Introducing: Handplane Bags By Riz

29 . 11 . 15

Wastage is something that we avoid at all costs, and that is a sentiment shared by our friends over at Riz Boardshorts, who produce beautiful printed men’s swimwear made from 100% recycled and recyclable fabric. If you’re designing a product (whatever it is) with sustainability in mind then you not only have to consider the lifecycle of the materials that you use and how you produce your goods, but you also have to consider what you are going to do with your waste material.

Almost everything produces waste of some description or another, be it off-cuts, shavings and sawdust in our case, scrap material and end-of-roll fabric at Riz leftover from making their boardshorts, or the peelings and bits of pastry that didn’t go into the pasties that we had one lunchtime this week. It’s what you do with your waste that counts, however; we turn a lot of our offcuts into bodysurfing handplanes, and now Riz are utilising the offcuts from the production of their tailored boardshorts to produce bags for our handplanes, so that they have a bit of protection when left rolling around in the back of your car or van.

We began this project back at the start of the summer, when we first hatched the idea with Riz having wrapped a handplane in one leg of a pair of boardshorts on the way back from the beach. They produced the first batch of bags for us to take to the Do Lectures in June, where James was running a series of “Make-Your-Own” workshops, so that each workshopper had a bag to take their freshly made handplane away in. They proved popular, and so we’ve decided to stock them. The first batch of bags were handmade by Riz, as their range of boardshorts are cut and sewn in Portugal (in a certified factory that works to the highest possible environmental standards), and the bags that we are now offering for sale are produced using end-of-roll fabric and are cut and sewn here in Cornwall by Terri-Louise Coysh. Terri is the girlfriend of our Chris, and she has a first class degree in textile design from Falmouth University meaning that she can do great things with a sewing machine. It feels great to be able to use both our own and Riz’s offcuts to produce complimentary and useful items, by hand, here in Cornwall.

We’re offering our new Riz Handplane Bags as part of one of our December bundle deals (available only via our November newsletter which will be sent out tomorrow, so sign up now using the form at the bottom of this page if you’d like in on the action), alongside a bodysurfing handplane and a pair of Da Fin swim fins, offering everything that you (or the aspiring bodysurfer in your life) needs to enjoy the waves.