with Sailbags, they turn used sails into high-end creations

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It is at Lorient (Morbihan), in the heart of the Sailing Valley, in the Lorient La Base district, which Nicolas Veto and Matthieu Bimbenet, the managers of the 727 Sailbags brand, are bringing back to life used sails. They tell us about concept and their commitments.

A story of formation and bankruptcy

For Nicolas Veto and Matthieu Bimbenet, it all starts during training dedicated to company buyouts in 2016.

Both want to give a new momentum to their career by buying a company. They wanted to buy a company committed to positive impact for society.

They come across Sailbags in August 2017. At that time, the company, created in 2010 by Jean-Baptiste Roger, Erwann Goullin and Anna Beyou, was for sale and was doing poorly. It was then that Nicolas Veto and Matthieu Bimbenet had a crush for the brand and the project.

We fell for it, because they were beautiful products with a great story and a real commitment that gave meaning to our work. This brand helps move towards more virtuous consumption. There was great potential.

The company, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, leaves Nicolas and Matthieu little time to think. However, they decide to buy Sailbags, on November 30, 2017, to continue to bring the brand to life by creating and developing collections and a range logic.

Nine stores including two in the United States

Today, the company that owns nine stores in Francemainly located in Brittany as well as two stores in the United States, has 44 employees winter and a turnover of 5 million euros.

Among luggage, decoration and ready-to-wear, it is 600 product references that Sailbags counts.

The life cycle of recycling

In Lorient, within the workshops, 60,000 and 70,000 m² of sail are recovered each year. Arrivals are made by pallet with all the traceability of sailing: its route, the places of navigation and sometimes the name of the boat.

The sails come from individuals, offshore racing crews, but also from sailmakers like North Sails, Incidence or One Sails.

Sails are then classified into two types:

• the Dacrons, white sails boaters, sustainable
• racing sails, more technical sails and lighter.

While Dacron sails are used in the making of many of the brand's products, racing sails will be used more for limited editions or the manufacture of decorative pieces.

Then, once the sail has been transported to the workshop, the first step will be its lavage. For this, Sailabgs calls on two laundries in the region, ESAT in Crac'h and the White Sails company in Lorient.

Next comes trimmingthat is to say the cutting of panels in the sail to remove what is rigid and unusable. Then, it's time for cutting into pieces and then the sail passes into the assembly workshop in the hands of Cécile Lorgeoux, the workshop manager. Here, it's the shaping before the product leaves for the sewing workshop.

Ecological commitments

True actor of the circular economyl’engagement ecological is part of theBrand DNA with a special intention brought to the second life.

With 727 Sailbags, we give a second life to materials which are often natural and local. Within our company, there is real consideration of environmental and societal issues. We work with people in rehabilitation, with disabilities. We ask ourselves the question of waste, namely what could we do with it.

While 727 Sailbags attempts to reduce your wastethe company recently decided to use the scraps of the most famous sails it works with to make frames. So you can get a frame, with a piece of Pen Duick sail or Lining for the most famous.

A future full of projects

Today, the two business leaders would like to continue opening stores in the United States and create a workshop in the Caribbean where there are a large number of sails to operate. This workshop could thus supply American stores while recycling sails presque locales.

Sailbags also launched a project to crowdfunding which gives everyone the opportunity to join forces from 1000 euros of investment and thus participate in the life of the teams.

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