social entrepreneurs with the training, tools, networks and resources needed to transform their societies for the better.

Highlights of the program include educating local entrepreneurs on environmentally responsible and sustainable business practices. 

Last October we participated in a fellowship program with the Young Leaders of the America’s Initiative. This program is geared at building entrepreneurs in the Caribbean and Latin America. 

Khala Hurdle is a young entrepreneur from Barbados taking part in the program. As part of her YLAI fellowship she visited Portland and spend time with us here at Looptworks. She begin her time with Looptworks with a presentation on Barbados history and culture and how it influences her fashion brand, Kalene Designs.

During her stay, she spent time with each member of the Looptworks team, learning a bit about everyone's role in sustaining and building a business.

Khala was especially interested in the Looptworks mission and focus on brand values. She is working to follow and implement B Corp Values to guide her business and practices, investing in recruiting local members of the community in job creation and sustainably produced products.

Barbados’s industry has been in a recession; much of the industry has move away, leaving the local economy heavily dependent on tourism. Looking to impact social change, as part of the program, Khala applied for return visit from Looptworks.

This was the first trip for Barbados, and as part of the program, Khala enlisted additional speakers from local professionals in industries ranging from the film and music industry and radio to speak with young people about potential opportunities. 

Looptworks founder and CEO Scott Hamlin kicked off the reverse trip via teleconference, sharing the Looptworks experience with B Corp certification, and how it has helped Looptworks improve our impact in the area of environmental impacts as a company.

Angelina Malizia traveled to Barbados in person on behalf of the Looptworks team.

Visiting Khala’s business & production facility, Angelina touched on about layout, training, building out the space and figuring out processes and strategies on making production more efficient. 

Learn more about the YLAI program at: ylai.state.gov

Many of the items we create from excess leather come from factories we work with overseas. 

The sizes of the hides and pieces available often play into the design of our products.

Upcycled using quality leather materials that didn't quite make it into boots, shoes, handbags and belts, upcycling these materials keep them from becoming waste.

Upcycling leather for items like our Luhu Leather folio, (sized perfectly for toting an iPad or sketchbook) Hainan iPhone Wallet and Shaxi iPad Folio save water and resources over products made using virgin leather.

You can view our collection of small leather goods here.

Thanks to our friends, partners and fans, we made a substantial impact in 2017. Making and upcycling products from excess materials, we conserved natural resources and offset our impact on the environment.

By creating products from quality materials that already exists, we avoided having to create virgin materials. 2,300,517 gallons of water were saved by upcycling. We also kept 2,530 lbs of quality materials from being incinerated or ending up in landfills.

Excess / deadstock in India, in the process of being upcycled into event t-shirts for our friends at Cycle Oregon

A cotton t-shirt takes over 400 gallons of water to produce from raw materials...  Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone in the US chose one upcycled products?

According to the US Census Bureau, the current population of the US is 327,093,382. If all of us chose one upcycled tee over a virgin cotton tee, we would save a staggering 130,837,352,800 gallons of water!

2017 marked another milestone for us; with your help, we further reduced our carbon footprint and the impact of shopping online with a new program in partnership with our friends at BEF.

Pioneers in this new program, we began offering the option to contribute towards the purchase of carbon offsets to reduce the impact of shipping goods. (four other companies have followed in our footsteps to join the Checkout Checkbox program!)

Thanks to contributions by 94 of our customers, 12 carbon offset purchases were purchased, removing 22,400 pounds of carbon! 

This year, we chose to focus on cow poop offsets! That's right, we are now discussing cow pies. 

We've been overwhelmed with the positive support of the Looptworks partnership with Southwest Airlines to repurpose their leather seat materials and thanks to you all, we're now accepting pre-orders for totes, bucket bags, dopp kits, cross body bags and duffles!

We have deconstructed seat materials in house and are making items as fast as we can. (take a look behind the scenes on our Instagram page) If you were hoping to give one as a gift this holiday season, we're doing the best we can to ship them in a timely fashion but also wanted to offer an additional option: we have created a commemorative card that can be given in lieu of a bag while you're waiting for the pre-order to ship.

To request it, please place your pre-order and add your request in the comment field during the checkout process. If you've already pre-ordered a bag, send us an email at backtalk@looptworks.com and we'll send one to you.

If you don't want to wait, we've also uploaded a PDF of the card which you can download and print at home. (we also made one for non-SWA items as well)

If you were on the fence about getting a bag pre-ordered, don't wait — get yours in now and secure your spot on the list!

Today's specials: Only $15 for Hoptu Neoprene Sleeves & $19 for Tiki upcycled leather iPad sleeves!

The 12 days of upcycling are upon us — 12 days of new product launches, announcements and special offers. Looking for eco-friendly gift ideas with a story? You've come to the right place! 

The 12 Days of Upcycled Holiday Calendar: 12/7 - 12/18

1. 12/7 Introducing the Hill and La Vallée wallet collection; pre-order and save 20%!
2. 12/8 Pre-order sale on wallets extended to all wallets at Looptworks.com! Save 20% off any wallet using the code "EdwinHill"
3. 12/9 Sneak Preview: introducing a new Bag made from Southwest Airlines Seat Leather — the new In Flight Bucket Bag is here! 
4. 12/10 the Official Launch of the new In Flight Bucket Bag! 
5. 12/11 All Hoptu Neoprene sleeves are $15
6. 12/12 Tiki iPad Sleeves are only $19
7. 12/13 TBA
8. 12/14 TBA
9. 12/15 TBA
10. 12/16 TBA
11. 12/17
12. 12/18 The final day for ground shipping!