Life really is an adventure! Some of the paths we travel down are straight and uncomplicated as if they’re pre-planned and just waiting for us to turn up. Other’s are hidden around corners and discovered by accident. These uncharted, unmapped, more challenging little paths are often the most intriguing and give us the greatest sustenance for our life’s journey.
JEANBAG was discovered down a little side track. I unexpectedly turned a corner and entered a local art competition promoting recycling and up-cycling in the community as a way to divert household items and textiles from landfill. Selected artists transformed existing materials into stunning artworks and functional pieces, including credenzas, lighting and colourful sculptures. With my experience in textile design and construction, I created the Original JEANBAG, a beanbag made from recycled denim jeans. It was so popular, I decided to take this idea further and launch a business built around up-cycling denim jeans into beautiful and functional products for home and life.
After an extensive period of product development, JEANBAG launched in 2014. The product range, all designed and made in Brisbane, Australia with my very own hands, expanded over time to include two distinct styles: boho for the free-spirit and tailored for the minimalist.
The little path I started on, merged into a major arterial road and before I knew it a highway, taking me places I’d never been before, meeting amazing people and forming collaborations that I didn’t know were possible.
JEANBAG partnered with The Endeavour Foundation and the RSPCA to support their charitable missions by purchasing their unsaleable denim donations. And, joined the global environmental organisation 1% for the Planet, donating 1% of every purchase to Rainforest Rescue who are reforesting the Lower Daintree Rainforest Corridor in Australia’s Far North Queensland. I launched MyJEANBAG, inviting people to send in their jeans to be incorporated in their very own JEANBAG beanbag and the rapid uptake alerted me to the growing need to provide a service to help people make a difference to their environmental footprint. So, I launched Recycle Me, giving people the opportunity to recycle jeans that couldn’t be donated to charity because of their condition, but were perfect for up-cycling. When your route becomes clear, ideas like this come freely.
Being an online business that is part of a growing virtual community passionate about finding ways to live better and do better has been so rewarding. And, so has connecting with people locally. JEANBAG took part in Brisbane City Council’s sustainability event: Recreate, popped up with our beautiful products at local design markets and partnered in denim drives to raise community awareness around textile waste. At these events, I was able to have in-depth conversations with people about their zero waste journeys. After the launch of Australia’s ‘War on Waste’ television series, almost every conversation was had over a brew in a keep-cup and filled with ideas on how to refuse and reduce our consumption.
It’s been interesting working with recycled materials. Over four years, JEANBAG has saved more than 2,000 pairs of denim jeans from landfill, but it hasn’t been easy. Not only is the process itself extremely labour intensive, requiring an holistic and manual approach, JEANBAG has had to transcend people’s expectations of quality.
As an artist, designer and maker, everything I’ve ever created has been of exceptional quality and craftsmanship. And, I knew that anything I designed and made for JEANBAG would have to meet the same exacting standards. In order to elevate people’s perceptions of the quality of products made from recycled materials, they need to be twice as well crafted as products made from virgin materials.
A reoccurring comment I received from our lovely customers was that they couldn’t believe the pieces they purchased were made from recycled denim jeans. They said the finish, quality and performance of our products was so good, it had changed their minds about recycled materials and they’d seek out other up-cycling businesses in the future. In my eyes, this is a stand out achievement and speaks to the power of good design, excellent workmanship and attention to detail.
“Customers said the finish, quality and performance of our products was so good, it had changed their minds about recycled materials and they’d seek out other up-cycling businesses in the future.”—KT Doyle
JEANBAG has been about so much more than creating beautiful products using premium recycled materials. It’s embodied a philosophy about treading lightly on the planet and advocating to re-use what we have. When we know that an estimated 6,000 kilos of textiles entering landfill every 10 minutes in Australia (according to the ABC’s War On Waste), we absolutely have to start living differently. It’s my hope that JEANBAG has been able to contribute to this conversation in a useful and practical way.
I never set out to be an artist or designer. I’ve simply always been interested in making things. And, with making things comes learning new skills, solving problems, and critical thinking. Perhaps these qualities are the drivers for the career path I’ve taken. Perhaps, I have a penchant for learning, problem solving and thinking through things from all angles and that’s why I founded JEANBAG, to find practical and beautiful solutions to keeping denim out of landfill a little longer.
While, it’s time for me to close the doors on JEANBAG, I’m looking forward to walking down a new path. Well, an old path, taking me in a new direction. I’m returning to my art and design practice where I will continue to work on a variety of projects and collaborations. Some new work planned will incorporate denim. How could it not, after all these years?
I would like to sincerely thank you all for your love and support over the past five years. It’s been an unbelievable journey. One that I’m grateful to have shared with you.
If you’d like to follow my next creative adventures, sign up to the newsletter over at ktdoyle.com for updates on new work, launches, collaborations and events.
x KT
Image by: Troy Hansen
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