The Sealand Inside-Scoop

Born out of the scenic beauty of the Cape, lifestyle brand Sealand is making waves in South African sustainability. Designing timeless adventure gear and apparel from waste and environmentally-responsible materials, we are over the moon to sit down with co-founder Jasper Eales as he shares their conscious take on consumerism.

Q: Starting a unique brand in the saturated textile industry can be tough. But somehow you have managed to capture a huge market of conscious consumers and on-trend urbanites who are dying to be ambassadors for your brand. Heck, most of our office owns a bag or two, so we can’t wait to see what’s next from Sealand!

Talk us through your humble beginnings as a South African start-up to where you are today…

Thanks so much for those compliments. It certainly has been a journey and not always an easy one. I think most entrepreneurs or business owners will agree that the last three years have been a challenging time. However, even though Sealand's journey has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, at the end of the day, we know that as a brand we really are onto something, which is great.

Mike Schlebach and I started Sealand in 2015. Both of us are very passionate about the outdoors, but also about South Africa and local production. I came from a product design and branding background, and Mike was more involved in manufacturing. We joined forces and started to look at protecting our natural surroundings by creating a product that's designed to last, and made locally as far as possible to encourage job creation. In the beginning of 2016, we got a kiosk at the V&A Waterfront and we also launched our e-commerce store. From there, we opened our flagship experience store just outside the mall. More recently, we opened a shop in Hout Bay and moved our headquarters there as well, plus a shop in Stellenbosch. We’re currently exploring our next steps and will be opening up a new store in Johannesburg soon. To us, it’s fundamentally important to make sure that we maintain authenticity as we continue to grow. Something that has been very important from day one is building an aspirational brand with an educational voice. It's allowed us to reach and connect with like-minded people who believe in what we do.

Q: What does it mean to be a carbon neutral company? How is it aligned with your heart and mission?

It's super important and means a huge amount to us. We published our first responsibility report in the beginning of this year, which made us realise that we were already so close to being a carbon neutral brand to start with. I think a large part of it comes down to our material usage, upcycled material having a 97% lower carbon footprint than conventional virgin canvas. Since we started off by trying to build the most responsible product possible, we were able to become fully carbon neutral when we prioritised it. All our deliveries are also carbon neutral. I’ve always loved the outdoors, so treading lightly and investing in quality that lasts have always been part of what I do.

When it comes to sustainability, there are always two choices you can make. Hemp versus cotton is a good example. For so many reasons, hemp is the best material for apparel, due to its water usage, its land impact, how long it lasts, etc. But hemp isn’t produced in South Africa, so you have to import it. Cotton, on the other hand, is produced in Africa, so your carbon footprint is lower. However, the production and longevity of the material isn't as strong as hemp. So, when faced with these kinds of dilemmas or forks in the road, we have to weigh up the options and make a difficult yet responsible decision. Consumers buy our products knowing it’s a guilt-free purchase that’s supporting a responsible cause.

Q: Your gear has a very distinct style and design that has managed to set it apart from other lifestyle bags, accessories, and apparel in South Africa. Which type of materials are used to create your eco-friendly range? What has been the inspiration behind Sealand’s unique look?

We have three different material pillars, each with their own subset of textiles: upcycle, recycle, and eco-cycle. Upcycle includes our waste material and will continue to be a key component of what makes us unique. We use advertising billboards for the internal lining Jasper Eales

Co-Founder of Sealand

www.sealandgear.com

@sealandgear

“I think a large part of it comes down to our material usage, upcycled material having a 97% lower carbon footprint than conventional virgin canvas."

Hero Convertible Duffel

Buddy Backpack of the bag and canvas material made from old tents and boat sails on the exterior. Post-consumer waste is destined to make its way to a landfill, but now it’s inside our bags; and pre-consumer waste like rejected off-cuts and end-of-roll fabric are now used for the bag exterior.

We’re about to release a new recycling range made from regenerative nylon to become a significant part of Sealand’s bag collection. Generally, when you recycle, it loses structural integrity every time you recycle it and you have to add a component of virgin material. This regenerative nylon is made from old fishing nets, carpets, and other nylon waste; therefore, it maintains its structural integrity. I believe Sealand will be the first brand in South Africa to produce bags making use of this licensed material. Lastly, eco-cycling includes natural fibres such as organic cotton and hemp.

