Vera Bradley and Sea Bags Team Up in Sustainability

Similarly, Vera Bradley identified an opportunity when its founders noticed there was a lack of luxury luggage for women. Everything they were seeing was boring and came in dark colors. Now, 40 years later, Vera Bradley is changing the industry again and has identified another opportunity: repurposing single-use plastic water bottles.

With more than 1,000,000 plastic bottles sold each day, Vera Bradley saw the need to give these bottles a second life and worked hard with their teams to develop a new fabric technology. The process involves crushing down single-use plastic bottles to create a spun yarn, which is then woven into a new material that Vera Bradley calls its ReActive fabric. One yard of ReActive fabric contains sixteen recycled bottles. So far, they have saved over 7.1 million plastic bottles from the landfill. We are thrilled to marry our recycled sail cloth with Vera Bradley's ReActive fabric made from recycled water bottles, to make an even broader impact in cleaning up the world around us.

In the earliest stages of this collaboration, the Vera Bradley and Sea Bags teams worked closely to ensure our vision for the final product was aligned. Mood boards were shared, and ideas started flowing. While the ideas were plentiful, it was no small task to marry the bold characteristics that make up each brand. Vera's design inspirations included a rainbow of colors played out in garden and beach designs, all with a retro appeal. After a few rounds of exploration, the obvious choice revealed itself. "There were common threads - joyful prints and a focus on sustainable products. We knew as soon as we saw the bloom boom floral print from Vera Bradley that it was the one." said Sea Bags design manager, Kat Casale. Once the Vera print was identified, the Sea Bags team focused on the nautical motifs in our assortment and settled on Stripes as a classic foundation to complement the more complex floral design. According to Kat, "It's classic with a twist."

It's important that we all work together to change old ways and work towards creating a sustainable future. Making small steps together results in big impact over time. We're thrilled that Vera Bradley took their first steps into the sustainability space with us, and we are excited that their new ReActive fabric will divert even more waste from our landfills today and in the future.

The full collection includes a tote, cosmetic bag, slim crossbody, and a beverage bucket.