Photo by Jennifer Sarkilahti.
Many of you who have been following my business from the start know that I began in 2009 as Remade USA, a leather repurposing business. I was very inspired by the idea of not using new materials to make new products as I feel there is so much waste in the world and I didn’t want to contribute to it. I repurposed jackets into bags for about three years, selling direct and wholesaling to Barneys NY for about two years. Searching for the right jackets, cleaning them, deconstructing, and then redesigning and reconstructing them is a lot of work – and it all had to be done in-house. I got a bit burnt out.
Last year, I started looking for other sources of leather waste and I found there is much remnant waste from the furniture industry. I began working with a wonderful NYC-based bag manufacturer and launched my eponymous line last year, using beautiful reclaimed nubuck leather.
I’ve been on hiatus from repurposing jackets for almost a year, but throughout the year I’ve continued to get emails from people asking me to transform a jacket they had in their closet. The stories have warmed my heart and often brought tears to my eyes. Last month, I had a realization that I couldn’t give up this beautifully emotion-driven side of my business completely and decided to re-launch Remade USA as a service.
I’m very happy to announce Remadeusa.com, a new site, devoted solely to my custom jacket-to-bag transformation service.
To celebrate the launch, we’ve partnered with The Collective to run a contest:
Submit your personal story about your old leather jacket to win a redesign into a new bag.
