When Lo & Sons, an Asian American family-owned maker of travel bags, was faced with a pile of returned (and otherwise unsellable) Catalina bags, they called up Looptworks to keep these materials out of the landfill.

Founded in 2010 by Helen, Jan, and Derek Lo, the New York based company is on a mission to create stylish and thoughtfully designed travel bags in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

The launch of their first upcycled collection with Looptworks is Lo & Sons’ first step towards incorporating circularity into their production process long term.

“In the 12 years since we started Lo & Sons, we’ve sold hundreds of thousands of bags. Seeing our impact grow, we started thinking more about circular design and how many of our bags wind up in landfills,” said Jan Lo, CEO and Head of Design at Lo & Sons.

Jan continues: “Last year we began to explore ideas about how we can repurpose these bags into something new, and we designed new products made from our own used bags that otherwise might be considered waste.”

Beginning on October 19, the upcycled collection will launch with The Upcycled Patchwork Tote and The Upcycled Laptop Sleeve — both created from deconstructed materials from the Catalina Bag.

Each item was hand-made in Portland, OR at the Looptworks workshop using scraps of materials from around 200 returned Lo & Sons bags, making the process 100% circular and each item truly one-of-a-kind.

“We’re thrilled Lo & Sons came to Looptworks to find a zero waste to landfill solution for products they could no longer sell” said Looptworks VP of Partnerships, Kelley Purdy. “We look forward to working with Lo & Sons in the future as they continue their journey toward circularity.”

“We’re so grateful to have found Looptworks and for their help bringing this upcycled collection to life, and we look forward to a continued partnership with them.”

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