Eli Reich was a mechanical engineer consultant for a Seattle wind energy company when his messenger bag was stolen. The environmentally conscious Reich, who rode his bike to work every day, decided that instead of buying a new one, he would simply fashion another bag out of used bicycle-tire inner tubes that were lying around his house.
Soon compliments on his sturdy black handmade messenger bag turned into requests. "That was the catalyst," says Reich, who obtained a business license, gave up his day job, and quickly launched Alchemy Goods in the basement of his apartment building. The company's motto: "Turning useless into useful."
For a slew of new entrepreneurs, garbage is not just a matter of personal opinion, it is, ahem, their business. In other words, they're creating new companies out of other people's junk.
While innovation has always been the entrepreneur's trademark, a growing interest in the green movement is propelling small business owners to create new products and services that also happen to be inventive recycling solutions for the country's vast waste heaps.
What Company Says:
Alchemy is the medieval science of turning lead into gold. More generally, it means magically turning something of lesser value into something of greater value. For them, the value isn’t economical so much as ecological. They look for materials that are normally discarded that might have value with a little bit of imagination and some hard work. Every Alchemy Goods bag purchased represents one less part of our world destroyed. That’s why all our products should have the highest possible recycled content, but also be superbly functional and aesthetically pleasing.
How It Works:
Alchemy Goods bags are, quite literally, recycled. They’re waterproof and the durable rubber exterior won’t easily stain. These are amazing, strong bags that you will be proud to own. To prove it, this page will take you through the process of how we make your messenger bag, from junk to funk.
To create the ultra-comfortable and totally durable Alchemy Goods strap, we hit local junkyards in search of cars that no longer run but still have usable parts.
Each bag is assembled by hand in our workshop, which is another reason that no two bags are exactly the same. We take our time examining them each step of the way to ensure that quality is never sacrificed out of haste.
More at:http://alchemygoods.com/
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