This luggage brand design is so smart: responsibility meets functionality

We sat down with Chiara Caramelli, Designer & Founder of Zoom Bags, and talked about when her interest in sustainability ignited, how Zoom Bags was born to solve a problem, what sustainability means for her as a brand and as a person, Zoom Bags’ mission and much more!

Chiara’s passion for sustainability ignited after graduation in 1990. Ten years later, working for a fashion brand, she proposed a research on recycled materials for bags, but it was received with ignorance. Chiara’s concern is that the fashion industry is the most polluting for the planet and even if brands start to be more conscious and choose recycled materials, “the fashion market requests new models and colors every 6 months, which means thousands of tons of fabrics and clothes are wasted. I think we should consider also this point …” she told us. 

Chiara worked for many years as an industrial designer and specialized in technical design for bags and luggage. “I had several suitcases at home. When I was not traveling, I kept them under the bed or in the wardrobe, stacked or filled with other bags, backpacks, and objects. One day, coming back from a trip, I was trying to squeeze my huge rigid suitcase into an impossibly narrow space and I thought: How nice it would be if this trolley could be flattened like a box! – And there it was Zoom Bags solution.”

Two projects were born: Pop-Up is the first product that reduces a part of its volume. Pop-Up has other important features like the use of recycled materials, unbreakable, customizable, and washable with changeable wheels in case of damage. Chiara was excited to tell us that “the next trolley will be the one that really inspires Zoom Bags brand because it is a rigid suitcase that reduces its volume up to 70%!” and it will hopefully launch in 2023. 

“Sustainability is paying attention to the durability of the items we use every day in order to have a long-lasting life cycle”

It’s not true that sustainability and the use of recycled materials is boring. “If you look at Pop-Up,  with so many colors to choose and combine, you can really have great fun using recycled materials and surplus from production! Each Pop-Up can be as unique as you are.” Chiara told us.

Today sustainability has become a big trend and even though using recycled materials is a big part of sustainability, Chiara continued to say that more than that “it is to take care of people’s and animals’ needs, to design things that can be easily reused or recycled without damaging the world we live in.”

“Zoom Bags’ mission is to create travel items designed for the contemporary traveler.”

Zoom Bags focuses on the reduction of the overall volume of the stored trolleys, both at home and during manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing. Chiara aims to achieve that by creating innovative and long-lasting quality products, environmentally sustainable and people-friendly, with particular attention to detail and functionality, with an exclusive design. 

“We have to change the paradigm in fashion and start a new way of thinking”

We have the opportunity to be part of the change in order to give the future generation a better world. “There is not a planet B, we all have this responsibility and each person can do his part. The challenge for a brand is to reach this goal!” Chiara explained.

She went on to say “Our intention is to reach people who have our own values and people that could have them. Our secondary brand MYO (Mine Yours Ours) with washable paper bags will become part of Zoom Bags in order to offer to consumers a special total “green” look for travel.” 

 

How does this type of information make you feel? Would you like to see more brands open up about their production processes and future goals? Let us know in the comment section 💬😊

Zoom Bags is one of the brands you can find on Renoon. To discover more about its values, you can find and follow them on Renoon & add it to your feed. Continue exploring more emerging, responsible designers!

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