Freitag Goes Circular with Mono-Material Backpack

Freitag is introducing a whole new product family.

Launching today—after three years of development—is the Mono[P6]: a fully circular backpack made from a single material.

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“To make the recycling process as simple as possible and maximize the actual recycling rate, we opted for the principle of mono-materiality for our first circular backpack,” Anna Kerschbaumer, Freitag’s portfolio planner, told Sourcing Journal. “In practice, it means that if every part of the product is made of the same material, it can be recycled as a whole at the end of its life.”

The Swiss company that makes one-off bags and accessories from used truck tarps did not use said material for the backpack, making it the first Freitag bag to deviate from the upcycled material. Instead, the Mono[P6] is made with polyamide 6—PA6 for short—a versatile plastic suitable for resilient products and particularly easy to recycle.

PA6 can be made into hard and robust elements like buckles or soft ones like foam for padding. It can also be made into mesh or waterproof textile. And while combining the “diversity” of a single material in a backpack was “exciting,” it was also one of the biggest challenges in the project, the group said.

For the Mono[P6] backpack, a total of 17 elements with very different characteristics had to be developed or found, Kerschbaumer said. This included a laminated three-layer fabric, zippers, thread, straps, labels, cord, buckles, rings, padding and more.

“Some minuscule components, such as the spots of adhesive for the lamination and the printing ink for the inner label, are not made of PA6,” Kerschbaumer noted. “And glass fibers had to be added to the zipper slide for reinforcement. However, the proportions of these other materials are so low that it is still possible to recycle the bags mechanically.”

The Zurich-based bag manufacturer partnered with an unnamed Taiwanese textile industry player to develop a solution that “fits the brief:” a mono-material that’s also water-repellant.

After three years of development, the fabric—which contains three layers made exclusively of PA6—passed all of its material tests, and has been developed and produced exclusively for Freitag. However, the brand said it isn’t “entirely excluding” the possibility of letting the material be used by other brands and for other products in the future.

“Making everything from the same, single material was easier said than actually developed and sourced. For many suppliers, the mono-material approach was uncharted territory, and not everyone was ready to meet our requirements regarding material purity and transparency,” Kerschbaumer said, explaining that the reduction in the number of materials increased the project’s complexity “drastically.”

“A classic product is usually made up of a variety of materials with different parts that require various properties, like softness, hardness or elasticity,” she explained. “Therefore, to develop a product from only one material is much more complicated because this material has to assume a lot of forms and properties, especially as our aim with the backpack was to make a functional, durable, water-repellant product.”

While Freitag pursued a co-creative approach to product development, the company wanted to take the same approach to design. The Mono[P6] was developed with British designer Jeffrey Siu, whose design references and reinterprets the bike culture Freitag is usually associated with.

“It was also important for us to collaborate on the product design with a designer who shared similar visions and values to the brand, and understood the significance of this new backpack—not only for our company but for the larger circular fashion landscape,” Kerschbaumer said. “The result is a lightweight, versatile companion that meets the many different needs of everyday urban life.”

The initial production for the launch consists of 1,500 backpacks, retailing for $380. More will be manufactured later this year. The launch represents “the start of a new Freitag product family,” Kerschbaumer said.

When the bag reaches the end of its useful life, it can be recycled without complex dismantling. Customers will return the Mono[P6] to Zurich via the Freitag take-back service. From there, the backpack travels to the Institute for Materials Technology and Plastics Processing (IWK) in Rapperswil, a municipality near Zurich. The research and recycling partner shreds the bag in its entirety and then processes it into PA6 granulate, which can be reused for new items, such as backpack components.

“A conventional backpack usually consists of a variety of components and materials. These product components are often sewn, welded or glued together in complex ways. This makes repairs difficult and recycling practically impossible,” Kerschbaumer said.

“This is why the new Freitag backpack was developed as a complete product made from a single material,” she added. “Because if all parts of a product, including trims, are made from the same material, it can be mechanically recycled as a whole at the end of its life cycle without having to laboriously take it apart first.”