In terms of style, our materials determine the form and aesthetic of our products. They are designed to be functional, and in the process, the waste materials have given it quite a unique and clear identity. The brand is influenced by an outdoors, adventure, and healthy lifestyle. However, we also operate within an urban environment, so our aim is to create products that allow wearers to switch between the city and outdoors quite easily without having to change their whole wardrobe. Our range can be dressed up and dressed down; it just depends on how you decide you want to wear it.

Q: You are a people-centric brand by heart. Inside every Sealand bag, you’ll find the name of the craftsperson who made it. Can you tell us a little bit more about your Sealand family and what it means to you to give a face to the people behind the bags?

Including the names inside the bag is definitely one of the key features that sets

Sealand apart and one of the things I'm really proud about. We refer to our Sealand family all the time, and we truly do try to create a family environment. If you were to come and visit us, you’ll see that the way we operate our business is a bit unconventional. We’re not bound to any constraints of how things are supposed to be done traditionally. Instead, we try our best to look at things through a unique lens, to bolden the business, and do something special that values people really well. It's really our way of championing the people who are the real heroes within our company. Even though you're interviewing me and I’m often hailed as the founding person behind Sealand, at the end of the day, without the people producing the bag, there would be no business.

Q: To us, the Sealand Moon Bag is such a cult classic. What other shapes and variations are on-trend for the spring and summer seasons ahead? And what else can we expect to see from Sealand in the coming months?

You’re spot on about the Moon Bag; it's by far our most popular item, which is amazing to see. I think it has to do with the classic shape and style, but also the accessibility from a price point of view because some of our products are quite premium priced. We have another product called the Zeplin, a portrait bag accessory. It’s great for holding your essential items, like your wallet, cell phone, keys, or purse, and it's a really successful product as well.

We'll be launching a whole bunch of new apparel this summer, which is very exciting. One of the pieces I'm very excited about is our light-weight linen hemp shirts. We'll also be launching a fantastic cooler bag that is fully waterproof and perfect for your beer, wine, and picnics this summer.

"We hope that by including people in the production process, we can inform and inspire others to bring new life to waste materials through upcycling."

Photograph y b y El ena C remona

Q: We love your take on customisation… Explain how someone like us, or one of our readers, can pop in at one of your stores and leave with the colour, texture, and style that suits their unique personality?

The Moon Select campaign is now complete; it's both educational and aspirational, allowing customers to choose and personalise a product panel-by-panel. Almost like a deconstructed bag that puts the power and creativity into the hands of the consumer. But then from an educational perspective, it also enables you to see the components and materials, and how these products come together. The exterior panels all have slightly different stitching, textures, designs, marks, and stories to tell. By allowing people to design their own Sealand products, we are encouraging uniqueness and personalisation to the extreme. We hope that by including people in the production process, we can inform and inspire others to bring new life to waste materials through upcycling.

We've run the concept on our Moon Bag for the last two to three months and before that, it was our Toastie toiletry wash bag. Possibly this coming summer or December we'll launch a new campaign around the next popular bag – perhaps the Zeplin. We want to keep it special and something unique where it's not always available to go and make your own one. There needs to be a limited timeframe to it. Readers can keep an eye on our Sealand socials for when we launch a new version of the customised bag.

Q: We see you collab with celebs and famous faces quite a bit. Who are your brand ambassadors and why do you feel they represent your brand well?

The important thing when collaborating with brand ambassadors is having a natural synergy between what they believe, what they do, and what Sealand stands for. Our ambassadors are an extension of the Sealand family, especially because of the alignment between our values. They range from working in conservation to system design, photography and wild food foraging. Likewise, our investors are as diverse as the land we live in. A few of our awesome ambassadors, include...

Roushanna Gray (@veldandsea) – A wild food forager who is a perfect example of somebody who lives off the sea and the land while seeing the importance and the value of protecting the natural environment.

Sacha Specker (@sachaspex) – An all-round incredible individual, talented photographer, and one of the most amazing ocean-goers that I have ever come across – whether it's surfing, bodyboarding, or bodysurfing.

Jade Bothma (@oceano.reddentes) – An enthusiastic and passionate lady who loves the ocean and looking after it. Almost like South Africa's Greta Thunberg, she’s started her own organisation that is educating people around plastic and how to mitigate and rework waste.

Gita Carroll (@gitakies_treasures) – A social impact specialist, modern philanthropist, and the founder of an incredible organisation called The Good Machine.

Upcycled Pronto Cross Body Pouch

Photography by Rolbos