In 2007, Emily Sugihara and her mama, Joan, founded Baggu in San Francisco. The Mother-Daughter duo wanted basic, fashionable, reusable bags to tote their everyday objects. At that time, the world hadn't yet realised the full catastrophic scale of environmental dire that the planet was facing, and there wasn't anything fashionable and on the market: so they created Baggu.
Let’s rifle back through the archives … In 1965 the plastic shopping bag was invented by a Swedish company. The slogan was “The Sack of the Future is Here Today.” Deadpan face emoji. No joke. By 1979, eighty percent of the European market was using plastic bags, and one trillion (yeah, you read that right) plastic bags were being produced. In 1997 it was recognised that single-use plastics were endangering marine life. And in 2002, Bangladesh was the first country in the world to ban thin plastic bags. Reason? They were blocking drainage systems during floods and causing all manner of havoc. And, as recently as 2011, there were still one million plastic bags consumed every minute.
It wasn’t until 2018 - eleven years after Emily and her mum started Baggu’s quest to make sustainable bags ‘a thing’- that the United Nations Environmental Programme enacted legislation to address the problem that plastic bags cause for the environment.
It’s sad and a little stupid that humankind hasn’t been able to step up, but let’s look on the bright side of things. Baggu bags are beautiful. They are made from recycled materials from post-consumer waste and are COOL. Apparently, you can’t swing a cat in Manhattan or Brooklyn without seeing one. I’m mixing metaphors here, but you get the gist. They are uber popular. And what started as simple bags now includes socks, wallets, puffy lunch bags, laptop sleeves, mini totes, cooler bags, 3D zip sets for travel and glasses sleeves!
Unfussy, cool and functional, Baggu makes all our object-holding sustainability dreams come true. Thank goodness for that.