Products
Our products embody our commitment to sustainable sourcing, processing and material selection. We are proud of the durable, timeless pieces we create - and our customers love. Whilst we are known for these unique bags and continue to develop new gear with this ethos in mind, our apparel range is growing with each season. As with our bags, we are committed to creating stylish, hard wearing garments and accessories to be treasured and worn for years to come.
Materials
When Sealand started, we were able to source the “waste” we needed to create our products locally. As our business, range and production has grown, sourcing high-quality reliable waste streams has become a challenge. We have been forced to look for alternative but responsible sources. However, we are constantly on the hunt for new, ever more responsible materials and are proud to partner with some industry leaders creating more sustainable textiles than have ever been offered. All of our fabric partners are held to the highest global standards of textile manufacture.
At the heart of our operations lies our Polyester Twill (Poly Twill), generously donated by our partners looking to divert their post consumer textile waste from landfill. Poly Twill is a tactile and durable material, perfect for inners. It’s commonly used as an in-store advertising material.
Each of our 100 000+ bags made since 2015 have featured a unique & vibrant Poly Twill lining, and each Sealand bag is utterly unique. Our Poly Twill is sourced from corporate partners locally, such as Pick n Pay, Ackermans, Pepkor & Mr Price. The logistics are handled by major printing partners of these businesses, Digital Express Printing and Hirt & Carter.
Yacht sail has been designed to withstand tough weather conditions, resulting in low water absorption and high durability. These factors make this upcycled material the perfect ‘ingredient’ for a lifetime warranty product such as a Sealand bag. We source from international sail manufacturers and upcycle b-grade sail material where possible.
Spinnaker and kite fabric, a brightly coloured and lighter sail material is used across many products as a flair, to add colour and vibrancy.
Earth-polluting nylon waste such as fishing nets, fabric scraps, carpet flooring and industrial plastic is transformed into ECONYL® regenerated nylon through a radical regenerative and purification process.
This regenerated nylon is then used to create brand new products that have the possibility to be infinitely recycled. We currently source this from Hoyu, a bluesign-certified manufacturer in Taiwan.
Ripstop is a versatile woven fabric which uses a special reinforcing technique to withstand tearing and ripping. Upcycled Ripstop’s durability makes this fabric the perfect base for our bags.
We source A & B-grade ripstop in South Africa, and are currently in the process of working with a supplier to develop recycled and regenerated ripstop for our bags.
Canvas is a weather resistant, easily washable fabric with the co-benefit of having mould resistant properties. Our canvas range was once all B-grade but due to sourcing requirements, we took the difficult decision to incorporate A-grade canvas into these products.
We are working with suppliers to generate locally produced recycled canvas and replace all the A-grade in our range with this, Cordura or X-Pac.
Sourced from local partner, Hemporium, hemp is a versatile, comfortable material that uses about ¼ as much water and half the land of cotton. It is also regenerative for soil.
This has been a staple within our apparel range since we first started producing, and produces comfortable, long lasting garments that are eventually biodegradable.
We utilise organic cotton in our range, which has a far lower impact than cotton farmed with pesticides and herbicides on both chemical pollution and water scarcity impact measures.
We work with local suppliers to ensure we get reliable, quality cotton processed in responsible mills. Cotton can biodegrade at its end of use and, as a natural fibre, releases none of the microplastics that fossil-fuel based fabrics may.
At the heart of our operations lies our Polyester Twill (Poly Twill), generously donated by our partners looking to divert their post consumer textile waste from landfill. Poly Twill is a tactile and durable material, perfect for inners. It’s commonly used as an in-store advertising material.
Each of our 100 000+ bags made since 2015 have featured a unique & vibrant Poly Twill lining, and each Sealand bag is utterly unique. Our Poly Twill is sourced from corporate partners locally, such as Pick n Pay, Ackermans, Pepkor & Mr Price. The logistics are handled by major printing partners of these businesses, Digital Express Printing and Hirt & Carter.
Yacht sail has been designed to withstand tough weather conditions, resulting in low water absorption and high durability. These factors make this upcycled material the perfect ‘ingredient’ for a lifetime warranty product such as a Sealand bag. We source from international sail manufacturers and upcycle b-grade sail material where possible.
Spinnaker and kite fabric, a brightly coloured and lighter sail material is used across many products as a flair, to add colour and vibrancy.
Earth-polluting nylon waste such as fishing nets, fabric scraps, carpet flooring and industrial plastic is transformed into ECONYL® regenerated nylon through a radical regenerative and purification process.
This regenerated nylon is then used to create brand new products that have the possibility to be infinitely recycled. We currently source this from Hoyu, a bluesign-certified manufacturer in Taiwan.
Ripstop is a versatile woven fabric which uses a special reinforcing technique to withstand tearing and ripping. Upcycled Ripstop’s durability makes this fabric the perfect base for our bags.
We source A & B-grade ripstop in South Africa, and are currently in the process of working with a supplier to develop recycled and regenerated ripstop for our bags.
Canvas is a weather resistant, easily washable fabric with the co-benefit of having mould resistant properties. Our canvas range was once all B-grade but due to sourcing requirements, we took the difficult decision to incorporate A-grade canvas into these products.
We are working with suppliers to generate locally produced recycled canvas and replace all the A-grade in our range with this, Cordura or X-Pac.
Sourced from local partner, Hemporium, hemp is a versatile, comfortable material that uses about ¼ as much water and half the land of cotton. It is also regenerative for soil.
This has been a staple within our apparel range since we first started producing, and produces comfortable, long lasting garments that are eventually biodegradable.
We utilise organic cotton in our range, which has a far lower impact than cotton farmed with pesticides and herbicides on both chemical pollution and water scarcity impact measures.
We work with local suppliers to ensure we get reliable, quality cotton processed in responsible mills. Cotton can biodegrade at its end of use and, as a natural fibre, releases none of the microplastics that fossil-fuel based fabrics may.
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
One of our biggest challenges as a business has always been the acquisition of accurate, quality data we can trust. Every time we need to make a critical decision, we need numbers to inform and support our choices. Sealand has acquired LCA and carbon accounting software as of early 2024, a huge step towards getting quantifiable impact reports on a variety of metrics. These metrics are important not only to us but also to all our stakeholders.
We have partnered with Carbon Trail, a world leader in climate and impact tracking data to do deep dives into as many of our products as possible. Through the use of this software, we are now able not only to track the impact of our gear and business on a global scale, but also to simulate the effects of decisions we take today on future emissions and business.
Our philosophy extends beyond making great, responsible products – we want to empower our customers to make great, responsible choices.
This process has prompted us to seek to understand, in greater depth, the materials and processes employed by every one of our suppliers. In the future, this will be a key factor in our decision-making process. If we can quantify our impact across the board, we can tailor our product design and, in so doing, reduce our impact on the environment to the greatest degree possible.
Circularity
As the true cost of raw material extraction becomes more obvious and more transparent - and the impacts of end-of-life scenarios become quantified - Sealand has committed to exploring circularity options with greater vigour. Our inputs are largely upcycled, regenerated and recycled materials and thus circularity is already “baked in” from the start.
However, we are doing our best to ensure that we close the loop as far as possible: in terms of our Evergreen Guarantee, we commit to mending any repairable product, for free, for a period of 10 years from sale.